Passed 70-315 today

From: Chander (chan.ram_at_gmail.com)
Date: 02/16/05 

Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 23:22:55 -0800

Hi Emma,
        How long did you take to prepare for this exam?
Well as such I have a brainbench certification for the
same and am heading towards the Microsoft Certification
as well
So I would appreciate if you could give me this small
input :-)

Cheers

Chander

>-----Original Message-----
>Yes, it's another one of those "yay! I passed" posts.
But as I found sifting
>through these posts in Google Groups rather reassuring
when I had my
>last-minute panic in the last few days, I hope this will
help future
>candidates too, even if it's a bit long. :)
>
>The exam consisted of 43 questions to answer in 2 hours.
It took me one hour
>to run through all the questions once. I then used
another half hour to
>review questions I didn't feel confident about, and went
through all the
>questions again in the last half hour. I passed with 962
points (the passing
>score is 700). Based on my score report and a quick
check afterwards
>(followed by a cry of "doh!"), I know I got at least one
question wrong, but
>there was no indication of what the maximum possible
score might have been.
>
>Since these questions get asked a lot around here,
here's some stuff about
>my background, and what study materials I used.
>
>My last job was as a technical support engineer and
systems administrator. I
>have a lot of ASP experience from personal projects, and
I was the web
>master and SQL administrator for the company I worked
for, so I did have a
>good background in ASP, IIS and SQL to start with (which
is why I've started
>my MCAD/MCSD route with 70-315). I have also implemented
and supported a
>couple of ASP.NET applications in the past, though I
never wrote any myself.
>Aside from my ASP work, I've written some tiny,
unambitious things in C++
>and C# - just enough to convince me that this is an
avenue I want to pursue
>further.
>
>I used the following resources to learn the material and
prepare for the
>exam:
>
>Microsoft MCAD Self-Paced Training Kit
>(see http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/6714.asp)
>Having read through it twice before getting the Kalani
book, I didn't find
>this book massively useful. It gives a high-level
overview of the topics
>covered by the exam, but the exercises aren't very
helpful, and the
>explanations aren't always very clear either. After
completing it, I didn't
>feel I had a good grasp on some of the topics at all.
However, I did find
>the practice exam on the CD quite useful. It is very
difficult (though
>partly because of the hideous interface! :), and
provides feedback on the
>areas where you have weaknesses, much as the real exam
does. It's like a
>sadistic version of the real exam, only you get half the
time to do it. So
>if you pass that, you're probably ready for the real
thing. However, I can't
>recommend actually spending money on this book if your
budget is tight. I
>couldn't pass its practice test after working through
the book, and I doubt
>I would have passed the real exam either.
>
>Que 70-315 Training Guide by Amit Kalani
>(see http://tinyurl.com/4rhh7)
>Anyone who hangs around this group for any length of
time will have noticed
>the amount of praise heaped upon this book. Let me heap
some more. The
>author's command of the English language might be
dubious at times, but his
>command of the subject matter, and how to impart that
knowledge to his
>readers, is excellent. I did all the exercises and all
the practice
>questions, and it really did teach me the essentials of
ASP.NET and the
>related concepts. The practice test in the book doesn't
bear much
>resemblance to the real exam, but it does check that
you've learned the
>material. I also found the PrepLogic preview exam on the
CD quite a
>challenge and a good encouragement to research some of
my weak points
>(though unfortunately, part of the challenge was
provided by poorly-worded
>questions).
>
>Once I'd worked my way through the whole of Kalani's
book, I was confident I
>knew enough about the subject matter to attempt the
exam. So that's when I
>decided to book it at http://www.vue.com (that's also
when I realised that
>this week would be my last opportunity to sit the exam,
as I'm expecting a
>baby in three weeks' time - I wonder if I'm the most
pregnant MCP? :). But I
>gave myself two weeks to revise, using the following
resources:
>
>- A final read-through of Kalani's book. If you skip all
the exercises, it
>doesn't take that long to read (though I'd recommend re-
reading some of the
>exercises too, as some of them contain information not
mentioned in the rest
>of the text!).
>
>- MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com). Whatever study guide
you use, there's no
>substitute for reading the details straight from the
horse's mouth, as it
>were. Kalani's book taught me the concepts, but MSDN has
all the nitty
>gritty of the methods and properties that the classes
use; although I don't
>think you have to learn these by rote, it does help if
you know whether a
>given method/property/directive actually exists!
>
>- Miscellaneous web sites that came up when searching
for "ASP.NET C#" in
>http://www.google.com. This mostly gave me a general
understanding of C#,
>which is good background, though not vital material for
the exam itself.
>
>- Some tips and suggestions found when searching for "70-
315" in
>Google Groups (http://groups.google.com). In fact, as I
said at the
>beginning of this post, just reading about people who
had passed the exam
>gave me great hope! :)
>
>I also did as much poking around Visual Studio .NET as I
could whenever a
>question in a practice exam or a code sample in MSDN
made me want to see
>something for myself. But Kalani's book is really
excellent in this regard,
>as his exercises give you plenty of productive poking
around to really learn
>that environment.
>
>Anyway, I hope that was useful to anyone who is planning
to take this exam!
>
>Emma Burrows
>
>
>---
>Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
>Checked by AVG anti-virus system
(http://www.grisoft.com).
>Version: 6.0.854 / Virus Database: 582 - Release Date:
03/02/2005
>
>
>.
>

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