My experience becoming an MCAD

I discovered this newsgroup a week ago and found it contained some helpful
information on preparing for MCAD/MCSD certification. I'd like to repay the
favour by posting my experience of passing the first 3 exams, on the way to
being an MCSD.
First a bit of background on myself: I've been developing software
commercially for just over 10 years. Mostly VB, some Java, C++ and C#. Most
of my work has been for the .Net platform for the past couple of years.
Increasingly clients were asking if I had any MS certifications so I decided
I would go ahead and attempt to get some.
Since Microsoft were doing a Free Second Shot deal, I decided that I might
as well sit the exams now (before studying) with the expectation that I
would fail. That would give me a good idea of what I would be tested on, and
I could then brush up on these areas and retake the exam for free a couple
of weeks later. Since this offer finished at the end of August, and my
nearest test center was almost fully booked, I was forced to squeeze the
three exams into 2 days - something I would definitely not recommend.
My results were:
305 VB.Net and Web Apps 867
306 VB.Net and Windows Apps 1000
310 VB.Net and XML Apps 946
Obviously I am very pleased with these results but also somewhat concerned.
As a typically "real world" developer, I know certain areas of .Net very
well, but there are other areas, such as Cryptography, that I have never
even looked at. However, my scores indicate that even in those unknown
areas, I must have generally got the answers correct. Surely, this should
not be possible?
This is the approach I took to all of the exams:
1. I made a fairly quick pass through every question in the exam, lasting
around 30 minutes of so. If the question was on a subject I knew, and was
not too complex, I immediately chose what I believed to be the correct
answer. If I was not familiar with the topic, or just not confident in my
answer, then I quickly made a best guess based mostly on instinct, and
marked the question for review.
2. I now knew I had answered all of the questions that I definitely knew the
answers to, and had at least made a guess at all of the others. I could now
relax. I had plenty of time left so I could now concentrate on those harder
question that I had marked for review.
3. I took each marked question in turn and followed the question answering
method that I've detailed later in this message to make my best guess.
4. I took one final look at each of the questions. Here I was not attempting
to work out if my answers were correct or not. Instead I focused on the text
of the question and the answer. Does the question really say what I think it
says or have I misread it under the pressure of the exam. Does my selected
answer say what I think it says? Pay particular attention to syntax and
variable names - sometimes it hard to notice that a variable such as
daGeneral has been used instead of the correct dsGeneral, for example.
5. Click finish and hope for the best!
My method for answering the more difficult questions was as follows:
1. Before taking in any of the detail of the question, just get a rough idea
of what it is asking. I found that some of the long detailed questions were
just there to confuse you with unnecessary detail. A couple of times I read
a long description of a particular problem, and the solution to be used,
which would then be followed by a one line question such as "What is
authentication?".
2. Take a detailed look at the question, looking out for clues. For example,
any mention of firewalls, IE5, SQL Server 6.5 are really great clues as to
the correct answer. These factors have probably been mentioned for a reason
and so you should consider how they may effect your choice of answer.
3. If the correct answer is still not obvious, then consider which of the
answers are not correct. Often you will be able to immediately dismiss at
least half of the possible answers as being totally irrelevent, or obviously
incorrect syntax. If you have to choose between example code, pay particular
attention to where each answer differs from the others as this can often
help you spot the error in a particular answer even if you are not
particularly familiar with the syntax.
4. Look out for clues in other questions. There was one question for which I
needed to choose the exact syntax for something I had only used a few times.
Fortunately, a later question actually contained a similar piece of code.
5. If you still can't tell which of the remaining answers is correct, then
go with your gut feeling. You may have seen something similar before, but
don't remember it. Alternatively, one may look more correct than the other
because it uses a more ".Net way of doing things".
I'd just like to finish this off with my opinion on those study guide books
that you can buy. I've noticed much of the discussion on this group is on
whether one is better than the other. My personal recommendation is that you
avoid them. I had a quick look though a couple of these books (both highly
recommended on this newsgroup) and found that although well-written, they
didn't cover the material in anything like the detail required for the exam.
To be fair, if you read these books from cover to cover, you probably would
pass, but I suspect you wouldn't get a good pass, and you certainly wouldn't
be particularly effective as a developer. A few people on here advocate
using MSDN. This is an excellent resource when developing, but for the most
part I'd say it is too detailed for study. It's main purpose is to explain
the intricate details of a particular technology or function call. Generally
the bigger picture is harder to find, and this is where the exams are
focussed. Most of what I know about VB.Net (but not application design)
comes from "Progamming Microsoft Visual Basic.Net" by Francesco Baleno. Over
the past couple of years I've probably read most of this book and I'm
convinced that any VB.Net certification candidate who reads this from cover
to cover will not only pass the exams with an excellent score, but also
become a much better programmer.
Sorry this message has grown to be so long, but I hope somebody may find it
helpful.
Regards,
David

