February 18, 2011 Certification, Success 3 comments
I’m MCPD: Enterprise Application Developer 3.5
So far so good, I passed everything I planned to pass for the next 1.5 years. Take a look at the picture in career plan for software engineer blog post. I guess that I probably was afraid about learning ASP.NET. And as I passed everything sooner I can plan for more cool stuff, for instance starting my own small project or spend more time on personal life.
But here is just a little bit more on exam itself. I was ready for this exam not because of some books, training kits or anything else. It is all my experience. I extremely enjoyed passing this exam, you just apply your experience and common sense if you have it in software development of enterprise applications. Exam measures my understanding of designing application, its components, their testing, stabilizing, deployment, also choosing appropriate technologies. That is what I encounter often at work.
This is good plus to my CV and promotion strategy.
Exam 70-565: PRO: Designing and Developing Enterprise Applications Using the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
I passed 70-565 exam with score 971 out of 1000. And this time exam questions just flattered to me. I liked them much. I believe that this is because they are not kind of questions where you have to know exact method signature. These are questions where you have to think and choose appropriate decision, and even more, they overlap a lot with questions I encountered in my experience.
You can see my transcript using this information:
https://mcp.microsoft.com/authenticate/validatemcp.aspx
Transcript ID: 904316
Access Code: andriybuday
Nearest certification plans
There is still one thing left. It is 4.0 .NET framework outside, not 3.5 so I’m looking for upgrade of the current certification. The best matching exam would be transition of my skills to MCPD 4.0 Windows Developer (70-521). At the moment I don’t have exact date for this exam, but it might be in 2-4 weeks.
Book Review: “3.5–ADO.NET Training Kit” and passing 70-561 exam
February 10, 2011 Book Reviews, Certification, Success No comments
Training Kit
So I finally finished reading training kit for ADO.NET exam. It is easy to read book with many topics that you probably know or at least heard about if you are using .NET. But besides of standard topics on DataSets, Data Querying, LINQ there are few that represent much more interest at least for me. For me these are chapters about Synchronization Framework, Entity Framework and Data Services (REST). I read them with great pleasure. But unfortunately in book they are covered briefly. Also Data Services are not even included into exam questions. I would also say that unless you are going to pass 561 exam, don’t read this training kit, better find some good tutorials on each of the themes, use MSDN and try everything out.Exam 70-561: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ADO.NET Application Development
I passed 70-561 exam with score 700 out of 1000 with needed 700 for passing. Yeah, that is damn near to failure. But what is also interest that the more I fill overconfident about the exam the worse score I get. Maybe that is why I failed WinForms for the first time, but passed ASP. Who knows.. This rule probably doesn’t apply to WCF exam. I was confident about it and passed with high score.
You can see my transcript using this information:
https://mcp.microsoft.com/authenticate/validatemcp.aspx
Transcript ID: 904316
Access Code: andriybuday
Nearest certification plans
My current certification situation is as following:
So I’m very close to my certification goal which is “MCPD: Enterprise Application Developer 3.5” and I already scheduled 565 exam for Friday Feb 18. As for preparation I really hope that couple of years of experience in Enterprise project are in help for me. Also I pick up “Microsoft Application Architecture Guide” for my reading. I read about first 30 pages and I’m impressed by this book. It is real glue. I like very much things that I read from very first pages. Will see how it goes and be ready for review next week. I believe it will be more comprehensive, since this is not kind of training kit book.
70-562: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development – PASSED
January 21, 2011 Certification, Success 8 comments
That happened! Passing this exam was the main stone on my road to MCPD Enterprise.
How did I prepare?
I already mentioned that I prepared as usual by reading training kit. But this time I did most of the Labs, because I have really little experience in Web Development.
Honestly for me ASP revealed to be very simple for understanding and easy to work with. I guess because it intersects with other technologies and also because I have more or less good dev experience in other areas.
Also I did not concentrate on learning ASP.NET extremely well. We all know that nothing with ViewState and other aspects of it are now history. ASP MVC should be technology number one for learning web, but I had to pass this exam. Also understanding what is under MVC and from what it all started is good.
Passing Exam
Exam has 45 questions for about 3 hours. I hated answering them. They were long to read and extremely boring. I HATE THIS EXAM QUESTIONS. 2 screens of question is too much, it kills.
