The MCPD Limbo - where is the good stuff?

Hello all -

I am a long time programmer that is just getting started on certifications (never needed them lol).

Looking at the MCPD certs and I notice that they are so new that there seem to be hardly any good resources out there.

Anyone happen to know some good sites / study guides / practice exams?

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JDMurray

Hey bcairns, welcome to this forum!

The MCPD exams are so new that the best site for info is at Microsoft itself. I'm sure publishers are rushing to get out MCPD books, but I don't expect to see much before the end of this year.

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

bcairns

jdmurray wrote:

Hey bcairns, welcome to this forum!

The MCPD exams are so new that the best site for info is at Microsoft itself. I'm sure publishers are rushing to get out MCPD books, but I don't expect to see much before the end of this year.

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

Yes I see that too

After reviewing the certs I am going after the MCPD Enterprise Developer.

Today I ordered the book:

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0—Application Development Foundation

http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9469.asp

The other books are coming out in October and December - will have to get some other certs done (possible tward MCSE) while waiting on the books to come out.

Been working with .Net since it first came out so I imagine a lot of it will be review. I took the "skills assesment" you mentioned in another post and scored a 72% the first time out...not familiar with MS tests is that passing or failing?

I have never taken a MS test before so I am curious, if I am reading this correctly, I will actually get 5 certs out of this....

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

Exam 70–536 = MCP
Exam 70–526 = MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications
Exam 70–528 = MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications
Exam 70–529 = MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications
Exam 70–549 = MCPD: Enterprise Applications Developer

Let me know if I got that right or wrong

PS - I see you have done Security+, I am working on that now, hoping to test in about a week, any tips?

JDMurray

I believe that 70% is still passing on the MS exams, but I don't think that these assessment exam scores are meant to be an equivalent indication of how prepared you are for a specific exam, only how well you know a particular Microsoft technology.

Five certs for five exams? You might as well take a couple more and get the MCAD as well. That's what I'm going for as soon as I complete some academic security work I have in process.

I took the Security+ in 2003, so I'm not personally familiar with the latest info on the current Security+ exam. I assume you've been in the Security+ forum here. I just made sure that I could understand the objectives well enough to explain them to other people as if I were teaching a class.

bcairns

jdmurray wrote:

Five certs for five exams? You might as well take a couple more and get the MCAD as well. That's what I'm going for as soon as I complete some academic security work I have in process.

I thought MCAD was getting phased out - and that the new generation of certifications was replacing them?

MCAD = .Net 1.1
MCPD = .Net2.0

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

Every MCAD thing I have read tells me to upgrade to a MCPD?

JDMurray

It's the MCSD that's getting phased out. The MCAD is much newer and, from what I understand, is staying. I'll have to re-read the MS' site info.

bcairns

jdmurray wrote:

It's the MCSD that's getting phased out. The MCAD is much newer and, from what I understand, is staying. I'll have to re-read the MS' site info.

Same here - will re-read it and try to figure out what MS is actually doing.

Makes me wonder if MCSE is being "upgraded" after Vista comes out

JDMurray

bcairns wrote:

Makes me wonder if MCSE is being "upgraded" after Vista comes out

I guessing that any MS exam based on Windows XP will have a Vista-equivalent created for it by 2008.

bcairns

jdmurray wrote:

bcairns wrote:

Makes me wonder if MCSE is being "upgraded" after Vista comes out

I guessing that any MS exam based on Windows XP will have a Vista-equivalent created for it by 2008.

2008 - plenty of time for me to switch to Mac - Just kidding

JDMurray

bcairns wrote:

2008 - plenty of time for me to switch to Mac - Just kidding

When I buy an Intel Mac myself I'll have it dual-booting both Vista and Leopard. There's no reason to make a Mac or PC one-or-the-other decision anymore.

bcairns

jdmurray wrote:

bcairns wrote:

2008 - plenty of time for me to switch to Mac - Just kidding

When I buy an Intel Mac myself I'll have it dual-booting both Vista and Leopard. There's no reason to make a Mac or PC one-or-the-other decision anymore.

The only real reason I stay with windows is because .Net Programming pays the bills - saddly .Net will never have a good following in non-Microsoft communities simply because it is a MS product.

Short of C++ there really is nothing that cuts across all OS - java maybe but seems a bit buggy.

JDMurray

bcairns wrote:

The only real reason I stay with windows is because .Net Programming pays the bills - saddly .Net will never have a good following in non-Microsoft communities simply because it is a MS product.

You might be interested to have a look at the Mac and Linux port of .NET: http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page

bcairns wrote:

Short of C++ there really is nothing that cuts across all OS - java maybe but seems a bit buggy.

Java works very well across many different OSes, including Windows, Mac, and UNIX/Linux. In fact, if I had to write an app that worked without code changes on many different flavors of UNIX/Linux, I believe that Java is a much better choice than C++ for portability. Now performance, that's another issue...

bcairns

Ya I have looked into Mono, everyone I know that has played with it told me to just do C++ or Java.

I think the old "C vs VB" argument will eventally be "C vs Java" on the Linux platforms.

Java looks attractive because it is cross platform, but then you do take some performance hits and need to know the little quirks about each platform.

One language I always liked was Pascal - Borland Delphi on Windows and Klyix for Linux - but the latter seems to be phased out for their JBuilder IDE.