Mta 98-363

anyone have any advice/info to share

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I haven't taken it yet but I found some advice/discussion on it in this thread:

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/73130-wgu-challenge-finish-1-term-4.html

Hope that helps

kgb

I just took this exam this morning and passed with a 80%.

My comments are assuming you are using WGU's learning resources. (I don't know how large the pool of questions are, so my exam experience could be very different than yours)

- For the exam, uCertify was useless. Good information in there, but didn't seem to help with the actual exam.

- I'd recommend if you don't have any programming experience to make sure you spend time coding and building/publishing web applications using Visual Studio.

- Might just be me, but this isn't a "remember facts" type of exam. It's more "what happens if you do X" exam. Or, "What will this code do?"

- This was posted on the WGU forums and I found it to be very helpful:
PluralSight videos on Microsoft's site here: Web Forms : Official Microsoft Site (on the right side of the page)

LayOffPayOff

This is my first exposure to coding anything other than HTML (I had never seen Visual Studio before this class). All I can say is spending several hours troubleshooting why a lab exercise wont run correctly, only to find out that it was due to typos in the book, is pushing me to the brink.

Lets try to get a discussion going about this class. Even if we cant get some code gurus to help us out, I think just having a place discussing it will help.

kgb

LayOffPayOff wrote: »

This is my first exposure to coding anything other than HTML (I had never seen Visual Studio before this class). All I can say is spending several hours troubleshooting why a lab exercise wont run correctly, only to find out that it was due to typos in the book, is pushing me to the brink.

Lets try to get a discussion going about this class. Even if we cant get some code gurus to help us out, I think just having a place discussing it will help.

Yep. I feel your pain. I experienced that and when I sent the course mentor my issue, when he replied with, "Oh ya, that's wrong in the book." I was quite pissed to why he hadn't had a thread in the forums stating all the known errors. If you frequent the WGU community forums, you'll notice he has since created one.

My time is super valuable (as everyone's is to them) and it's one thing to spend time figuring out something new and try to solve it,but to sit there and spend a large chunk of time figuring out why code given as an working example doesn't work, well I got stung with it the first time, but from then on I just send him a message and moved on.

joehalford01

I'm getting ready to start this one. I'm hoping its not too bad. I have to drive 40min to take these things and I'm hoping I can knock out all three MTA exams in one trip. The OS and Security fundamentals are simple easy, just wish Ucertify wasn't asking me questions like, "What registry key do you modify to stop the I love you virus?". Stuff like that is not going to be on these tests.

jasonkg80

Has anyone used the Measureup practice questions for this exam? Is it better than the Ucertify resource?

LayOffPayOff

worth every penny as far as im concerned.

jasonkg80

LayOffPayOff wrote: »

worth every penny as far as im concerned.

How does it compare to the Ucertify?

mappenzellar

I am curious about these too. When I look at the official "Student Study Guide" shown at this link from certiport those questions seem pretty darn easy, yet when I look at measureUp sample questions and uCertify, they seem much harder. Any thoughts on what questions are more realistic?

LayOffPayOff

The actual questions are harder than MeasureUp. UCertify will help, but a lot of the uCertify questions are not really related to the exam.

usagent27

Took this today and failed... the materials WGU gives are pretty useless... maybe 5% of what was on my test was actually in the book

joehalford01

This book is awful. Its makes me want to scream. Click here, click this, the dialog box says this, click that, click over there, click down there, open and close the window, jump up and down, beat yourself to death with this book, let your significant other collect the insurance money.

Seriously, does anyone have any other books they can recommend for learning Visual Studio and asp.net?, this books is making me suicidal.

gdeusthewhizkid

is this the web development fundamentals test?

joehalford01

Yes. 98-363. I'm talking about the Microsoft Official Academic Coursework. Sorry, I'm really frustrated with this book. It offers no deep explanation for anything. I'm skimming amazon right now to see whats out there, got any recommendations? I think I'd rather read a generic C# ASP.Net 4 book and concentrate on the areas outlined in the Microsoft book.

joehalford01

Amazon.com: Beginning ASP.NET 4: in C# and VB (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (9780470502211): Imar Spaanjaars: Books

Anyone read this book? Reviews are good, it's quite a bit thicker than the MTA text but I'm a fast reader, so 800 well written pages will be a lot less frustrating than 200 horribly written pages.

gdeusthewhizkid

I may just look over MTA study guide from certiport and then take my chances on the test. I dont think it's going to be harder than MTA server admin fundamentals that was a doozy....

kgb

I see a lot of people say the MeasureUP practice test helped them a lot. I wasn't aware of MeasureUP before I took it.

As far as comparing it to the MTA 98-365 Server exam, I don't think you can compare, they are testing completely different information. So far, the MTA 98-363 has been the hardest exam for me. Maybe it was the lack of good materials though.

I don't think just looking over the MTA pdf will prepare you for that exam, unless you are already knowledgeable in the .NET programming/web app field.

joehalford01

whatever you do, don't waste your time with the official material, it's garbage.

gdeusthewhizkid

kgb wrote: »

I see a lot of people say the MeasureUP practice test helped them a lot. I wasn't aware of MeasureUP before I took it.

