MCAD certification dilemma
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Hi all, i'm recently graduated software engineer (15 months) working for an electronics company. In order to complete a recent project i started looking into .Net and c#. After 6 months i've now completed my first production level .Net application and in doing so have developed a keen interest in the platform itself. My question is as follows, i'm currently considering taking the MCAD exam but i've seen the press releases about Whidbey, Longhorn, Orcas etc. and i'm wondering will the MCAD based on the current version of .Net be irrelevant too soon to warrant the time & money. spent studying for it? :confused: I know Microsoft have changed their policy of retiring old certifications but does anyone know if they plan to offer an upgrade path or will everyone need to start from scratch. Any info is welcome Cheers Paul Griffin
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Hi all, i'm recently graduated software engineer (15 months) working for an electronics company. In order to complete a recent project i started looking into .Net and c#. After 6 months i've now completed my first production level .Net application and in doing so have developed a keen interest in the platform itself. My question is as follows, i'm currently considering taking the MCAD exam but i've seen the press releases about Whidbey, Longhorn, Orcas etc. and i'm wondering will the MCAD based on the current version of .Net be irrelevant too soon to warrant the time & money. spent studying for it? :confused: I know Microsoft have changed their policy of retiring old certifications but does anyone know if they plan to offer an upgrade path or will everyone need to start from scratch. Any info is welcome Cheers Paul Griffin
Current MCSD's are still valid from pre .NET days and there is no requirement that I'm aware of to upgrade. I did upgrade my just as a means of learning though.
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Hi all, i'm recently graduated software engineer (15 months) working for an electronics company. In order to complete a recent project i started looking into .Net and c#. After 6 months i've now completed my first production level .Net application and in doing so have developed a keen interest in the platform itself. My question is as follows, i'm currently considering taking the MCAD exam but i've seen the press releases about Whidbey, Longhorn, Orcas etc. and i'm wondering will the MCAD based on the current version of .Net be irrelevant too soon to warrant the time & money. spent studying for it? :confused: I know Microsoft have changed their policy of retiring old certifications but does anyone know if they plan to offer an upgrade path or will everyone need to start from scratch. Any info is welcome Cheers Paul Griffin
Changes to the MCSD have been few and far between over recent years. I doubt MCAD requirements will change for at least 2 years and I doubt they'll change that soon.
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Changes to the MCSD have been few and far between over recent years. I doubt MCAD requirements will change for at least 2 years and I doubt they'll change that soon.
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Hi all, i'm recently graduated software engineer (15 months) working for an electronics company. In order to complete a recent project i started looking into .Net and c#. After 6 months i've now completed my first production level .Net application and in doing so have developed a keen interest in the platform itself. My question is as follows, i'm currently considering taking the MCAD exam but i've seen the press releases about Whidbey, Longhorn, Orcas etc. and i'm wondering will the MCAD based on the current version of .Net be irrelevant too soon to warrant the time & money. spent studying for it? :confused: I know Microsoft have changed their policy of retiring old certifications but does anyone know if they plan to offer an upgrade path or will everyone need to start from scratch. Any info is welcome Cheers Paul Griffin
I'd advise you to just take the plunge. The only thing you'll spend is a little bit of time, and the tests are pretty damn easy. I have a mostly non-MS background (some C++ and a lot of Java), and I recently became an MCSD and then MCDBA, a total of seven tests. I studied a total of seven days-- one for each test. Please believe me, I'm no genius; the tests just aren't that difficult. Microsoft has done this intentionally in an effort to increase their market share; they'd love to be able to trumpet "10 million certified .NET developers can't be wrong" on every media channel. Especially for someone like yourself, recently graduated (which means you have recent study experience), it'd be pretty easy to knock one out each weekend WITHOUT killing yourself. You'd also be bound to learn some interesting things during your studying, things you wouldn't naturally pick up in the course of your work. If they don't offer an upgrade path later, just do the same thing over again; it'll keep you on your toes. Or you could just decide at that point that Microsoft can go hang for putting you through all that trouble for nothing... Regards, Jeff Varszegi
