I took the Microsoft exam 70-320 (“Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework”) this morning, and passed. Not a difficult exam, as these things go. As usual, I went into it worrying I was under-prepared, and came out of it thinking that I’d spent way too much time studying for it. Meh.
This August is going to be a training month for me. My last contract finished at the end of July, and I have a new one lined up for the start of September. As well as this morning’s exam, I’ve got two more scheduled for the week after next: 70-229 (SQL Server) and 70-316 (Winforms with C#). Assuming I pass those, that will sort me out with my MCSD for .NET certification. That’s the main goal for the month.
As well as that, I intend to get myself up to speed on WordPress and ExpressionEngine. And now that I’ve got my MSDN Universal subscription up and running, it would be kind of groovy to start rocking on an MCMS install, too. Content management, yeah baby!
Not to forget all the work I still have to do here on Sunpig to get the new site design and structure finished. Plus there’s a couple of friends’ sites I have promised to sort out. And I’ve got a nifty little Movable Type hack I need to write up. And…and…
Turns out that August is probably going to be busier than a normal month of work.
Oh, and I baked an apple pie this afternoon! Mmmmmmmm….Pie…..
Congratulations on the exam pass, and the focus on the MCSD.NET.
Are you going to give us a “State of the Nation” sometime on going from permie to contractor? You’ve touched on it from time to time, but not at your full immersion article depth that you can do. 🙂
Good luck with your revision of 70-229 exam. I sat it a few months ago and it was my first exam for a while. Passed it, few tricky areas but as usual with MS Exams, if you have used the product a fair bit then nothing too bad…lot of SQL syntax questions. Found a blog here that helped me home in on specific topics
http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/jhaley/archive/2004/03/14/9076.aspx
I found your blog trying to find a review of the MeasureUp practice exam for 70-315 (search terms: measureup rubbish 70-315). I didn’t find what I was looking for – but I did find that your children were born in the same hospital as mine – then I found you’ve married one of my students!
Still interested in your views on practice exams.
Also curious why Google sent me to your page when you do not use the term MeasureUp – you have “measure up” but that doesn’t fit with my understanding of google’s match criteria.
Hello to Abi.
Weird, Andrew Cummings also taught me when I was at Napier University (HND/BSc Computing 1991-94)….Google does it again 🙂
Small city! Abi says “hi”, back!