David Kavanagh

Thanks for that explanation it was very helpful...just began studying
myself )

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8/30/2005

Geoff

HI,

I am actually peparing to my 2 lasat exam for beeing MCAD and the one I am
studying now is the Web application part. I already got my Windows
application cert quite easily because I am working all days on that type of
application for customer so it helps me a lot.

For the exam that I preparing now, the Web application with ASP.net, its a
bit hard for me o start because I have never been involved yet in such real
ASP project.

So I was wondering if you could give me a tip in order to start studying
easily and in a correct way. I give myself one month delay to succeed for
this exam

How should I approach this study ? should I build a real ASP application of
my choice as a sample project ?

THnaks for your experience recommandation
regards
serge

"David Kavanagh" wrote:

> I discovered this newsgroup a week ago and found it contained some helpful
> information on preparing for MCAD/MCSD certification. I'd like to repay the
> favour by posting my experience of passing the first 3 exams, on the way to
> being an MCSD.
> First a bit of background on myself: I've been developing software
> commercially for just over 10 years. Mostly VB, some Java, C++ and C#. Most
> of my work has been for the .Net platform for the past couple of years.
> Increasingly clients were asking if I had any MS certifications so I decided
> I would go ahead and attempt to get some.
> Since Microsoft were doing a Free Second Shot deal, I decided that I might
> as well sit the exams now (before studying) with the expectation that I
> would fail. That would give me a good idea of what I would be tested on, and
> I could then brush up on these areas and retake the exam for free a couple
> of weeks later. Since this offer finished at the end of August, and my
> nearest test center was almost fully booked, I was forced to squeeze the
> three exams into 2 days - something I would definitely not recommend.
> My results were:
> 305 VB.Net and Web Apps 867
> 306 VB.Net and Windows Apps 1000
> 310 VB.Net and XML Apps 946
> Obviously I am very pleased with these results but also somewhat concerned.
> As a typically "real world" developer, I know certain areas of .Net very
> well, but there are other areas, such as Cryptography, that I have never
> even looked at. However, my scores indicate that even in those unknown
> areas, I must have generally got the answers correct. Surely, this should
> not be possible?
> This is the approach I took to all of the exams:
> 1. I made a fairly quick pass through every question in the exam, lasting
> around 30 minutes of so. If the question was on a subject I knew, and was
> not too complex, I immediately chose what I believed to be the correct
> answer. If I was not familiar with the topic, or just not confident in my
> answer, then I quickly made a best guess based mostly on instinct, and
> marked the question for review.
> 2. I now knew I had answered all of the questions that I definitely knew the
> answers to, and had at least made a guess at all of the others. I could now
> relax. I had plenty of time left so I could now concentrate on those harder
> question that I had marked for review.
> 3. I took each marked question in turn and followed the question answering
> method that I've detailed later in this message to make my best guess.
> 4. I took one final look at each of the questions. Here I was not attempting
> to work out if my answers were correct or not. Instead I focused on the text
> of the question and the answer. Does the question really say what I think it
> says or have I misread it under the pressure of the exam. Does my selected
> answer say what I think it says? Pay particular attention to syntax and
> variable names - sometimes it hard to notice that a variable such as
> daGeneral has been used instead of the correct dsGeneral, for example.
> 5. Click finish and hope for the best!
> My method for answering the more difficult questions was as follows:
> 1. Before taking in any of the detail of the question, just get a rough idea
> of what it is asking. I found that some of the long detailed questions were
> just there to confuse you with unnecessary detail. A couple of times I read
> a long description of a particular problem, and the solution to be used,
> which would then be followed by a one line question such as "What is
> authentication?".
> 2. Take a detailed look at the question, looking out for clues. For example,
> any mention of firewalls, IE5, SQL Server 6.5 are really great clues as to
> the correct answer. These factors have probably been mentioned for a reason
> and so you should consider how they may effect your choice of answer.
> 3. If the correct answer is still not obvious, then consider which of the
> answers are not correct. Often you will be able to immediately dismiss at
> least half of the possible answers as being totally irrelevent, or obviously
> incorrect syntax. If you have to choose between example code, pay particular
> attention to where each answer differs from the others as this can often
> help you spot the error in a particular answer even if you are not
> particularly familiar with the syntax.
> 4. Look out for clues in other questions. There was one question for which I
> needed to choose the exact syntax for something I had only used a few times.
> Fortunately, a later question actually contained a similar piece of code.
> 5. If you still can't tell which of the remaining answers is correct, then
> go with your gut feeling. You may have seen something similar before, but
> don't remember it. Alternatively, one may look more correct than the other
> because it uses a more ".Net way of doing things".
> I'd just like to finish this off with my opinion on those study guide books
> that you can buy. I've noticed much of the discussion on this group is on
> whether one is better than the other. My personal recommendation is that you
> avoid them. I had a quick look though a couple of these books (both highly
> recommended on this newsgroup) and found that although well-written, they
> didn't cover the material in anything like the detail required for the exam.
> To be fair, if you read these books from cover to cover, you probably would
> pass, but I suspect you wouldn't get a good pass, and you certainly wouldn't
> be particularly effective as a developer. A few people on here advocate
> using MSDN. This is an excellent resource when developing, but for the most
> part I'd say it is too detailed for study. It's main purpose is to explain
> the intricate details of a particular technology or function call. Generally
> the bigger picture is harder to find, and this is where the exams are
> focussed. Most of what I know about VB.Net (but not application design)
> comes from "Progamming Microsoft Visual Basic.Net" by Francesco Baleno. Over
> the past couple of years I've probably read most of this book and I'm
> convinced that any VB.Net certification candidate who reads this from cover
> to cover will not only pass the exams with an excellent score, but also
> become a much better programmer.
> Sorry this message has grown to be so long, but I hope somebody may find it
> helpful.
> Regards,
> David
>

=?Utf-8?B?c2VyZ2UgY2FsZGVyYXJh?=

Hi Serge,

I found the Web Applications exam to be the most difficult. I think this was
probably because I come from a similar background to you. I mostly do
Windows apps, together with a few backend services such as Windows Services
and Remoting. Although I have done Web front-ends from time to time, I
always have a book open next to me while I'm doing them.

I would begin by ensuring you are very familiar with all the web controls -
the methods, properties and events of each one, and exactly how they are
included in an ASP.Net page. There were lots of questions on this, and I
often struggled on the details of these. There were also a lot of question
on accessing remote Web Services, so make sure you know exactly how to do
this. Lastly, there was a few giveaway questions on Deployment. These are
great because the topic is pretty simple and once you know it, you can
answer the questions easily. Of course there were also plenty of ADO.Net
questions, mostly related to retrieving a dataset from a web service,
updating it and then sending back the changes.

One thing I did notice on this exam was that many of the questions were
extremely long, much longer than any of the other exams. I found it
difficult not to be intimidated by the amount of detail given in a question
but the truth is that often this was just 'scene setting' and did not
actually impact the answer.

