Welcome to the Lounge

18-Dec-13 5:52

Today I took a shot at the Microsoft 70-461 certificate, Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012.
I got a preliminary 812 points. I needed 700 to pass and the maximum is 1000. Not bad I say Big Grin | :-D

That's my second (Microsoft) certificate in a month (and my second overall).
Luckily I won't get bored... I just ordered three new courses from the Open University Sigh | :sigh:

It's an OO world.

public class Sander : Lazy<Person>{
    public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}

Marco Bertschi18-Dec-13 5:55

Marco Bertschi

18-Dec-13 5:55

Congratulation!
I think about getting the MS Certified C# Developer certificate in the month between the end of my apprenticeship and the start of my military duty - How did you prepare for yours (The certificate, not the mil. duty)?

Veni, vidi, caecus | Everything summarizes to Assembly code

Sander Rossel18-Dec-13 7:18

18-Dec-13 7:18

Thanks!

The C# exam was not so hard for me since I already had 3+ years experience in C# so I knew a lot already.
I had also written some articles for CP already which helped me get deeper into the matter, which certainly helped during the exam.
I did read the following book though: MCSD Certification Toolkit (Exam 70-483): Programming in C#[^].
I answered all the practice questions and focused on the stuff I scored bad at. Even when you don't know the answer to a question the first time chances are you won't forget a second time!

With SQL Server I was not so experienced (although I've used it for a few years as well, but just the simpler SELECT statements). So I read the following book: Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012[^].
I wrote two articles for CP about the subject (one is actually still a work in progress as I couldn't finish it on time for the exam, expected to finish after the holidays). This helped me A LOT since I had to think of how I was going to write down certain stuff and I had to think of use cases for the database I used. And as Albert Einstein said: If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
Again, I made all the practice questions in the book and focused on the parts where I scored bad.

Good luck!

It's an OO world.

public class Sander : Lazy<Person>{
    public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}

Marco Bertschi19-Dec-13 10:03

Marco Bertschi

19-Dec-13 10:03

Thank you for the tips, Sander. I will consider them while learning for my exam.

Veni, vidi, caecus | Everything summarizes to Assembly code

Sander Rossel19-Dec-13 21:15

19-Dec-13 21:15

Another thing that helped me, by the way, was to watch online learning video's. For example the Microsoft Virtual Academy[^] has some nice vids.

It's an OO world.

public class Sander : Lazy<Person>{
    public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}

Mike Hankey18-Dec-13 5:56

Mike Hankey

18-Dec-13 5:56

Congrats!

VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.1 ToDo Manager Extension

Relax...We're all crazy it's not a competition!

Sander Rossel18-Dec-13 7:18

18-Dec-13 7:18

Thanks!

It's an OO world.

public class Sander : Lazy<Person>{
    public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}

Ravi Bhavnani18-Dec-13 7:09

Ravi Bhavnani

18-Dec-13 7:09

Congratulations! Thumbs Up | :thumbsup:

/ravi

My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536
Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware
ravib(at)ravib(dot)com

Sander Rossel18-Dec-13 7:18

18-Dec-13 7:18

Thank you! Big Grin | :-D

It's an OO world.

public class Sander : Lazy<Person>{
    public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}

S Houghtelin18-Dec-13 7:21

S Houghtelin

18-Dec-13 7:21

Congrats! Not a bad score at all. Thumbs Up | :thumbsup:

It was broke, so I fixed it.

Sander Rossel18-Dec-13 7:22

18-Dec-13 7:22

Thanks!

I guess everything above 700 points is just over-achieving Laugh | :laugh:

It's an OO world.

public class Sander : Lazy<Person>{
    public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}

S Houghtelin18-Dec-13 7:23

S Houghtelin

18-Dec-13 7:23

That's like saying I am having too much fun. Smile | :)

It was broke, so I fixed it.

