What's Going On

Work has been busy, so I haven't studied at all. I'm going to study over the Thanksgiving holiday and, depending on how that goes, consider scheduling my test for next Friday. If not, then I will do it on the 9th as originally planned.

Nothing At All

It's exactly what I'm studying right now. I'm taking a few days off from certification studying. I have one more test to take by the end of the year (70-320 - Developing XML Web Services and Server Components). I'm not going to schedule it just yet, but I'm aiming at taking it Dec 9. That gives me 3 weeks to study. Based on my study habits for the last two, that's plenty of time.

Listening: As I Am - Dream Theater

For What It's Worth

Since I posted the scoring breakdown on my 70-315 exam, I thought I would go back and do the same for 70-229.

Developing a Logincal Data Model: 100%
Implementing the Physical Database: 75%
Retrieving and Modifying Data: 90%
Programming Business Logic: 90%
Tuning and Optimizing: 90%
Designing a Database Security Plan: 90%

And Fools Shine On

I just completed my Web Apps in C# test (70-315) and scored 829. 2 down, 1 to go (for MCAD).

My scoring breakdown by section is below.

Creating User Services: 80%
Creating and Managing Components and .NET Assemblies: 90%
Consuming and Manipulating Data: 80%
Testing and Debugging: 100% (it's no wonder I scored well on this, I do a LOT of debugging)
Deploying a Web Application: 100% (I studied this section pretty hard because it was a weak area when I started)
Maintaining and Supporting a Web Application: 40% (In other words, you don't want to hire me to maintain and support your web app)
Configuring and Securing a Web Application: 90%

My advice to those who are considering taking any of the MSFT certification exams. Buy practice test software! I'm using Transcender, but I've heard good things about Self Test Software also. For this test, I barely used the books (MSFT Self Paced Training and Exam Cram). I took practice tests and read the explanations for the ones I missed.

I've got the world on a string

I took a full blown practice run last night and scored 86%. 4 out of 7 topics I nailed with 100%. Deployment is my worst area w/ 50%. Tonight I'm studying Deployment and taking another practice run. Then tomorrow morning, I'll do that final practice test, review my Exam Cram cheat sheet and take the test at 9:00am.

3 Nights to study

I'm working through the Web Apps w/ C# (70-315) MSFT book now. I'm also using the Exam Cram book. The Transcender tests are once again showing me what I need to study.

I had a little scare last night w/ Transcender. After dinner, I sat down and fired up the laptop preparing to spend a couple hours studying and taking practice tests. I clicked the Transcender icon and got the splash screen, then an error message: "Error: 429 - ActiveX object can't create object." I Googled and couldn't find anything on the error (as it relates to Transcender). I ended up rerunning the Transcender install and it worked perfectly. I didn't have to reinstall the tests. I'm sure the error was related to recent activity on my machine because I uninstalled all the .Net 2.0 Beta 2 stuff and installed the RTM versions. It probably removed a file that Transcender needed.

Just in time...

I started getting my certification just in time for MSFT to roll out a totally new certification program. I have to concentrate on getting the MCAD right now because we need it for our MSFT Partnership program. My plan was to finish the MCSD next year, but I may cancel that and concentrate on the new certifications.

Prepping for 70-315

Now that I have a testing experience under my belt and feel more comfortable, I figured I would go ahead and schedule my next test soon. So I am taking the 70-315 (ASP.NET w/ C#) exam on Nov 11. That's less than 2 weeks away, but I feel pretty comfortable with the material and I will reuse my study habits from the last exam.

One reason I scheduled it so soon was I want to finish the MCAD by the end of the year and I want as much time as possible to study for 70-320 (XML Web Services).