The MCSD and Me.

So, before moving on to the East coast (sometime this late Fall / early Winter), I've decided to take advantage of my workplace and get both my MCSD and MCDBA. I've been teaching some of the MOC curriculum anyway, so I needed the certifications in order to teach, but since I might leave work -- where I get the classes for free AND my certs paid for if I pass -- nuff said.

I've been teaching C# Windows Apps and the newest Core Data Access (2541), so I already had 70-316 passed. Went in and took 70-315 last week and thought I'd gotten bent over something awful. Got a 927 or something, so I was very pleasantly surprised. For all you looking to take it, here's some pointers:

Know your .config files
Know caching, sessions, and applications big time
Know your (SQL)DataConnections, DataAdapters
Know DataSets, DataTables, DataViews
Know control binding to data
Know assemblies and adding assemblies to your applications (and the sn.exe tool)
Know setup and deployment of projects / assemblies big time

Basically, know everything...After programming in C# since god-knows-when, I thought these exams would be gravy. Obviously it really helps to know the "core" classes well, like System.Data, System.IO, System.Text. It's really the sheer breadth the exams cover that gets you. However, I would have to say that 70-315 was easier than 70-316, most likely because I'd already been spanked and beaten by 70-316.

Prepping for 70-320 now. This should be gravy after the other two. I've already worked on Windows and Web Services (I wish I could post a project here; I have a service for gobbling up M0n0wall syslog into SQL or Access I'd definitely share...and a Jawbreaker clone called Ball Gobbler -- the term of endearment the brick mason I used to work with gave me), and the Kalani book is pretty much the bible, so...

I'll post after taking it to let you all (all 2 readers I currently have) know how it was. I'm really curious about the 70-300 exam. Please share your thoughts on this one: whether it was hard or not, etc.

~simon

Holy moly!

Sorry it's been REALLY busy lately. Been trying to get my house ready to sell here in Oregon and preparing to move to Pennsylvania (hopefully Philly!).

Passed my 70-316: C# Windows programming. Only one more test for the MCDBA. The test wasn't really that hard, just covered a butt-load of stuff. The two SQL tests were definitely harder.

I'll try to post more often, but will really get going when Joey and I start our adventure back East. We'll be road-tripping from Portland, OR to Pittsburgh, PA. We're giving ourselves between a month and two-months, and will probably start off taking a big divserion south through California, across to New Mexico, up through Colorado, then diagonally up to Pittsburgh. Joey wants to go father up to Niagara Falls since I've never been there before, but I keep hinting that maybe two months out on the road camping will get pretty old by then. Or not. Whatever.

More later.