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.