Oct

11

How to study for the MS 70-564 Exam

Filed Under MCPD, Microsoft, asp.net, certification, exam | 1 Comment

I finally sat the MS 70-564 exam to get an MCPD last Wednesday. When I first started to study for it though, I had no clue what to study or where to get materials seeing as Microsoft decided not to print a book for this one. So I thought I’d share with everyone what I did to prepare for this exam.

First tip – don’t bother with practice tests. MeasureUp has no practice test for this exam and all the other providers have a dodgy reputation. I did try TestKing but their software didn’t work at all, which was disappointing. This makes it really hard to find out what type of questions the exam will have. I searched StackOverflow for answers and the only thing I found there was a hint that using the older book (547) wont really help that much (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/963998/studying-for-the-70-564-exam).

The exam focuses less on code and a lot more on decisions based on requirements. So for anyone with lots of experience in 3.5, the exam will be a lot easier. This is probably the same advice as in my post about the 70-536 exam, but just going through the syllabus is probably the best thing. You can find it on the Microsoft Learning website (70-564 Syllabus). You can pair that up with “Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5” for better coverage, but you can skip the basic sections and focus more on the high level stuff.

Finally, in that SO link above, theres someone who suggests that using the old book is no good. I can confirm that he is correct. Using the old 547 book would just be a waste of time. The exam is very 3.5 centric. This is a reverse of the first exam (536) for which one can comfortably study from the old book.

I hope that this helps any future MCPD-ers with their study.

Comments

One Response to “How to study for the MS 70-564 Exam”

  1. Nathan on October 24th, 2009 06:46

    Thanks for blogging about your exam experiences. I am getting ready to take the 70-536 exam next week and was having trouble finding general descriptions of what the exam is like and what to expect. Too much “BUY THIS TO PASS EXAM X” spam.