Kristian Kristensen’s Blog

Today I took the exams for 70-526 in Winforms and 70-528 in ASP.NET. Originally I had booked time for tomorrow afternoon, but a slot opened and I could try today. The new slot was at 2PM, and I found out at 11. So it was pretty tight. Anyway, I took the Winforms exam first, and lo and behold I passed with 860 points. From the result sheet I see that I was strongest in Creating UI’s for Winform apps, Integrating data, implementing printing and reporting, and usability. This means my low topics were Developing Winforms controls, and Configuring and deploying apps. I do think there were a lot of questions on printing and the Background Worker.
After a short break I took the ASP.NET exam. I wasn’t so sure of the material, and quite frankly didn’t exepct to pass. Was of course hoping for it. I did pass it too with 788 points. I was strongest in Creating custom web controls, tracing, configuring and deploying apps, and customizing and personalizing web apps.
With these two exams and the Core I passed in December I’m now a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in ASP.NET and WinForms.

My means of preparation for these exams were similar to the Core exam. I read the books and did lesson reviews from the CD as well as several practice tests. Afterwards I’d read up on the topics I scored low on.

So what’s next? I don’t quite know yet. I’m currently pondering to take the Distributed Applications exam 70-529 and then go for an MCPD in Enterprise Applications. Nothing is however settled yet. I think I’m going to skim some of the chapters in the 529 and see it makes sense to go for this exam, or if I should rather aim for the WCF exam due out late February early March. Either way I’ll post about it later.

If you like my writing you should subscribe to my RSS feed.

Bruce Eckel has posted his commencement address for Neumont University, a school in Salt Lake City. Its premise is basically:

5% of programmers are 20x more productive than the other 95%

It’s an interesting speech that touches upon some of the topics I’ve blogged about previously.

You might even want to couple this with Joel’s recent article on Undergraduate Programming. Joel refers to an article in Crosstalk, and discusses the impact of the increasing use of Java in CS education.

Maybe our profession is getting increasingly industrialized. Moving from a craftsmanlike perspective on things into a “use it and make it accessible to everyone”. Still is it acceptable that one should read books, blogs, listen to podcasts, whatever in order to be a productive participant? If you compare development/programming as a job to what accountants, lawyers, etc. do; do the latter have to read books on tax laws and criminal procedings after work hours? Or is it just that in order to ahead of the time you need to put in the extra time and effort.
Another question is when or how do you know if you’re part of the mythical 5%. Is it enough to walk the walk? I suppose I lie in Eckel’s “20% of the 80%”-group; the ones that read, listen, attend and try. I guess reaching into the 5% group would be a big New Years work item. It’s definitely worth considering.

If you like my writing you should subscribe to my RSS feed.

On Wednesday the 2nd I started at Microsoft again after a nice Christmas holiday. This also marked the day of the remaining three 3 NG’s. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday consisted mainly of introductions to all things Microsoft, and playing catch up. The reason: on Sunday we had to leave for two weeks of training in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Training began this Monday, and the first 5 days are on C# and .NET. Since I know this stuff already I’m prepping for my next exam 70-526 on WinForms. Currently I have one remaining chapter, and then going to do practice tests, and read up on my weak topics.

Today I took a walk around Utrecht and realized how homogenous Europe is becoming. Most of the shops you find in Utrecht are the same as those in most Danish cities. The brand and signature shops are all here. Furthermore JCDecaux are also here for sign and busstop advertisement management. I suspect they were probably here before Denmark because of the name and the Netherlands vicinity to France. But anyway.
And although the streets seem a replica of a Danish one, there are big differences. One example is the wreckless driving attitude of both cardrivers and bicyclists.

Tomorrow we’ll be driving up to Amsterdam for the weekend. Should be fun, I’ve never been there.

If you like my writing you should subscribe to my RSS feed.