Newbie questions - getting knowledge in SQL Server with certifications?

Now a days lot of newbie users are posting questions on the SQL Server, which is a good sign that more people wanted to know the SQL Server. But most of them do need a better understanding on SQL Server, so how best you can achieve such knowledge. Certifications in SQL Server are first one to recommend and before that having a basic experience of working with SQL Server queries is recommended too.
So there needs to be some way of "cementing" some basic knowledge, rather then blindy doing the basic things again and again. Common behaviour of the newbie user is to post the question in forums without even spending some time on the 'Search' functionality. You need to be a specialist to search for a relevant question or term in any of the forums on the web. Just you need is patience and right words to get relevant posts and not to search simply on "SQL Server" which will get you millions of posts together.

So going forward certfications include SQL Server 2000: MCDBA and evolution of SQL Server 2005 changed the way by adding up MCTS: SQL Server 2005, Business Intelligence, MCITP: Database Administrator, Database Developer, Business Intelligence Developer etc. Also Visual Studio involvement is high since SQL 2005 version and radical changes are happening where you will see a new ways of developing application. Still there is lot of life for SQL Server 2000 version where the users are not quite ready for SQL 2005 yet, here comes SQL Server 2008 version which is under CTP at the moment.