Mcpd 3.5

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Hi Folks,

I currently hold MCPD EA 2.0 and planning to upgrade to 3.5. Please guide me to links for downloading the course content and if possible share some training materials if you can.

Regards,
Pradeep

 

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"Sharing" training materials is considered theft of copyrighted intellectual property. Why don't you buy it like everyone else?

 

I was going to ask what sort of developer can't find training resources on the Internet.
But I guess I know...

 

I was referring to general training materials with respect to .NET 3.5...Sorry for my incomplete sentence!

 

My bad, I should have posted my questions explaining everything. Always I prefer working out samples for all my certifications and then appear for the exam. My question should have been, is there anything particular I should look in to 3.5...anyways thanks for the reply though...

 

Any particular reason you need to upgrade to 3.5?

What are you working with at the moment?
If you're an experienced developer and you are currently using 3.5 then there isn't really much you'll need to cover for the new exams. If you're anything else, I'd think twice about doing them.

If you're trying to break into the industry, then having 3.5 on your CV instead of 2.0 isn't really going to help you much.

 

"On April 12, 2010, the final version of the .NET Framework 4 was released."

Upgrade 2.0 to 3.5 EA two exams
Upgrade 3.5 to 4 one or two exams, EA no longer exists...

So You will soon in effect have to pass two sets of upgrade exams, and by the time you are through them there will possibly be yet another version out...

Bit like a rat on a treadmill or groundhog day no ?

I'm MCPD EA on .Net V2 also, took me 200+ hours of cramming to pass last 5 exams, many of the exams I barely passed, I can't really see how I would pass upgrade exams that test on all 4-5 areas at once and have no official training guides.

Your question therefore makes a pretty valid point, how are most people expected to study for and pass the upgrade exams ?

Basically they are a bit like beta exams, as you have to study the objectives and build your own study notes, you will probably also have to take multiple attempts to pass. There are people with online blogs breaking down the objectives and listing study notes and MSDN links etc for .Net V3 exams, trouble is you will have to remember 2-3 exams worth of content for the upgrade exam.

So a tough system of 4-5 exams, becomes an almost impossible one on upgrade for genuine test takers. The upgrade process therefore looks rather onerous and certainly not a process I'd want to have to go through every 1-2 years.
Of course the dumpers will just carry on as normal so only the honest test takers will suffer, certification thus becomes a method of punishing the diligent.

All this of course ignores the fact that developers generally have a pretty full plate anyway which can involve numerous technologies, languages, environments and deathmarch projects.

I believe the current MS certification version game to be a waste of my time so unless they change things or my employer requires it I will not be upgrading.

I think learning new language features like Parallel extensions/Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR), LINQ, WPF2, MVC 2, or even a new language like F# will probably be a better use of your time and money.

 

I never certified beyond MCSD.
It did what I needed at the time, and I don't see the point of 'upgrading' to something that's going to expire.

You can learn new stuff without having to certify in it.

 

Companies will often ask you to upgrade your certs when the older ones expire to prove you know the subject as an addition to technical interviews. They may also be Microsoft Gold partners and may be required to have employees' certs up to date. If they are Gold partners then Microsoft enforces this rule. In this case companies will adhere to this rule and get staff certs up to date rather than switch to languages with no certification path.

With 2010 exams in place(but with no books available or elearning) then 2008 is the only complete certification in place for .NET. So upgrading to 2008 is a wise decision for the moment pradeepdayanand and good luck with it.

If you have put the work into revising for these exams then upgrading will not take half as long because you will be familiar with some of it.

Upgrading at some time is always wise because although you can put older certs on your CV, they may look a little out of place if they go back years. Some companies may find it hard to recognise them.

Basically it depends on what the company wants. They may not want to use new languages because the current ones may work just fine. If you want to learn new languages in this case, take some reading home ;-)

 

This is horrible misinformation, because Microsoft absolutely does not require that you are certified to the latest version. As long as your certification is valid, it doesn't matter if you're certified on the latest version or not!

Computeach, you really need to make sure you have the right information before you start providing advice on the forums. Otherwise, you give your company a bad name.

 

Just beat me to it.

I was about to mention that I've never heard such nonsense...

That's all salesman speak - so if you aren't one yourself, you've sure fallen for one hook, line and sinker.

 

Right now I'm going to bring in a framework where in numerous systems most probably ledger providers to talk to the new framework. This is basically an architecture work with reviewing most of the latest technologies.

Since the new framework\ System will have a great impact in terms of business I thought have studying .NET 3.5 and do a certification\ Upgrade on top of it. That way, I'm not losing anything but to have a name on my back and also do my work diligently.

Agreed that these upgrades will not be helping me in terms of breaking in to the industry.

Now I have to reconsider my decision to do these upgrades

Some thing sparked my brain and I have a question for you...

I would like to understand MDX, Cubes etc on the data warehousing front basically helping me do architecture\ Db design stuff going forward. Is there any certification I can focus on to do this?

PS Note: I cannot afford to do MCA as I feel will be heavy on my wallet

Thanks for the reply Johnny, it really helped to come closer to a step where in I would be focussing on my career aspiration rather than doing an upgrade with out any possible use.

 

The company is not expecting me to do the upgrade at this point of time. But, your point is well taken..Thanks dMarsh.

I would like to become a guy who can understand complex systems and bring in concrete framework to make it stream lined..Any directions on that front would help me!!!

Having said this, at this moment certifications helping me to become a good architect\ design specialist will be helping me....

 

Folks,

I have near 6 years of exp in .NET basically focussing on trading apps...Forgot to mention in any of my post

Regards,
PD

 

Definitely have a good look at WCF then. Theres always a lot going on in the SOA/ESB/Web Services area, See Dublin and WCF 4.

There is a TS exam on WCF in .Net 3.5 which I have taken, you don't have to upgrade your MCPD EA 2 to take it.
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-503&locale=en-us

If the frameworks not in production yet then I'd be looking at the very latest features to help you build the best system, that means .Net 4 and not .Net 3.5, so certifiying on 3.5 could really slow you down as regards to learning and implementing .Net 4.0 features.

There are a number of MCITP certifications on MS SQL Server, you might want to look at them. Cubes and Datamining are most likely to be covered by the Business Intelligence exams I would think. I believe you should generally learn the subjects independent of certification and certify later.

Microsoft SQL Server

MCITP: Database Administrator
MCITP: Database Developer
MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer
MCITP: Database Administrator 2008
MCITP: Database Developer 2008
MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer 2008

Agreed you are not breaking into the industry then and have a suitable background for MCPD.

You should already be a good analyst, developer, designer and a half decent software architect if you passed MCPD on merit.

I'd take an MFE masters instead of wasting a year on getting another MCPD which essentially you already have.

Certifications don't make you a good architect or designer, the study and tutorials can help a little, ultimately without experience the certifications are meaningless. I think good architects are honed through experience like a statue is hewn from stone. Likewise true design patterns are usually discovered from multiple successful systems and not really invented, likewise with many processes. There is an element of evolution that happens when design ideas get applied to real systems.

One benefit you have is much of the real design architecture work has already been done for you by MS in the .Net framework, IIS web server, MS SQL DB and other related services. You are not faced by the problems of say google's creators or amazons of creating scalable cloud infrastructure from scratch or Windows OS designers etc.

I think few in reality outside MS can realistically consider this a valid option, I would consider a Masters/PhD to be a better investment.