70-315 Exam Advice

[mit99mh]

I've just taken my 70-315 exam and passed (962/1000) - for the benefit of anyone taking the exam I used the following strategy which worked for me.

Buy the MCAD 70-315 Textbook by Kalani - it's a monster (~1300 pages) but well worth it.

I worked through 90% of the examples in the book and read it cover to cover. I also re-read parts of it eg Tracing / Application Deployment 2-3 times. It really helped that I was using Visual Studio .NET every day as part of my job so I could apply some examples that I may not normally have bothered with.

I booked my exam 4 weeks down the line and then practiced and practiced using any exam questions I could get my hands on.

There are 2 tests in Kalani - one in the book the other a PrepLogic one on the CD - as well as questions at the end of each chapter.

The Microsoft site had 2 recommended practice exam providers.

I used Measureup's online questions.

I also used TestKing who provided a PDF of exam questions.

I used both very heavily - I think on balance the TestKing were harder but both were very helpful and improved my confidence. They made me aware of something very important when taking the exam - reading the questions very carefully - as a question using the phrase eg "your server..." has a very different answer to "a remote server" or "a customers server".

I'd never taken a MS exam before but I had plenty of time to read each question carefully and go back and check the answers.


Hope this helps

 

[BillLumbergh]

I used the Kalani text, a .Net environment on my home machine, and Transcenders to prepare. One thing I would add is that I think if you can pass 70-315, you can probably pass 70-305. It's just the VB version of the test, and if you have any knowledge of VB and you are able to pass the C# version, I'd bet you can pass 70-305 as well. I didn't take 305 but sort of wish I had when the concepts were fresh in my mind; after all, it'd be another cert one could put on ones resume.

I for one felt a little strapped for time on the test. By the time I finished and went back over the questions I was within five minutes of the end.

Pretty tough test I thought. When I clicked the finish button, I really had no idea whether I was going to pass or not. But I did.

 

[JohnYingling]

Look at the MCAD requirements.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcad/requirements.asp

"In the following combinations, candidates will receive credit for only one of the two exams: 70-305 or 70-315, 70-306 or 70-316, 70-310 or 70-320."

It may be a waste of money to take both tests, assuming that MS will even alow it once you have passed the other since the questions are almost the same, just using a different language for the code. The test are really about .Net Frameworkm not the language.

http://www.VBResizer.com

Forms/Controls Resizing/Tabbing

http://www.VBCompare.com

Compare Code

http://www.VBSortGen.com

Generate Sort Class in VB

http://www.Vbcompare.com/Check.Htm(1979

Check To MS)

 

[BillLumbergh]

I understand that they both cannot be used as credit toward MCAD/MCSD etc, I am just saying that if you are able to pass one, you could probably pass the other. May help in a resume situation where you passed C# but are submitting a resume to a company that develops in VB, something along those lines.