Yes, Congratulations!
I finally got certified too at the beginning of the year and was able to attend Masters.
I wish I had been able to set the time aside back in 2005 when I managed to get to do the programming for cert course as it was called back then. Jon Ottesen predicted that I'd get the exam done on the plane trips home (New Zealand), but that was wishful thinking.
Yes the current exams are more difficult and often contain networking requirements that are unlikely to be real world, but I did learn a thing or two in the process. If you can allocate the hundreds of hours required (if you get fixated on something) it is worth the effort. In my case I programmed the solution in a rather complex way using poorly document Crestron methods, and then realised that an IP based approach was much simpler.
