While preparing for the 70–551 exam I came across the new TypeForwardedToAttributes class. Searching for this on MSDN brought up “no search results”. Hmm.. that sounded funny.

Searching on Live did bring up some results. The problem stems from the fact that the actual class name is TypeForwardedToAttribute not TypeForwardedToAttributes as incorecctly stated in the exam preparation guide page.

A handy feature too which allows you to move classes from one assembly to another without breaking existing applications that have the earlier reference. Bill Bozeman’s blog has a good overview on the TypeForwardedToAttributes class with examples.

Finally, took my last exam for the MCSD.NET today. This was the Designing and Implementing Databases with SQL Server 2000 exam and I scored 87%.

Now I only need to take the Administering exam on SQL Server to get my MCDBA. But that'll have to wait till November as I don't have the time or the money to spend on exams for now.

The exam consisted of three case studies having 15, 10 and 7 questions. My preparation for this exam was reading the MOC Course 2710 Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures. For anyone planning to take this exam but who can't get their hands on this, read up a lot about the MSF Process Model, particularly the Planning Phase and know the distinctions between the Conceptual, Logical and Physical Models.

Now I've just got to do one more exam to complete my MCSD.NET, hope I can take it by this Friday then I would have completed all five MCSD exams in just five weeks.

Passed the 70-320 exam on Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual C# today. My score for this exam was 966/1000 which meant that I had got two questions wrong out of the fifty seven.

Three exams in three weeks that leaves another two more to go for the MCSD .NET certification!

Two down three more to go!

This exam was easier than the Web exam and I was able to finish the exam in about an hour. The main reason for this would be that the topics were very similar, I guess I should have studied for the Windows exam first since the security and globalisation concepts are covered very well in the MOC course.

Next up is the 70-320 Web Services and Server Components exam.

One down four more to go! The real exam was much tougher than the Transcender practise questions.

The questions were evenly distributed and some of the areas that I got caught was in the Security (What the heck was that PrincipalPermission class?). The Data access questions were not too bad and pretty much everything was covered in the ADO.NET course.

Next exam: Windows Applications.

Thought of outlining how I'm preparing for the (70-315) Web Applications exam.

Step 1: I started out by reading the three recommended MOC courses (ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Upgrading To ASP.NET). One advantage that I have being an MCT is that I can download the Trainer kits for all the MOC courses.

Step 2: I tried one of the Transcender exams and scored 820/1000 which was a fail (850 was the pass mark) but hey I'm happy. Usually the Transcender exams that I have taken are very much harder than the final exam but this Transcender was much easier. Which means that either this particular Transcender exam was not tough enough or I have really studied well ;)

Step 3: Right now I'm going through the study guide over at Cramsession, this is sort of a revision of all the areas that I have covered, once I have done this I will try to skim through Tim's 70-315 links and spend some time reading areas that I am not sure of. After that it will be a good dose of Transcender exams before I take the final exam in two days time.

I suddenly realised that September is creeping up next month and I have not been able to do a single Microsoft certification on the .NET exams.

So I've now taken on a sort of Mission Impossible trying to do the five exams to get my MCSD.NET before 31-Sep. I will be starting with the Web Development exam next Tuesday and do two more this month and then try the other two next month. All current MCSD get a free voucher for the Analysing Requirements exam until 31.

This is going to be my certification track.

Exam 70-315: Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual C#"! .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
Exam 70-316: Developing and Implementing Windows-based Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
Exam 70-320: Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual C# and the Microsoft .NET Framework
Exam 70-300: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures
Exam 70-229: Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition