Microsoft 70-536

I took some time off from wedding planning to study for the Microsoft exam: 70-536 .Net Framework Application Foundation. C# was my preferred language. I spent the 2nd week of January reading the entire book. The following week, I re-read the book again and took notes. Last week, I re-read the book once again and typed up notes as I went along. I also started the practice exams that came with the book. This week, I stepped it up a bit and bought a practice exam from Transcender. I was averaging about 90% on the book's practice exam and 80% on Transcender's. In addition, the last three days, I started pulling all nighters because I was planning to take the test today. What a day, it rained like cats and dogs and I got lost trying to find the test center. I barely made it on time. Don't even get me started on Prometric phone operators.

I've been so focused on the exam and am completely exhausted now. The exam was incredibly hard. I read the book three times and felt pretty confident but was immediately brought to my knees. There were questions on the exam that was not covered in the book. I was able to eliminate 1-2 of the answers in most cases, but still was not confident. Thank goodness there were no regex questions.

But all the hard work paid off.... I PASSED!!!!!!. This test counts as credit towards the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications. I just have to take one more test: Exam 70–528 : Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 - Web-based Client Development. I think I will hold off for another month or two. It's been exhausting....

edit: 2/6- I decided to study for the 70-562 : Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development exam instead since I am developing in 3.5 and not 2.0. 70-528 seems to cover more fundamental asp.net programming where 70-562 will extend to that client side scripting and AJAX. I read that Microsoft intend to retire the MCTS, MCPD and MCITP when mainstream product support ends. That means support for the product or technology. . Visual Studio 2010 (.Net 4.0)is set to be released around April 12.

ARRRGH.. all this tech talk to putting me to sleep..

Now back to wedding planning :)