MSCT Certification, Exam 70-536, your advices?

Question

At the beginning of the year, I was proposed by my company to take some MS certification exams. Since then, they generously paid for the Self-Paced Training Kit book. I was promised to have some time to study, but the project is running late (a habit around here). Let's face it, I'll have to study on my own time to get this certification.

Anyway, my question is simple: what advices do you have in order to study effectively? I'm halfway trough the book, and I feel like I don't remember anything. Especially when the questions are so precise on classes name and parameters...

Answer 1

Personally, I learn best by actually doing. I can read a book a hundred times but I won't understand a thing in it until I actually write a program that uses what its teaching. I have a handful of personal projects that I continuously re-invent just for the sake of learning new things, using new technologies or practicing new ideas. The more you use it, the easier it will be to remember specific classes and methods.

Answer 2

I think it's a though job to do. I'm currently working on the same book, I've summarized the first 7 chapters now and it cost me around 6-7 hours resulting in ca. 35 pages.

My suggestion: Stop everything you're doing for 1 weekend (Friday night till Sunday 22:00) and summarize the whole book (which already makes you remember it better than reading only), review the summary 1 or 2 times before the exam, pass.

Oh, almost forgot: take a nice very well deserved beer at 22:01.

Answer 3

I'm halfway trough the book, and I feel like I don't remember anything.

Then you have a problem and I would start from the beginning again until you do master the material

Here is my general problem with certifications: Taking a certification just so that you can have it on your resume won't help you get a job. I interviewed many people in the last 2 years, the people with the most certifications were usually the worst candidates. There was one person with 7 certifications who did not know the difference between value types and reference types, the stack and the heap, a clustered and a non clustered index, difference between truncate and delete, what a nullable type is etc etc etc

I am not saying certifications are bad, I actually think they are good because while studying for them you will learn a lot. however a lot of people use testking/braindumps to pass the exam, they then fall flat on their face during interviews.....A sad world indeed

Answer 4

I have done this exam and if this is your first exam I would recommend getting a practice exam tool either from Transcender or MeasureUp. i find that they are great for getting a feel for the exam questions and the format as well as giving you an indication of where you are strong and in which areas you need to improve.

Also have a look at these resources:

• http://en.csharp-online.net/Microsoft_Exam_70-536_Study_Guide
• http://www.codeproject.com/KB/books/net2_cs2_newfeatures.aspx

Answer 5

Hi, for me this exam was really easy. I only skimmed through the book. Experience is of utmost importance, almost all questions can be deduced.

Keep in mind that there's always one option that is obviously incorrect, one that is incorrect in a little less obvious way, and two that differ in one small detail which you have to pay attention to.

If you've worked with .NET, you will pass this exam, just be relaxed and read the text slowly and paying attention, it usually tells you what the correct answer is in a subtle way.

Hope it helps, good luck!

Answer 6

Here is my general problem with certifications: Taking a certification just so that you can have it on your resume won't help you get a job. I interviewed many people in the last 2 years, the people with the most certifications were usually the worst candidates. There was one person with 7 certifications who did not know the difference between value types and reference types, the stack and the heap, a clustered and a non clustered index, difference between truncate and delete, what a nullable type is etc etc etc

I totaly agree with you. It is just that when you read the book and do the exercices normaly, when you take the CD test you get mopped. Some questions don't event have answers in the book.

I'm certainly not saying that certification (or degrees) are a proof of intelligence. The thing is, I would like to fully understand the basics of the framework. And I thougt this would be good place to start.