MCAD and ASP.Net 2.0

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Hi there, i have over 5 years web development experience and over 2 years DotNet experience, but after my MSc, i havnt really formalise my knowledge with a qualification. I was thinking about doing an MCAD, however with the intro of ASP.Net 2.0, i am wondering whether the MCAD is going to be out of date before i even start it, and looking at the MCPD was wondering is this the next version of the MCAD and MCSD. If anyone is knowledgeable about these different qualification can you please tell me what the main differences are? Also whether i have decided on the MCAD too late and maybe should just concentrate on doing the MCPD. I look forward to hearing from anyone that can offer relevant advice. Thanks

 

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You can't really start to second guess the 'lifespan' of a technology. Personally I would suggest that you start out in an established technology before you move on to new stuff.
ASP 2.0 is out now, but not everyone is using it. There's not much info on the exams as they are just being beta'd.
There aren't that many books out there (compared to 1.0) and you won't find many places teaching it.

ASP 1.0 is well established and you will find plenty of support and resources. The IT industry moves fairly fast and you do spend your life trying to keep up. But it's a bit of a myth that you have to throw yourself at the first sniff of a new technology.

There is an upgrade exam from MCAD to MCPD so you can do that later.

 

Hi.

Sorry i can't really answer but i know a man who can who will hopefully be posting very soon.

EDIT

Wow, you must have read my mind johnny

 

You can download a patch to stop me doing it again...

 

Thanks for your response, to be honest i am not trying to get at the next best thing, its just that by the time i have finished doing my MCAD it wil probably be another 6- 9 months, so would i be making better use of my time learning the new stuff, our company will be shortly moving onto ASP.Net 2.0. One of my other questions was doing an MCAD does test your skills on ASP.Net 1.0, do you think they will change the exams to test on ASP.Net 2.0? Or will that only be tested in the MCPD? And back to one of my early questions, what is the difference between MCAD v MCPD?

 

If your company is moving to ASP 2.0 then OK, you may want to certify in that but what about all the ASP 1.0 stuff that is left lying around?
It's better to start with the existing stuff and move forwards.
As I said, you can upgrade MCAD to MCPD but not the other way round.

At the moment I would say MCAD is the better certification purely because you have a fairly wide selection of MCPs that you can use towards it - http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcad/requirements.asp

With MCPD you pick a track, either Web or Windows, and then do your three exams (536, 528 and 547 for Web - 536, 526 and 548 for Windows).

It's a bit of a shame, because the existing MCP structure allows you to add MCPs to your qualification, for example an MCAD could do a couple of MCPs more and get MCDBA but the new structure doesn't seem to support this flexibility.

Don't forget, the new exams aren't out yet so while you're waiting for them you could already have got your MCAD!

 

Thats really good advice thanks for that! I guess since i have been developing in ASP.Net 1.0 hopefully shouldnt take too long to do, and as you say i can always then upgrade to the MCPD. Right better get reading then