Today, I took advantage of the free offer from Microsoft to take a beta exam for free. In case you missed the memo, I put the details about the free beta exams at the end of this post. The beta exam I took was 70-547: Designing and Developing Web-Based Applications using the .Net Framework. Since it was a beta exam it was a pretty lengthy exam of 71 questions that took three hours long. Here are some notes about the exam:
- Since it was a design exam, there were a lot of questions about if a solution solved all of the requirements given. So they stated the requirements and then told you what the solution was and you have to decide if the solution met the requirements, or select a reason as to why it did not. This got real redundant, but I think that was because I was taking a beta exam. I think they were really trying to figure out what questions would be good ones to ask for the real exam.
- There were about 5-10 questions or so on the new ASP.NET health check API.
- There were about 5-10 questions in regards to writing test cases using VS 2005.
- There were a few questions that asked you to design out a class when given a certain set of requirements. This was not your normal multiple choice question either. They did help you along a bit and gave you a list of methods and properties that you have to move into your class.
- There were also questions in regards to how to handle exceptions correctly and ensure that you maintain a proper stack trace across tiers such as presentation, business, and data. Also, how to configure apps so that end users don't see the error, while admins can.
- There was not a lot of code in this test, whcih was NOT a surprise since it was a design test.
- Just a few questions on what controls to use when in your design. There was a question about the datagridview control and master pages. These questions were more interested in how to work these new features into your design.
Beta Exam Info:
Through March 12 Registration is open for free beta exams, which count toward certification in the same way as the final version of the exam. Candidates who achieve a passing score in the beta exam will receive a free exam voucher* for any Microsoft Certification Exam. Vouchers will be sent after exam scores are tabulated.
- Exam 71-547 Pro - Designing and Developing Web-based Applications by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework (promo code: PRO547)
- Exam 71-548 Pro - Designing and Developing Windows-based Applications by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework (promo code: BTA548)
- Exam 71-549 Pro - Designing and Developing Enterprise Applications by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework (promo code: 549BTA)
Seating is limited. Pre-register via http://securereg3.prometric.com/.