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I'd advise you to just take the plunge. The only thing you'll spend is a little bit of time, and the tests are pretty damn easy. I have a mostly non-MS background (some C++ and a lot of Java), and I recently became an MCSD and then MCDBA, a total of seven tests. I studied a total of seven days-- one for each test. Please believe me, I'm no genius; the tests just aren't that difficult. Microsoft has done this intentionally in an effort to increase their market share; they'd love to be able to trumpet "10 million certified .NET developers can't be wrong" on every media channel. Especially for someone like yourself, recently graduated (which means you have recent study experience), it'd be pretty easy to knock one out each weekend WITHOUT killing yourself. You'd also be bound to learn some interesting things during your studying, things you wouldn't naturally pick up in the course of your work. If they don't offer an upgrade path later, just do the same thing over again; it'll keep you on your toes. Or you could just decide at that point that Microsoft can go hang for putting you through all that trouble for nothing... Regards, Jeff Varszegi
Thanks for the thoughts guys ... now that i've got some spare time i've decided to take the plunge .. i hope to sit my first exam later this month!! Fingers crossed!! Paul Griffin
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Thanks for the thoughts guys ... now that i've got some spare time i've decided to take the plunge .. i hope to sit my first exam later this month!! Fingers crossed!! Paul Griffin
Great! If you have a few extra bucks to spend, I'd check out the Transcender exams at transcender.com; their practice suites are pretty awesome. Last I knew they were around ninety bucks each, but you get a discount if you buy a few together. They usually come with a flashcard part and a testing part, and the latter contains multi-paragraph explanations of the answers and why they're wrong or right, for every answer to every question. The flashcards are helpful, but the practice test answers usually wind up teaching me something that's useful to know. I'm not shilling for Transcender; I seldom recommend anything to anybody, but I was impressed by their stuff. If you don't want to spend the extra money, I'm positive you'll do really well just by studying and/or practicing. One thing about the MS exams that made me sweat a couple of times was just the extreme length of some of the questions, which can easily scroll past an entire page depending on the computer setup at the testing center. You have to just force yourself to read those as quickly as you can, and then read it again if necessary. I think that for such lengthy questions, it's better not to come back and force yourself through it again; just focus hard for a minute or two and choose the best answer and let it go, no worries. If you're taking the Windows Forms test first, you will pick up at least a question or two just by memorizing all of the properties, etc. of the standard widgets. Good luck! Jeff Varszegi
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Great! If you have a few extra bucks to spend, I'd check out the Transcender exams at transcender.com; their practice suites are pretty awesome. Last I knew they were around ninety bucks each, but you get a discount if you buy a few together. They usually come with a flashcard part and a testing part, and the latter contains multi-paragraph explanations of the answers and why they're wrong or right, for every answer to every question. The flashcards are helpful, but the practice test answers usually wind up teaching me something that's useful to know. I'm not shilling for Transcender; I seldom recommend anything to anybody, but I was impressed by their stuff. If you don't want to spend the extra money, I'm positive you'll do really well just by studying and/or practicing. One thing about the MS exams that made me sweat a couple of times was just the extreme length of some of the questions, which can easily scroll past an entire page depending on the computer setup at the testing center. You have to just force yourself to read those as quickly as you can, and then read it again if necessary. I think that for such lengthy questions, it's better not to come back and force yourself through it again; just focus hard for a minute or two and choose the best answer and let it go, no worries. If you're taking the Windows Forms test first, you will pick up at least a question or two just by memorizing all of the properties, etc. of the standard widgets. Good luck! Jeff Varszegi
LMAO... I hope you weren't plugging for Transcender. They have been bought out and I dance around the purchase agreement! The company has ruined my family forever! I will boycott to the bitter end! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: