What skills do you need to start MCSD?

I am an IT Professional but have been in the same job for a long time and my
skills are way out of date. I only have mainframe COBOL knowledge and a very
small amount of web skills. Although I have done extensive amount of
analysis, design etc...

I want to do the MCSD and am looking at starting with the exam 70-316 but am
not sure if this is the right place for me to start please can someone give
me some help as I don't want to purchase all the wrong books or find I need
to start with something more basic.

Thank you in advance for any help.

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I've been involved with re-training efforts in my org and this is what
we did:

1. Before starting MCSD, I would gain a basic understanding of your
language of choice (vb.net or C#). Using Visual Studio create some
sample programs and become familiar with the language and the VS tool.

2. We used the MCSD self paced training material from MS Press and
purchased the Transcender practice exams. The self paced books have
plenty of examples which are a must.

the best way to study is write code and then take the practice exams.

3. I agree with starting with 70-316. Build windows forms apps first
and them move to Web apps. Then move to XML & web services. From
there you can decide on either your elective or 70-300. I'm working on
70-300 right now and it's quite different from the previous exams. I
think this one will require more reviews of case studies.

Hope this helps

Vic

Matrix learning Solutions
www.matrixlearningsolutions.com

victor@matrixlearningsolutions.com

KagsCogs wrote:
> I am an IT Professional but have been in the same job for a long time and my
> skills are way out of date. I only have mainframe COBOL knowledge and a very
> small amount of web skills. Although I have done extensive amount of
> analysis, design etc...
>
> I want to do the MCSD and am looking at starting with the exam 70-316 but am
> not sure if this is the right place for me to start please can someone give
> me some help as I don't want to purchase all the wrong books or find I need
> to start with something more basic.
>
> Thank you in advance for any help.

I'd start off by learning C# or VB - the .Net version, and Object
Orientated programming ; there are plenty of good primers on this. You
will have the basic analysis and coding skills already. Personally I
prefer C# though the differences are almost entirely syntactic. VB looks
like Basic, C# looks like Java/C/C++

Then once you are comfortable in VB/C# work at either the Web Apps exam
or the Windows Forms exam (as you prefer), then do the other one, then
do the Web Services exam.

This will get you the MCAD ; then work for the MCSD (which is two more
exams ???)

Paul Robson