A good approach would probably be to build a simple web service that returns
a dataset in response to a database query. Then write a shared assembly
which you should strongly name and install in the GAC. This shared assembly
should include all the logic to access the web service and retrieve the
dataset. Then write a web front end with lots of data bound controls to
display the contents of the dataset (preferably hand-coding all of the html
rather than dragging the controls onto the page). Add some validation to
individual controls and a facility to send back the database changes. Build
a deployment project for the web front-end and the shared assembly.

Regards,
David.

David Kavanagh

One last suggestion: Make sure you know when to use to use ViewState and
when not to - I think I saw 2 questions on this. Also know the differences
between the various caching techniques and when to use application caching
and when to use session caching - this often arises during lengthy "case
study" type questions.

David Kavanagh

Thnaks a lot for your time and aswers David, I appreciate.

In a similar as when I pass the VB.net exam they was lot of question
relative to ADO.NET, but I guest ADO.NET under WInAPP and Web app is extactly
the same.

BAsed on control and event use, yes sounds a good start
The your project sounds really interresting casue then is could cover most
of the part.

I will foolow you recommandation. By the way do you think tht one month from
now is suitable ?

Noet that the time I have to work on that is most of the time after my daily
work and around 2 hours per night, not much.. due to familly
And hopefully in case a rainny day..

Thnaks again
regards

"David Kavanagh" wrote:

> One last suggestion: Make sure you know when to use to use ViewState and
> when not to - I think I saw 2 questions on this. Also know the differences
> between the various caching techniques and when to use application caching
> and when to use session caching - this often arises during lengthy "case
> study" type questions.
>

=?Utf-8?B?c2VyZ2UgY2FsZGVyYXJh?=

sorry its me again,

I have post one topic here about a small report analysis project on which I
do not really know how to approach it fro my final user.
Would it be possible for you to check my post and may be give me an idea of
solution ?

The post is named : Help me too choose
The 3rd topic below yours

Thnaks agin

"David Kavanagh" wrote:

> One last suggestion: Make sure you know when to use to use ViewState and
> when not to - I think I saw 2 questions on this. Also know the differences
> between the various caching techniques and when to use application caching
> and when to use session caching - this often arises during lengthy "case
> study" type questions.
>

=?Utf-8?B?c2VyZ2UgY2FsZGVyYXJh?=

There is a lot of overlap with the Windows Apps exam, particularly with
regard to ADO.Net and security, so once you have successfully passed that
one, I think it is fairly easy to pass the Web Apps exam. One month of study
of a couple of hours per day should be plenty to pass but, depending upon
your experience, may not be enough to get a good score. I don't know whether
exployers look at the score or not, so I don't know how important that is.
I'd suggest you plan for one month's study and if you do not feel confident
by the time the month is up, just postpone the exam for a couple of weeks.

Regards,
David.

David Kavanagh

"David Kavanagh" <> wrote in message
news:2I6dnSGaRr_ykoreRVn-...
> your experience, may not be enough to get a good score. I don't know
> whether
> exployers look at the score or not, so I don't know how important that is.
> I'd suggest you plan for one month's study and if you do not feel
> confident
> by the time the month is up, just postpone the exam for a couple of weeks.
>
David
I think there is only a concept of passing/failing. A higher score for one
candidate
does not indicate a "better" pass. I've read this on the MS web site
somewhere
but I can't find it at the moment. Also, your on-line transcript shows only
the exams
you have passed and not scores.

AP

Wor Tony

I think that is true but some employers now believe that the MS Certs are
too easy to pass and so are looking at your score. I know when I did mine at
a Pearson Vue test center, I was given a printed transcript which included
my actual score (broken down into different categories). This transcript
also included an authentication code that an employer can type in to the
Pearson Vue website to confirm that it is genuine. The Microsoft transcripts
though only include a pass/failure, presumably because Microsoft think that
a pass should be sufficient.

In an earlier discussion on this newsgroup, a number of people were debating
whether certification was good for your career. I noticed that a couple of
people mentioned that, as recruiters, they would regard it as a negative
point if someone just scraped a pass and they would have been better off not
mentioning it at all.

Regards,
David.

David Kavanagh