Just passed 70-300

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Woo Yay, I'm an MCSD!

Did 300 today.
It was a big yellow rubbery f*** of an exam. Never done anything like it.
It was so different from all the other MCSD exams.
Fewer questions, only about 30.
Divided into three mini exams, each with its own time limit.
Each one gives you a complex business scenario, the IT infrastructure of that business (indicating what can be changed and what can't) and also interviews with key employees saying what they want and don't want.
It's a huge amount of info to take in (but you can refer to it during the questions). The questions themselves are also hardcore. Many have up to 10 tickboxes and you are directed to 'tick all that apply'. Most other MCSD exams are explicit about how many you need to tick.
Other questions involve sorting tasks etc into an orderd list (again, 'you may not need to use all of these, or may need to use some twice')
There were even a couple where you neede to drag and drop tables etc and create links between them.
I was a wreck by the end.
No cheating this one...

 

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congrats jonny mate. well done!

 

Congratulations, Jonny. Excellent work. Reward time.

 

Nice work, Jonny - well done m8

 

Nice one !

Don't wait until the weekend, start celebrating now …. drink yourself silly,

 

Congratulations. Welcome to the world of MCSD.

It is strange that you have archived the top of certification about programming, but there is still a lot of things to learn...

 

Way To Go!

 

Tell me about it...

 

Jonny,

Well done matey, you so deserve it!
All your work has paid off. Sit back and have a pint on me

 

Well done Jonny. Well deserved I'm sure.

 

When I am recruiting new staffs, I'd evaluate their certs as required rather than any plus. Some junior programmers haven't any certificate might do better than senior ones because they are familiar with new tools and concepts. The seniors' major competivie advantages are their experiences and abilities to handle specific requirements, to integrate IT with know-how in other domains, and to manage larger projects. Frankly, none of the Microsoft certification exams test anything about them. All the tests are focused on Microsoft's products, not the methodology or strategy to the solutions.

After 15 years in IT industry, I used tens programming languages on my work. I never learned about C# and .NET before I joined my current company in May. I passed all 5 exams on July 22, although 3 of them retaken once. I tried to get the MCSD certificate just because I want to motivate my team members to do the same. These tests tell me they are never good enough to test a programmer's ability. All the multiple choices will never be the same when you build your application from the first line. Good prgrammers might not know all the objects or functions of the development enviornment, since such information is easily accessible in the help or on books. But they know how to program and how to make their applications running more efficiently. That is the value of a good programmer.

 

You're quite right in what you say there.
From reading these forums though, hopefully you have picked up on the general state of affairs, especially in the UK.
A lot of people here are trying to break into an increasingly competative market. Sometimes you have to have a cert to get your foot in the door.
Unless you use braindumps you are going to learn a lot during your studies - you have to, otherwise you wouldn't pass the exams.
But no, it's not a substitute for experience.