I PASSED EXAM with score 907, woot!
You can see my transcript using this information:
https://mcp.microsoft.com/authenticate/validatemcp.aspx
Transcript ID: 904316
Access Code: andriybuday
Exam 73-503: TS: Windows Communication Foundation – PASSED
November 27, 2010 Certification, Success, WCF 3 comments
I recent posts I mentioned that I read training kit for ms WCF exam. Of course I did this for some reason. I had this exam scheduled for yesterday as well as presentation on WCF for Thursday, which went extremely well. All that was scheduled because I decided to throw myself out of comfort zone. I now can ensure you that this approach indeed works. So, if you want to achieve something don’t hesitate – just go ahead and put some deadlines for yourself, and make them visible to others so this will be controlling your activity.
How did I prepare?
So I’m completely sure that positive result of this exam was guaranteed by my experience working with WCF. But anyway I read training kit, which brought many interesting aspects and some kind of hints for the exam. Third learning source (after experience and training kit) was MSDN and writing simple applications by my own. I do not like to use examples from training kit, also I found few mistakes in kit. Thursday’s presentation on WCF helped me as well, I strengthen my knowledge in transactions and instancing. Just before exam I tried MeasureUp demo test and got 6 out 6 – never got this at MeasureUp for other exams.
Passing Exam
Exam has 45 questions for 120 min. And I liked answering for them, since I faced dozen of questions related to what I do in my everyday work.
I PASSED EXAM with score 918, this means that I answered correctly on 41 questions. Woo hoo!
You can see my transcript using this information:
https://mcp.microsoft.com/authenticate/validatemcp.aspx
Transcript ID: 904316
Access Code: andriybuday
Book Review: MCTS exam 70-503 Windows Communication Foundation Training Kit
November 14, 2010 Book Reviews, Certification, WCF No comments
So accordingly to my Career Plan for Software Engineer, I want to pass some Microsoft exams. Next one (see end of 2010) is 70-503 – WCF. Which I already scheduled for 26th November.
Now few words about book itself. It indeed covers all core of WCF and huge set of WCF features/usages. What I liked is explanation of various bindings/enumerations/settings because they are showed in structured order. Yeah, from some point of view it is boring to read tables describing some of the features, but now I know that I can refer to this book as to good catalog of all WCF features.
I’ve been working with WCF for about 1 year or so, but did not understand all in depth. First of all the most difficult was to keep an eye on all that complex configuration on server and client for whole bunch of our services. But now I see that if I would have read this book before I would have much better understanding of things and would be more efficient in configuring and implementing services.
I’m also planning to perform second (first here) “developer’s meeting” for my team on features of WCF. This time it should be Advanced course. It might be difficult to talk about WCF in depth, because not all guys here work with it and it might require for them to try out basics at first, but I believe in them and in my capabilities to show all ready-cooked on the plate.
Abiliton PRO Certified
August 7, 2010 Certification, Success 4 comments
Yesterday my company officially started new certification model, called Abiliton PRO. It was announced much earlier, but rewarding first portion of best company’s people happened only yesterday.
What is Abiliton?
Abiliton™ is a strategic methodology for software development lifecycle management, invented by SoftServe. Abiliton is a fully optimized approach to software development that incorporates a
superior framework of services and solutions to deliver maximum value
with each and every project. It is focused on selecting and employing the most talented and bright professionals, this way company can ensure clients that projects will be done in time and with best quality that can be provided.
Who are Abiliton PRO People?
It is clear that success of any software company depends on its employees and their growth. By rewarding the best of them company emphasizes knowledge and working capabilities of the employees in any area.
What does Abiliton PRO certificate require?
It is some set of requirements, which include your performance and knowledge. Performance is measured by regular Performance Appraisals, which include different areas to be evaluated, starting from your communication with client or within team, your result orientation, etc. finishing with applying your knowledge to daily work, like how are you in applying OOD or do you write high quality code. Knowledge, except of internal knowledge evaluations and performance appraisal, is ensured by external certificate. For example, Microsoft’s or Sun’s, or any else that are applicable to your position. This means that even Project Managers have there external certifications.
The rewarding event
President of company started his speech emphasizing why we gathered and what is the intent of rewarding. Also other guys congratulated us, after that we had some drink.
