70-536 exam impressions

It was my first Microsoft exam, and I was not impressed.

I decided to take 70-536 as my first exam because it covered some of the basics of the .Net library. Just to let you know, I programmed in .Net for few years so I thought this one should be easy peasy exercise in mouse clicking. I bought MCTS Prep Kit from amazon and I was ready to rock and roll.

My first surprise was that the book was going to so many details that you normally don’t have to worry about when using Visual Studio. I quickly learned all of the configuration file options; well, I kinda had too. Streams, encryption, serialization, permissions, networking were all areas I brushed upon during my previous coding endeavours but never to the extent introduced by this book.
Anyway, I kept reading the book, doing the Mickey Mouse exercises at the back of each chapter. It took about 3 weeks of plowing through this book, 2-3 hours everyday. But finally I got to the end of it.

I went few times through the sample exams that came with the book. I needed more, so I thought. I bought selftestsoftware.com exam prep kit. Looking back, I really did not need to go to that expensive route, but I did. The tests were harder than the ones in the book. But it is not rocket science. Once you know the basics of .Net framework, and know lots of them :-), you will be ok.

I was ready to take my exam after about of 4 weeks of studying, but I registered for Jan 15th, 2010 to take this exam. I really wanted to nail this first exam, so I gave myself 4 weeks for the crystallization process to work its wonders.

How was the exam? I was pleasantly surprised to see questions within the scope of MCTS book. Remembering my Waterloo exams, they were never even close to the material in the book, I anticipated the same here. But the opposite was true. The exam questions were straightforward provided you knew the correct/preferred Microsoft coding style. My impression was that the people who designed this test were concentrating on testing one’s knowledge of Microsoft product (in this case .Net) and its “Microsoft intented” use.

Was it worthwhile experience? In my case, I think so. At least it got me to study some parts of the .Net library that I would otherwise never knew existed.

Would I recommend these exams to someone who is just getting into programming? No way. One might get confused very quickly and in a worst case scenario, if they pass the exam and get hired doing some serious .Net work they might get themselves and the companies they work for in quite a mess. I think these exams are probably good for experienced people who want to broaden their knowledge base.

My strong conviction is that when it comes to software development nothing replaces a technical degree and experience. Certifications broaden your knowledge, that is what they are good for.

My next exam is 70-565 ASP.NET, which is much more interesting.

I have my eyes set on IEEE CSPD certification as it looks more vendor agnostic, theoretical type of certification.

But first thing first: I need to complete MCPD before my wife and my kids reclaim their God given right to spend more time with me.