[2.0] Certification? [Archive]

jmcilhinney

Jan 9th, 2009, 12:57 AM

I bought the study guides for the .NET 2.0 MCTS and MCPD exams for WinForms and Web. They both came with practice tests you can install and vouchers for certification exams. If you're the sort of person who can learn for yourself from a book then that's the route I'd suggest.

RobDog888

Jan 9th, 2009, 01:50 AM

Thread Moved

MetalKid

Jan 9th, 2009, 12:06 PM

You can get good practice exams from MeasureUp.com. I believe they are partners with Microsoft. But they cost a pretty penny...

techgnome

Jan 9th, 2009, 12:21 PM

Transcender is another good one...

-tg

Pradeep1210

Jan 9th, 2009, 01:08 PM

You can get good practice exams from MeasureUp.com. I believe they are partners with Microsoft. But they cost a pretty penny...
Why waste money on paid things when you can get stuff for free.
There are many sites that provide good contents. Google for ".NET Braindumps" and you will find many good stuff..

Here is one such site:
http://www.brain-dumps.net

Hack

Jan 9th, 2009, 01:32 PM

Transcender is another good one...
Transcender is what I've always used. I should be on their Christmas card list.

Negative0

Jan 9th, 2009, 02:40 PM

Why waste money on paid things when you can get stuff for free.
There are many sites that provide good contents. Google for ".NET Braindumps" and you will find many good stuff..

Braindumps are considered cheating by Microsoft, so I would avoid those.

Pradeep1210

Jan 9th, 2009, 03:19 PM

Braindumps are considered cheating by Microsoft, so I would avoid those.
Maybe... but they are perfectly legal. And Microsoft has no way to verify that you prepared from braindumps. These are like sample question papers you normally prepare for other exams.
I think braindumps are the surest way to pass your certifications. Though they don't help you much to get a hold on the subject. You may have to read other books to get a hold on the subject. But at-least you get the certification easily; and that's one hurdle crossed by you.
Since you are looking for certification, I assume you already have done good amount of work in the subject and now your priority is to pass the certification exam for which these braindumps help a lot.

Negative0

Jan 10th, 2009, 11:43 AM

Maybe... but they are perfectly legal. And Microsoft has no way to verify that you prepared from braindumps. These are like sample question papers you normally prepare for other exams.
I think braindumps are the surest way to pass your certifications. Though they don't help you much to get a hold on the subject. You may have to read other books to get a hold on the subject. But at-least you get the certification easily; and that's one hurdle crossed by you.
Since you are looking for certification, I assume you already have done good amount of work in the subject and now your priority is to pass the certification exam for which these braindumps help a lot.

Braindumps are not like sample questions, they are the exact questions from the test with minor details, irrelavent to the core of the question, changed. I know Braindumps were very popular in the Windows NT MCSE days and that is where I first started hearing the term "paper MCSE". This was used to describe a person who had the MSCE, but was totally worthless in the real world. Things like this devalue the certifications, because if anyone can just memorize a few questions from a braindump and then pass a test, the certification means nothing.

Now I don't want this thread to become a big debate on the merits and pitfalls of braindumps, so I will leave it at that.

mendhak

Jan 10th, 2009, 12:02 PM

Maybe... but they are perfectly legal.

Braindumps are not legal.

Braindumps are questions that were derived from tests that were meant to be secure. Someone went in and took the time to write down or memorize certification questions when they weren't supposed to and that is now available on many sites.

http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid1_gci881217,00.html

Pradeep1210

Jan 10th, 2009, 12:32 PM

Braindumps are not legal.

Braindumps are questions that were derived from tests that were meant to be secure. Someone went in and took the time to write down or memorize certification questions when they weren't supposed to and that is now available on many sites.

http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid1_gci881217,00.html
Ohh... I never knew this :afrog:
My apologies... Please ignore my previous comments.

RobDog888

Jan 10th, 2009, 01:11 PM

Yes, when you take a test you have to sign an agreement to not publish the questions or test etc. Why do you think that when you go in for an exam they check to make sure you dont have anything to copy the test with and dont allow anything in the room. Most even have cameras recording the exam room for not only cheating but people copying the test.

