I just passed the Microsoft exam 70-315 this morning. This is the second of five exams I need under my belt to gain the MCSD.NET (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer) certification. I qualified as an MCSD on the old Visual Basic 6 track back in 2000, but the new .NET track will certify me on all the juicy goodness in C# and the .NET framework.

I know my .NET stuff already, but as an consultant/contractor, the MCSD certification provides potential clients with some evidence of this ability. On the other hand, it looks like I've just landed a contract (due to start in February), so the absence of the certification certainly isn't a barrier to getting work.

I'm hoping to take some of the last three exams in the next few weeks, but with the new baby due this Saturday (!), I'm not sure quite how much study time I'm going to be able to put in....

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Comments

Julian Davis

Thu 22.Jan.2004 at 08:14

Congratulations ;)

Alistair Laing

Thu 22.Jan.2004 at 08:32

Congratulations. Would you consider telling us a bit more about the exam (within the boundaries of the NDA ?)

martin

Thu 22.Jan.2004 at 09:09

I was using the 70-315 book by Amit Kalani (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789728222/ and it seemed to cover all the bases. The actual exam questions were quite a bit tougher than the sample questions in the book, though. The exam was 55 questions (which will have been drawn at random from a larger pool) over 120 minutes, and the questions wandered all over the curriculum. My set of 55 questions seemed to have a disproportionately large number covering validation controls and caching, and fewer than I had expected on deployment and configuration. Apart from that, it was a well-balanced spread.

Unfortunately Microsoft have stopped giving you a breakdown of your scores by curriculum section at the end of the exam, but I did get my overall score this time: 811 out of 1000. When I did 70-300 a few months ago it was pure pass/fail, with no extra feedback at all.

Rick

Sat 24.Jan.2004 at 00:06

Congratulations! Woo hoo! Wish I had time to do some more Microsloth exams! :) My MCT just expired. :(

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Legends of the Sun Pig is Martin Sutherland's little corner of the web. Scotsman in the Netherlands. Parent, husband, infovore, gamer, geek. I also make great stew.

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