Thursday, October 27, 2011

Microsoft Certification Preparation

Due to the Nokia switch to Windows Phone - I got an opportunity to become MCPD by my company.
I am still mostly working with Linux and Qt, but Nokia, Nokia... :)
Here is my notes about different book as preparation materials on my way to Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD).
(I decided to become certified Web Developer 4 on Visual Studion 2010 as I think the mobile devices' future is really tightly related to Web/Cloud)
Book images might be blocked by ad blocker, but this is the only way to get legal images which I know, so please take my apologies :)

Exam 70-513.
Technology Specialist: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4

  • There are no Microsoft Press books currently available.
    So I decided to take a look to the book for previous version of the exam, 70-503 for .NET 3.5. It is really outdated and can be used for preparations for this exam just in case if you really have enough time, a lot of subjects are not covered at all.
  • Professional WCF 4: Windows Communication Foundation with .NET 4.
    Quite good book to recall some part related to the topic and improve knowledge, but does not cover everything what is needed for the exam. Otherwise the book itself can not be considered as something useful for specialists, it is mostly 'for beginners'.

Exam 70-516.
Technology Specialist: Accessing Data with Microsoft .NET Framework 4

  • Official book.
    Really useful and "must have" for such exam. Just Entity Framework is described quite briefly.
  • Pro Entity Framework 4.0 (Expert's Voice in .NET).
    Really nice book about Entity Framework. The author real is a professional and expert. Also "must have", as Entity Framework knowledge is really needed to pass the exam.
It was the most complex exam for me, despite of both "must have" books here. :)

Exam 70-515.
Technology Specialist: Web Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4

  • Again official book.
    Some general info. Quite good, but I think - definitely not enough to pass the exam. But I do not know what else might be used here.

Exam 70-515.
Pro: Designing and Developing Web Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 4

  • 70-519 Exam Ref.
    I am still preparing to this exam, but seems it is a nice book which I would like to use to prepare.
I am not sure can I say anything exam content, but I just want to advice - use any available test simulations (at least that which are available on MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit disks), does not matter how strange they are.

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