Well, today was the day that I finally took my first MCP exam. This exam was on Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.
The
testing center allows you to reschedule the exam at no extra cost as
long as you do it 24 hours in advance of the scheduled time. I
originally scheduled to take this exam clear back on December
23rd. Projects kept me busy, so I'd reschedule it for 2-3 weeks
later (again and again) until I finally took it this time around.
And it's not like putting off the test actually gave me more study
time. It was last night that I really started studying for the
test. Previously I'd been reading a Microsoft Press book
to learn the material, but I didn't feel like I was ready for the
test. The book I read/skimmed all night till 7:00 in the morning
was one by Prep Logic.
I felt like this book really prepared me for the test, it helped get my
confidence up. Funny how after taking the test I can say that the
Microsoft Press book actually taught me the material, the Prep Logic book boosted my confidence, but I didn't really use the material I learned from it.
Alright,
alright, enough blabbing. So how did I do? The exam
consisted of 43 questions and 2 hours to complete them in.
Possible score is ??? You need a 700 to pass. I got an
867. Not bad, about average, I think everyone else I've talked to
has gotten almost the exact same score. The questions are divided
into 7 categores (my scores are interpretations of the graph they
handed me afterwards):
- Creating User Services (scored 8 of 9)
- Creating and Managing Components and .NET Assemblies (scored 6 of 9)
- Consuming and Manipulating Data (scored 8 of 9)
- Testing and Debugging (scored 8 of 9)
- Deploying a Web Application (scored 9 of 9)
- Maintaining and Supporting a Web Application (scored 9 of 9)
- Configuring and Securing a Web Application (scored 9 of 9)
Yeah,
I was pretty scared about this first test, didn't know what too
expect. Now that I do know, I think I can roll through these
pretty quickly. I'm going to schedule the next test for April 8th
(Saturdays just work better for everyone). Any bets on how many
times I reschedule this next one?