Eligibility criteria and details of MCTS?

Hi,
I am a B.E. in IT from India. I completed my B.E. in 2007, and am now working in a software company for the last 6 months.
Can anybody provides the eligibility criteria for MCTS certification, and the details of the exam, like 1. When one can enroll for the exam.
2. How much minimum time is required for the preparation of the exam.
3. Which is the best way to prepare for the exam, like self study or coaching, and do the Microsoft publication books on these exams are sufficient, or more books are required.

I know these are many questions, but I am not finding proper answers to these queries.

Thanks in advance.
Pawan

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dynamik

All you have to do is register for the exam through www.prometric.com. There are no special eligibility requirements. I believe there is a requirement that you must reside in India in order to take the test in India though.

1-2 months of preparation per exam is typically adequate, but your schedule and prior experience will factor into that as well.

The "best" method of preparation really depends upon your style of learning. There is CBT, such as CBT Nuggets, Trainsignal, and Test Out. MS Press, Syngress, and Sybex publish good books. Transcender and Self Test provide good practice exams. Preplogic provides a little of everything. Instructor-led courses are also available. Virtualization software, such as VMWare and Virtual PC are handy for doing hands-on exercises.

I personally use a book or two, CBT Nuggets, Transcender, and a virtual lab in VMWare Workstation to prepare for my exams.

ppuniversal

Thanks, Your reply cleared most of my queries.

Can you also tell that as I am working and get 2-3 hours to study, then how much time on an average will take for the preparation.

Also should I buy the Microsoft Press MCTS preparation book, or something else.

I little knowledge of .NET and ASP.NET,C# and I am planning to give exam MCTS Web Application, which will involve ASP.NET and C#.

Thanks
Pawan

dynamik

ppuniversal wrote:

Can you also tell that as I am working and get 2-3 hours to study, then how much time on an average will take for the preparation.

When working full-time and taking a couple college courses, I can do an exam a month if I get extremely anti-social, or I can take it a bit slower and do it in two months. You can always reschedule your exam (you have to do so more than one business day before your exam), so you can always push it back if you feel like you aren't ready for it.

ppuniversal wrote:

Also should I buy the Microsoft Press MCTS preparation book, or something else.

The MS Press books are typically a good place to start. The quality can vary quite a bit though. I think the book for the 291 exam is great, but I've heard many bad things about the book for 293. I'd read the reviews on amazon.com or somewhere else to get a better idea of the quality of the book. If it's not good, you can usually find people recommending something else.

ppuniversal wrote:

I little knowledge of .NET and ASP.NET,C# and I am planning to give exam MCTS Web Application, which will involve ASP.NET and C#.

Is this the certification you're trying to obtain: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcts/webapps/default.mspx

I'd definitely start with the 70-536 exam because that will provide the foundation for the 70-528. I really can't give you an accurate estimate as to how long it will take you to prepare for the development exams. I'm on the network/sys admin side of the fence. C# is a pretty intuitive language, and learning the .net framework really isn't difficult in the sense that it's complex as it is simply a huge amount of information to take in. I'd post any further questions about this in the MS Developers forum: http://techexams.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=45

ppuniversal

Thanks,
From your replies, almost all my queries are solved. Now I have a lot more clarity for how to start for the exams.

As you suggested, I will go for 70-536 first and then 70-528. This I did not had any idea about the what order i should follow.

Also, I will start with the MS Press books , and then some tests from the internet.

Thank you again.
I will ask more queries whenever I will require.

Thanks
Pawan

flanker

Hi there,
Really pleased to see a lot of useful information here. I just had a query. I wanted to knw is there any requirement in terms of work experience for MS certifications?
i am a 2008 Pass out n i hav a work experience of just over 3 months. The fact that i have less work experience, does it disqualifies me for .NET certification??

One more thing.. i am from a non computer scince background. But nw i am working for a software compny. Considering my BE branch was non compu... IS this a concerning factor regarding the certification?