Why would one want to cheat at a cert test? I surely woulddnt want to know I passed a test by cheating. I want to know that I know something lol

mendhak

Jan 10th, 2009, 01:14 PM

I hate braindumps for that reason... its very existence helps devalue any certification. I want to know that if I'm interviewing a candidate with a certification, that that certification wasn't acquired by memorization of questions but by actual skills and experience.

RobDog888

Jan 10th, 2009, 01:23 PM

That is what surprize on hands testing is for :D
I never tell the recruiter/agent we will have them do a hands on test of some coding questions :D

high6

Jan 10th, 2009, 04:55 PM

I think I will go for a free certification then do a pay one.

How good at a language should you be before trying to get certified?

Also what kind of questions are they? I can't imagine that they are very specific because knowledge about a language varies between people.

Also is there an age requirement?

RobDog888

Jan 10th, 2009, 05:00 PM

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/default.mspx

And yes there are specific questions and MS recommends about 2 years real experience and also shows what topics are covered in each certification/test.

Example:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-526.mspx

Free certs do not hold as much weight or value as MS focussed employers believe that if you are serious you will pay for the real thing.

high6

Jan 18th, 2009, 08:33 PM

What is a good free one for C#?

chris128

Jan 19th, 2009, 05:10 AM

Funny this should come up as I was just thinking about buying an MCTS study book and taking either the Winforms 2.0 exam or the WinForms 3.5 exam... problem is that the 3.5 study book isnt out for another couple of months for some reason :S http://www.amazon.co.uk/MCTS-Self-Paced-Training-Exam-70-505/dp/0735626375/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232363319&sr=8-6

Blakk_Majik

Jan 19th, 2009, 08:32 AM

Do employers still hold MS certs in high regard?

I've been told by several developers that they're not anywhere near worth what MS charges for them, because the tests are "book based" and don't accurately represent what you'd be doing in the real world.

I know that, for me, I HATE tests that just focus on remembering a bunch of concepts/definitions. I'd much rather be tested on applying the concepts to a real problem. This would make the tests more difficult to grade of course, but at least you know someone knows "how" to use something, as opposed to just knowing "what" that something is.

mendhak

Jan 20th, 2009, 01:23 PM

They generally help people relatively new to the job market (say, first or second jobs). Afterwards, experience and skills count more.

high6

Feb 1st, 2009, 07:45 AM

hmm I found this while googling.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/

Anyone know anything about it?

mendhak

Feb 1st, 2009, 07:57 AM

It's the MS home page for their certifications. Not sure what your question is.

high6

Feb 1st, 2009, 10:34 AM

It's the MS home page for their certifications. Not sure what your question is.

O, thought it was a section to help with getting ready for the certification.

gep13

Feb 1st, 2009, 11:09 AM

Hey,

What certification in particular are you looking towards?

By registering with the website that you linked to you can create study plans that will help you towards the certification that you are looking to do. This includes MSDN articles that are of use, Web Casts, Books, and training courses that you can go on. You don't necessarily have to do all of these things to acheive the certification that you want, but they give you an idea of what is available.

I am personally studying for an MCPD in ASP.NET 2.0, and am working pretty much solely from the Microsoft Press books that are avialable, see here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MCPD-Self-paced-Training-Kit-Requirements/dp/0735623767/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233508042&sr=8-3

So far, i have found these books to be very good, and cover everything that is needed.

Included in the books is everything that you need to get started, including practice exams, a trial version of Visual Studio, and a discount voucher for taking the exam. The exams (as I understand it) are controlled by Prometric, so you will need to register with them for actually sitting the exam at one of their test centres.

I guess you need to decide which exam you want to do, and then set about getting the information that is available to help you prepare for it, and to be honest, there is a wealth of information out there.

I hope the above help!!