As far as comparing it to the MTA 98-365 Server exam, I don't think you can compare, they are testing completely different information. So far, the MTA 98-363 has been the hardest exam for me. Maybe it was the lack of good materials though.

I don't think just looking over the MTA pdf will prepare you for that exam, unless you are already knowledgeable in the .NET programming/web app field.

I see you passed it.. what did you use...

kgb

gdeusthewhizkid wrote: »

I see you passed it.. what did you use...

This is a post I put up on the WGU communities specifically dealing with DFV1:

Passed DFV1 this morning with a 80%.

My experience pretty much lines up with what Andrew has stated. Having some general programming experience that enables you to understand logic flow, methods, functions, etc will be important. (Was in my exam anyways)

I think uCertify has good information, but it doesn't help with the exam (in my experience).

If I had to do it over again, I would:

Go thru the MTA book lessons

Go thru LearnKey

Go thru those free Plurasight ASP videos that Nathalie mentions above. ( http://www.asp.net/web-forms )

Build some small web apps that:

Have it talk to a simple database, understand the binding and datasources

Deploy it, user accounts/restrictions - understand the different settings

Assuming you aren't a full-time student, I think you could go through all 4 of those steps in 3 weeks while maintaining work/life.

I spent 2 weeks on DFV1, but to be honest I wish I had spent at least 1 more week. I didn't find out about the Plurasight videos until late and I more or less just watched the videos. I scheduled my exam for today, the day after a holiday, so I wasn't able to reschedule or I would've. It worked out in my favor this time.

joehalford01

Yea, everything on there says do the lessons. I'm pretty much a newb at programming but I'm familiar with HTML, CSS, and I've done a little C++ in the past. I just feel like there's a lot of step by step with very little explanation. Or, a better way to put it, there is a lot click here and drag this here with no time spend on what the code is actually doing. You get one paragraph explaining what a control does, then 3 pages of click by number. I don't see how anyone can retain the info when following something like that.
I'm going to give this other book a try and focus on the parts that have related material in the MTA book. I'll let you guys know if its any good.

joehalford01

joehalford01 wrote: »

Amazon.com: Beginning ASP.NET 4: in C# and VB (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (9780470502211): Imar Spaanjaars: Books

Anyone read this book? Reviews are good, it's quite a bit thicker than the MTA text but I'm a fast reader, so 800 well written pages will be a lot less frustrating than 200 horribly written pages.

Got this book in yesterday and jammed through the first 100 or so pages. Fantastic, I feel leagues ahead already, very well written. First chapter explains how to use the IDE, which the MTA basically glosses over, review of HTML (skimmed that-I'm good there), and than started on CSS. I've a good understanding of CSS already but this book is cementing it into real working knowledge. It reads really well and covers the concepts in depth. Hopefully I can get through it in the next week or so.

usagent27

Anyone that is taking this exam....Get the MeasureUp practice test! well worth the 33.00 and it saved me today.

joehalford01

Passed, thank god! Time to burn this book!!!!! Seriously, after reading close to 600 pages in the book I recommended above and going through the offical material again, and purchasing the measure up practice exam, 78%. Missed 8 questions out of 35. So not too bad, definitely on a different level than the other MTA exams, and I realize now I am not a programmer at heart. lol Sticking to system administration and networks.

kgb

joehalford01 wrote: »

Passed, thank god! Time to burn this book!!!!! Seriously, after reading close to 600 pages in the book I recommended above and going through the offical material again, and purchasing the measure up practice exam, 78%. Missed 8 questions out of 35. So not too bad, definitely on a different level than the other MTA exams, and I realize now I am not a programmer at heart. lol Sticking to system administration and networks.

Congrats on the pass!

KSpeech

Just started this class last week and those learnkey videos went right over my head. So I'm glad you passed and I found a few pointers on what to do. These pluralsight videos seem to be a bit better and are helping out quite a bit. With no programing background I sure do hope I'm able to pass this class in a timely manner.

foofighters

KSpeech wrote: »

Just started this class last week and those learnkey videos went right over my head. So I'm glad you passed and I found a few pointers on what to do. These pluralsight videos seem to be a bit better and are helping out quite a bit. With no programing background I sure do hope I'm able to pass this class in a timely manner.

KSpeech, if you need further help with this class, I would encourage you to seek out a massive thread about it in the wgu communities. I passed it after several weeks of study. Perusing that thread gave me encouragement and some very different strategies regarding which order to view the material in, study tips, and experiences from other students.

NotHackingYou

Passed this with ~two weeks of study and a few years on/off development experience. The book and LearnKey covered everything.

Nemowolf

I have been going at the material for going on my second week now. I tried watching the LearnKey videos but its not really covering material so much as maybe exam objective bullet points and im lost, nothing is really sticking. I opted to start instead with covering the MS book and am working through Lesson 4 now. I do have a concern that there doesnt appear to be much in the way of guidance for what material is fluff and what is actual exam material. Once i get through this book, hopefully by next week, i will go over the other video resource and see if that helps cement things.

For those that took the test, I saw that some of the test is more "what happens with/for/if ..." questions instead of defining or identifying the correct term type questions?

nosoup4u

I picked up the book that joehalford01 recommended from amazon, I've only been reading it off and on for a month but so far I like it way better then my glances at the MOAC.