Sander Rossel18-Dec-13 7:40

18-Dec-13 7:40

Actually there was a time when I felt like I had studied to much when I scored over 55 (out of 100, the minimum to pass for most exams over here).
Lucky for me my grades didn't get much higher than that Laugh | :laugh:

That was at school. Three years ago. I'm a changed man... Wink | ;)

It's an OO world.

public class Sander : Lazy<Person>{
    public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}

BotReject27-Dec-13 13:18

BotReject

27-Dec-13 13:18

Which OU courses have you signed up for? (I did a few of their courses myself). I was going to try for a MS C# exam once, but the format and types of question they asked looked so boring that I couldn't motivate myself to bother (good qualification to have though). At least the OU get you writing code in the exam which is much better in my opinion. I suspect things may have improved on MS exams now though, I am going back a bit.

Sander Rossel27-Dec-13 13:30

27-Dec-13 13:30

I did a Microsoft C# exam last month, but it was almost all multiple choice. The ones that aren't require you to choose some code pieces and put those pieces in the correct order or in the right spot.
The advantage MS certification has above OU courses is that the OU is pretty all-round, while MS certification really can get you going with some specific libraries.
If you have a couple of years of experience in a MS field you could simply try to get certified without too much study.

Right now I have OU courses on web development (client side), communication mechanisms and object oriented analysis and design.

It's an OO world.

public class Sander : Lazy<Person>{
    public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}

LSD Can Help You Lose Weight

BotReject27-Dec-13 13:50

BotReject

27-Dec-13 13:50

My problem was that the course provider switched from C++ to C# part-way through the course as MS withdrew their C++ exam (to push out C# which was new then). Not only did this add a year to my preparation, but I was expecting a C# coding exam and instead would have got what you said - a quiz on some of the (then key, now largely obsolete) C# class libraries. Also, there was no application to Web development, which I think was the wrong approach to C#. Lots of MCQs asking about specific classes and functions and what they did - not what I wanted for my first professional course. All in all I felt a bit miffed and so never took the exam. Having done lots of maths courses with the OU (to extend my degrees) I then did one of their Java courses. This was a very good course, albeit quite introductory. Now I find the OU too expensive, so I have done no more with them either! I simply use whatever meets my needs these days, which is actually mostly JS, HTML 5 and PHP, occasionally Java, C++ and C#, and the odd specialist scripting language. Not sure where to go next - there are too many technologies to chose from and I still have not found one I want to dedicate myself to.

Nagy Vilmos18-Dec-13 5:04

Nagy Vilmos

18-Dec-13 5:04

How you're going to grab a snack when the fridge is guarded by a dragon?

speramus in juniperus

Tim Deveaux18-Dec-13 5:12

Tim Deveaux

18-Dec-13 5:12

Grab yer vorple blade and have a snicker snack?

OriginalGriff18-Dec-13 5:31

OriginalGriff

18-Dec-13 5:31

Mmmmm....Snickers....

Mike Hankey18-Dec-13 5:45

Mike Hankey

18-Dec-13 5:45

The only thing better would be a Snickers Cake[^]. I think I'll head to the store! Smile | :)

VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.1 ToDo Manager Extension

Relax...We're all crazy it's not a competition!

Mike Hankey18-Dec-13 5:22

Mike Hankey

18-Dec-13 5:22

Or every time you go to open it it melts and moves away from your hand!

VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.1 ToDo Manager Extension

Relax...We're all crazy it's not a competition!

Corporal Agarn18-Dec-13 5:33

Corporal Agarn

18-Dec-13 5:33

Misread your subject and could not figure what LDS[^] had to do with a dragon. Blush | :O

Gregory Gadow18-Dec-13 5:40

Gregory Gadow

18-Dec-13 5:40

One is a horrific beast that will chase you down, chew you up and leave your remains in a smoking pile of manure. The other is a mythical creature.

Matt T Heffron18-Dec-13 7:43

Matt T Heffron

18-Dec-13 7:43

Kirk: [Explaining Spock's odd behavior] Oh, him? He's harmless. Back in the sixties, he was part of the free speech movement at Berkeley. I think he did a little too much LDS.
Dr. Gillian Taylor: LDS?

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home[^]