Here is me holding my certificate:
And close look at certificate itself:
Currently this certificate is requirement to get promotion. They say that they create more clear path for growing. Yes, and no. Many co-workers are complaining about that, and I understand them. Now it is required to commit extra effort in getting external certificates, but hey, guys, that is not so much difficult.
Honestly, I love to be recognized, and that is also part of my year goal and another mile stone on Developer’s RoadMap To Success. Why shouldn’t I love this? Everyone wants to be recognized and I would like to see people around who show desire to grow.
Exam 70-505: TS: Windows Forms Application Development – PASSED
August 1, 2010 Career, Certification, Success No comments
I already wrote some posts on certification, where I mentioned why do I need certification and which value does it bring to me. After those posts I almost have nothing to add.
But maybe few things…
How 70-505 differs from 70-536? Questions in 505 are not so wide and after passing 536 + reading training kit it is much easier to pass this one.
How did I prepare? As I mentioned in one of my blog posts, I read training kit on 505 exam. Reading was boring. Taking into account that I already have strength experience working with WinForms it was ridiculous to read about some things like adding controls or something like that. But anyway I found some stuff interested for me. Also I did some research over internet on how other passed this exam. Not enough information exist about this one. Maybe because it is not very popular.
Also I worked on training tests, including demo test on MeasureUp.
Passing Exam
As you see preparation looks very similar to what I had for my 536 exam but I was still worrying about passing exam, since I already failed it. That time I even did not read training kit and was sure in passing exam.
As I was afraid to fail it once again, while testing I was really concentrated on questions and. I PASSED EXAM with score 1000, this means that I answered correctly on all 40 questions. It was really surprising and is pleasure for me.
You can see my transcript using this information:
https://mcp.microsoft.com/authenticate/validatemcp.aspx
Transcript ID: 904316
Access Code: andriybuday
Effect on Career
In post It is time to get Microsoft Certification, I wrote that certification is important for my career growth. Actually in few words my company has schema that defines conditions to be eligible for promoting to the next level.
Here is my current status:
As you can see, I satisfy all conditions for being Senior.
I have just perfect Performance and it was noticed by my managers, also I worked in my company near 2.5 years (looks like this condition is bonus for me, since now it should be 3+ years), also my English is now evaluated as Upper-Intermediate, I did dozen of presentations, and finally I got that certification.
So what is left? – Knowledge Evaluation.
Knowledge Evaluation is meeting when guru guys bombard me with questions to ensure that I’m competent in areas, which are already defined somewhere in requirements. So my next step is to find out my weak areas and get better with them, so I will have more balanced knowledge. I now feel that in some areas I’m competent but some are still very weak, because I do not have experience working with them. You can expect that soon you will see posts on themes I do not know well, but I try hard to figure out them for myself and for you. Hope they will be interested for you!
Please let me know your thoughts on this post.
Book Review: MCTS exam 70-505 Windows Forms Application Development Training Kit
July 18, 2010 Book Reviews, Certification, Fun 6 comments
Oh! Yet another training kit on Microsoft exam. This time it is Windows Forms Application Development (exam 505).
It was extremely boring to read this book.
It was extremely boring to read this book.
Book talks on different Windows Forms related stuff. From the beginning it tries to teach me how to create simple forms app and add controls to it, but hey with my experience developing applications it is too boring. In advanced WinForms controls it talks on ListBox, TreeView, CheckBoxes and so on :) After so complex things it leads me to ADO.NET and how to work with connection Strings and how to even read data from DataReader. In advanced topics on Windows Forms Development it talks on how to create MDI application. OMG, i knew how to do them on my 3rd year in university. In asynchronous operations it talks on how I can use BackgroundWorker and even what is Thread and how to synchronize two of them. Maybe the most interested chapter was Deployment, at least because I never really used it either at work or in university.
But you know what is the most funny about all of this? – Possibility that I will not pass this exam. Why? – Because these entry ms exams are kind of exams for con. It require simple knowing of names of classes and functions. But on other hand I understand, that they couldn’t make it different.
You just need to read this kit to pass this exam, almost no way to do it different.
I understand that if you have no experience working with Windows Forms book could bring lot of value for you. For example, do you know how to create not rectangular button or how to print documents programmatically.
