Which books should I invest :) to learn everything about developing a windows form using visual studio 2010?

Question

I'm aiming at the skill measured listed in Microsoft certificate 70-511 but not sure which book(s) to learn from. If you were me, what would you recommend?

Answer 1

The practice tests from http://www.measureup.com are the best in my experience. I like to take 10 question quizzes at a time, several times per day, rather than long 30 question practice tests. Then you can search the topics covered in the quiz online. I don't like to buy certification books. They are soooooo boorrrring. They are written by people who don't write code, they just write cert books. You need to keep your brain engaged and interested and you will kill your brain with those 5 inch thick cert books. If you want to read a 5 inch thick book, read Tolkien.

Good luck to you. Don't be afraid to take the test, you can always take it over, and you only need to get a 70% to pass. Of course you want to do well shoot for 100%, but no-one looks at your grade, they look at how many certs you have. I have passed 9 MS cert tests.

Don't cheat by getting test from places like brain dump. Cheaters hurt the credibility of the test, which is bad for everyone.

After you pass the test, don't stop learning. Stackoverflow is a great, (perhaps the best) place to learn. Just because you pass a test doesn't mean you know everything, it just means you passed a test. But if you pass 5 cert tests, potential employers will start to see a pattern in your programming knowledge.

As far as which books I recommend, my favorite are WROX Press books. They are like crem brule, very yummy to devour. Oreilly is also great. I have never had a bad experience with a WROX or Oreilly book.

Good luck,

Joseph Fluckiger MCPD in ASP.NET and Winforms