Passed Exam 07-562 - ASP.NET Application Development

MidLiveUpgrade

Wow, this was a tough one, but managed to squeak out a 750 for the pass.

I think what made this exam more difficult for me is there was no Self-Paced Training Kit available, so I had to relay on books and third party test questions along with my own experience.

The books I used were:

Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 by Dino Esposito
Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX also by Dino Esposito

The first book was great for overall theory, but lacked some needed coverage on topics like mobile computing and performance management.

The second book was very beneficial for understanding how to implement ASP.NET AJAX and was crucial for passing that part of the exam.

I used this resource blog to supplement the books:

Exam 70-562 / 71-562 Study Sheet - Windows Live

I also used practice questions from 3 different vendors as follows MeasureUp, T*estKing and Transcender.

MeasureUp provided about 150 solid questions with detailed explanations to the correct answer and links to MSDN articles to further learning.

T*estKing was a waste of money … they were the most expensive and provided 75 questions that were almost identical to what MeasureUp provided. It appears to me T*estKing got a copy of the 150 questions MeasureUp provided, changed some of the wording on 75 of them and repackaged it for sale on their site. I will never use them again as the product I received was crap imo.

Transcender provided about 150 solid questions and the questions were all different from what MeasureUp provided. They also included 300 flash card questions that I found useful to run through when you only had a limited of time. I found the transcender explanations to the correct answers were better explained and like MesasureUp there was direct links to MSDN articles for more research.

Overall I liked the Transcender UI system better, but found a couple of the answers to the questions wrong. IMO Transcender tended to better prepare you for the sections on “Configuring and Deploying Web Applications” and “Consuming and Creating Service Controls”, while MeasureUp was better for preparing you for “Working with Data and Services” and “Working with ASP.NET AJAX and Client-Side Scripting”.

I also found this free site that had 45 questions that were all good:

Free Practice Exam 70-562 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development

On a side note on MeasureUp I was able to purchase an exam voucher that cost me $80 CDN, so the entire question package and voucher it was $167 CDN. If I purchase the exam directly from Prometric they charge me $125 USD, which works out to $167 CDN. So for Canadians out there it is a pretty good deal.

Overall I was somewhat surprised by the results as the section I blew was in the “Troubleshooting and Debugging Web Applications”, which I scored high on during the practice tests and is something I use all the time ... guess you never know what they will throw at you.

I hope this helps anyone looking into exam 70-562.

I am going to put the 70-564 test on hold until a self paced trading kit comes out and focus more on SharePoint and perhaps write those exams first. I also need to write the second exam on the Canadian Securites Exchange course, which time is running out on that one.


Dave.

JDMurray

Congrats on the pass and thanks for the review. I'm sure you did study hard for it.

And I'm sorry that you had to learn the hard way that "T*estKing" is a rip-off. I certainly wouldn't trust anyone who sells their material with my credit card number.

MidLiveUpgrade

JDMurray wrote: »

Congrats on the pass and thanks for the review. I'm sure you did study hard for it.

And I'm sorry that you had to learn the hard way that "T*estKing" is a rip-off. I certainly wouldn't trust anyone who sells their material with my credit card number.

Thanks for the congrats ... you got me thinking about the credit card thing, so I went and checked and it turned out I paid with PayPal.

The interesting thing is I just did a test on "T*estKings" site and they no longer allow you to pay with PayPal from what I can see (only credit cards) and their shopping cart software does not allow you to delete an item you don't want to pay for (lol).

On a side note I emailed a local consultanting company today that I now have the MCTS for ASP.NET 3.5 certification. I got two response back and an invite to meet one of them as soon as possible, so it appears this certification is starting to open up some doors.

Dave.

JDMurray

MidLiveUpgrade wrote: »

On a side note I emailed a local consultanting company today that I now have the MCTS for ASP.NET 3.5 certification. I got two response back and an invite to meet one of them as soon as possible, so it appears this certification is starting to open up some doors.

It's really ASP 3.5 that's opening the doors for .NET programmer's right now. There are a lot of places desperate to find programmers with experience in it. In lieu of years of experience in ASP.NET, some places will look at certifications. It's an excellent example of when having certs will give you a leg-up over your fellow job candidates.

johnvarenda

Hi...
I came to know you had done a good job...
I have one doubt that is can you give me the difference between ASP dotnet and C# dotnet?
Thanks....
...............

JDMurray

C# is a programming language and ASP.NET is a technology for creating Web-based software and services. C# is used to write ASP.NET applications.

Learn them together; learn them in peace.

TravR1

Too bad there isn't a greater demand for VB programmers. i LOVE programming in VB. But companies seem to want the CSharp folks the most.

JDMurray

TravR1 wrote: »

Too bad there isn't a greater demand for VB programmers. i LOVE programming in VB. But companies seem to want the CSharp folks the most.

Microsoft uses C# almost exclusively for its own products, and this influences businesses choosing which .NET language to use. And most new MS technologies are available for C# first. MS would have killed VB when Bill Gates left if it were not for the strong VB following and MS shareholder's desire for profit.

pavel486

I can do both and can assure you that there is nothing that you can't do in VB.NET that you can in C#.
If you read the book for 736 you already know that as far as programming you can do your part of the project in VB.NET and the rest of the project in C# without any problem.
Put C# in your resume. It will take you one weekend to learn weird C# way to write after you done with 736.