Fact that I read this book means only one – which I’m going to schedule exam for next Friday and spend my evenings trying tests from book, and maybe MeasureUp. Also researching over internet how to prepare myself fot it.
So, wish me good luck on passing this exam.
Exam 70-536: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework – Application Development Foundation – PASSED
April 30, 2010 Certification, Success No comments
Why would I need to pass that exam at all?
There are many arguments to pass the exam. Most of them are simple bureaucracy. First of all, your resume will have additional strength if you will add few certification records on the bottom. Secondly, many companies are interested to have their employees to be certified, or maybe they want to make you promotion road more hard :) so to allow you to be promoted you need to pass some set of certificates and cope with lot of other requirements. At least this is situation which I have in my company.
Why would I need this exam for my blog?
Very easy: when YOU are on my blog first time, you read something and create your thought on topic you just read and then you decide to subscribe or not to subscribe. Question is following: what is guarantor that it worth to subscribe to my blog? And answer is “Nothing”. But what will be your reaction if you will see MVP logo at the top-right of my blog? Are my chances better? Or course they are.
Why else would I need this exam?
Following point is very important but honestly I could not put it above (I will describe why). The point is to enhance you knowledge and learn something new. Of course during preparation to exam you read some books and search over MSDN on topics you are interested and which will be measured. But in real life you could be experienced .NET developer and still have difficulties to pass exam. In other words I have doubts if 10 years experienced developer could pass exam without at least some special preparation to it.
What else did I miss?
Of course – self-confidence. In order to be successful you need to feel yourself confident in things you do. In order to grow you should have something behind you, that could you help stand when you are with people who have certificates. And plus to that it is always very enjoyable to know that you know more then others. But a secret: do not show them that. It is very important. Do not praise yourself, let others do it instead.
How to prepare and how did I prepare?
You could find a lot of very interesting posts over internet on how to prepare.
I like this one:
http://lukecummins.me.uk/2009/08/70-536-my-tips-for-this-microsoft-exam/
I even found other blogs that are about certification.
My recommendation number 1: google on how to prepare… and you will find a lot of interesting stuff.
Also while you are trying some demo tests on MeasureUp or tests from TrainingKit and if you are not confident about answer do not try to remember it – go and figure answer in depth!
Also I wrote some tips on how to read TrainingKit. At least this works for me:
- Read accurately but quick if theme is familiar to you.Skip “Real
Word” and pay attention on “Important” and “Exam Tip”, try to remember
it! - If there are boring explanation and then code, switch first to code
and analyze if you understand everything there, and if that is true,
don’t return back to text. - Do not execute Labs unless you do not understand what you had read.
- If there are difficult chapters try to read them twice – I did this
with Application Security.
How was it?
Night before exam I felt confident about exam, but was still worrying.. so I was preparing till 3am. In the morning I came to work as usual and did few things… reviewed ones code, checked e-mails… expressed my thoughts on demo we should have today and wrote e-mail to team members that I will be out for about 2 hours. My company is Microsoft’s parner so I do not need to move to other location – just get down 5 floors.
First couple of questions I was nervous, but then I felt that I’m confident with most of questions. I marked only 2 out of 40 for additional review. When I finished I got message saying that I PASSED EXAM with score 907. This means that I answered incorrectly for about 4 questions. I think that this is very good result.
Picture which I get is like following:
My next target is probably 70-505. Passing it is point of honour, because I already failed it twice because of overflow of confidence.
Also as I’m active in preparing developers meeting for developers from my project and I’m thinking to teach our developers in order to get certification – covering some areas from exam.
Express your thoughts on passing this exam.
Brainbench Master Certification in C#
April 27, 2010 Certification, Success 8 comments
It turns out that I’m eligible to pass exam 70-536 for free – my company will pay for me, but before I’m required to pass Brainbench C# exam with higher than 4.0 score.
And I just did it – my score is 4.03.
You could see my results using following link: http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=9108054
So now I could use this logo on my blog (see somewhere on the right):
Also in e-mail which I got is following information:
| You are eligible for a certificate! Would you like to receive it? | ||||||
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How do you think should I pay for that? Please let me know.
Also following information says that I have weak areas in implementing Services and Data Consumers. Need to check-out in more details about that.
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Guys, it is quite easy to pass this. And don’t loose chance, this exam is free till 30 April.