Gary

high6

Feb 13th, 2009, 03:33 PM

The links on microsoft for 2005 .net certification are broken...

http://www.transcender.com/dept.aspx?dept_id=102400

Looking at those, are their actual tests on the site or just practice ones?

techgnome

Feb 13th, 2009, 03:41 PM

THose are practice... you won't find the actual ones anywhere... but on the actual test

gep13

Feb 13th, 2009, 03:52 PM

The links on microsoft for 2005 .net certification are broken...

http://www.transcender.com/dept.aspx?dept_id=102400

Looking at those, are their actual tests on the site or just practice ones?

As I mentioned before, some of the Microsoft Press books come with sample practice tests that you can use to guage what you have done to date, and what areas you still need to study.

As techgnome says, you are unlikely to find actual tests, and if you do, you shouldn't be using them as a basis for your study, as that defeats the point of certification.

Gary

high6

Feb 13th, 2009, 09:10 PM

Are there any microsoft certifications for specific languages?

gep13

Feb 14th, 2009, 01:35 AM

I believe I am right in saying that you will find certification for all the microsoftlanguages.

for instance the MCPD that I have chosen to do can either be completed in c# or vb.net.

Gary

gep13

Feb 14th, 2009, 08:20 AM

Hey,

Have a look at the following links to see if they will answer some of your questions:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/faq/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcts/default.mspx

What language is it in particular that you are interested in? Is it windows development or web development? Is it a particular microsoft product, i.e. SharePoint, Windows Server etc?

Gary

high6

Feb 14th, 2009, 01:11 PM

Windows development/C#

high6

Feb 14th, 2009, 01:14 PM

gep13

Feb 14th, 2009, 01:20 PM

Hey,

In which case, you might want to consider doing an MCPD (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer) Certification for Windows Applicaitons.

You can do this for either 2005 (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcpd/windev/default.mspx), or 2008 (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcpd/vstudio/2008/default.mspx#EEC).

Gary

gep13

Feb 14th, 2009, 01:22 PM

looks like this is the one I should take.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-548.mspx

has C#/VB.

On this other page it says there are 2 exams required to get this certification. Do I have to complete those 2 exams?

Also can these be taken online or do you have to go to a center?

In order to achieve an MCPD you need to do three exams, doing two exams would get you an MCTS.

Exams can not be taken online. You have to go to a testing centre.

Gary

high6

Feb 14th, 2009, 01:22 PM

sorry for so many posts.

www.expertrating.com

Any have anything to say about that site? Looks cheap and is online(I think).

gep13

Feb 14th, 2009, 01:26 PM

I am not sure what you are getting at with that site, I don't see any mention of Microsoft Certification on there (unless I am missing something).

The bottom line is, in order to achieve Microsoft Certication, you have to go to a testing centre which is regulated by Microsoft, you can't sit the exams online. You might be able to find some companies that will offer training to achieve the Certification, but the actual exam will always be done in a centre.

Gary

gep13

Feb 14th, 2009, 01:27 PM

Correction to above, there are .Net exams on that site, but they are not the Microsoft Certifications, i.e not MCTS or MCPD. I am not sure how much weight those tests would carry with an employer. I would be wary of taking any exams on that site.

Gary

high6

Feb 14th, 2009, 01:31 PM

Well I am not specifically looking to get microsoft certified.

http://www.brainbench.com

found that site too.

gep13

Feb 14th, 2009, 01:37 PM

Hello,

In which case you have to ask what it is you are trying to do.

I personally wanted to get certified because I knew that I could do lots of things with ASP.NET and C#, but I had nothing to back that up, and I felt that the best way of doing this was to get a Certification. In my opinion, the best way to do that was to get Certified by Microsoft as it is there product, and their certifications are the most widely known in the industry.

At the end of the day, it is not that expensive to get microsoft certified. For instance, the books I bought cost £73 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/MCPD-Self-paced-Training-Kit-Requirements/dp/0735623767/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234640152&sr=8-1), and the exams cost £88 each. However, with the books that I bought I got a 15% discount off each exam. All you need to do after that is study and then take the test. Through Microsoft you can also register for a free second chance, so you have got a fall back position incase something goes wrong on the day.

For what's it worth, my opinion would be to get Microsoft Certified.

Gary