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Exam level of MicroSoft certification 70-528

 
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How would the 70-528 exam be compared to SCJP5? Is it as difficult to pass, easier, or harder?

I've done SCJP5 that was hard but do-able, and 70-528 questions in the book are really simple, it seems easier to me. But, well, I have not done the exam yet.

 
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Originally posted by Marc Wentink:
How would the 70-528 exam be compared to SCJP5? Is it as difficult to pass, easier, or harder?



It's... different. Neither harder nor easier, but different.

To me, I somewhat see -536 and -528 as being the SCJP and SCWCD all wrapped into one, due to how Microsoft handles their certification program for developers. I think that the sample questions are a hair on the 'deceptively easy' side of things, though I did sufficiently well on the exam when I took it last year. It's not a 'difficult' exam, but it certainly is not easy - if you're doing alright on the sample examinations that are on the disk with their self-study guide, you should do fine on the real thing.
 
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I did the scjp1.4 and thought it was gross, though mainly because the content is dull CS200 stuff. The questions, I think, were laced with trickery, which made for an unpleasant experience taking practice tests.

MS 70-528 seems easier, but really there's much more content covered on the exam, so in the end I found it more difficult. However, I think you'll find studying for this exam far more enjoyable and rewarding than the SCJP.

While I don't think the MS questions use "trickery" to increase the difficulty level of this exam, at least not to the extent the SCJP did, they do use the most subtle tactics to make you choose the wrong answer. Often they'll pair possible answers together where 2 of them will be nearly identical to eachother, and another 2 will do the same...just have to read carefully. They also use bloated questions on several of the questions, making it rather annoying and cumbersome to digest. By the time you get to the answers, you're like 'wtf' man, get on with it already.


It'd be interesting to hear why you are going with the 70-528 instead of the SCWCD exam.

I have to agree with Theodore that -536 is more like SCJP, and 528 like SCWCD. So comparing 70-528 to the SCJP5, as your post requests, is not really comparable in terms of intedend objectives each exam has.
[ September 10, 2008: Message edited by: Michael Raymond Jr. ]
 
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one obvious reason these days is the "exam fee"... i have also done my SCJP,SCBCD (EJB 2.0) , SCWCD... when i think of the upgrade and the 300$ fee... i am also thinking to take up Microsoft ones for 125$(u get 15% off with coupons in most books)... Difficut for Stdents and non working professionals to spend that much on a exam.

Hope everyone would agree..

Thanks
 
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I passed the 70-536 (C#) about a year ago. I found it tremendously easier than the SCJP. In fact I wanted to take advantage of the take-it-again-for-free-if-you-fail-once promo, to treat my first take as a free mock exam, and went into it having only read up on between a third to half of the topics. I passed by accident.

Generally if you get asked an API question and you don't know the answer, pick the option that sounds the best. It's quite common that the question itself contains the exact wording of the needed API method.

Also, I had a number of questions that asked how to do something in code and at least two of the options were nonsensical if you simply pay attention.
 
Marc Wentink
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Originally posted by Michael Raymond Jr.:
It'd be interesting to hear why you are going with the 70-528 instead of the SCWCD exam.



I've been working in both JSP and ASP.NET intranet applications. Presently I am doing something different, Windows-32 applications in Delphi and C++. I want to have a certification that proves my ASP.NET knowlegde. I already have something to prove my java knowledge, SCJP5. Price is not the deciding issue. I think if you invest hours of studying, why care about a few hundred euro more or less for the exam. Even though I am short of cash, but anyway.

After this, I think I'll may-be do the Sun Web Services since I have experience in CORBA, Visibroker for C++. I also might do the 70-536 or 70-529.

Anyway, just do my job now, do some overtime and pay the mortgage is enough challange for me now. Money is tight, mortgage will go up. And I am a single dad of a teenage daughter, that costs time and money to. I think it will take a while before I am prepared for the exam. A few more months atleast. I've read the book once, going for it for a second time, now doing all the exercises and making summaries for myself. I am at chapter 5 now what is in pages at the half of the self paced course.

Wish me luck. Wish me luck.
 
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hey guys , just passed final exam of mcse 2003 and Iam now MCSE 2003 Certified . went through months of studies , used certarea.com exams , MOC books . certarea.com questions were right on money . Even though they do not provide real exam questions , their questions are harder then real exams , so it makes it easy to understand concepts . now am looking forward to moving to cisco track
 
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