I just passed the 70-529 exam and now I’m a MCTS Web and Distributed Applications. For those that are still thinking of taking this exam here are a few tips.
Usually I use Microsoft preparation books to study for certifications. This time I started using a book from the same collection:
MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-529): Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Application Development
I have to say that I didn’t like this book. I didn’t think that the content was well approached and the writing style was also not for me. I still followed the book to the end but I had to complement it with two other books, one the had a good web services section and another that had a good remoting section. These books are:
Pro ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005 (This one complements the web services part)
Pro C# 2005 and the .NET 2.0 Platform (This one complements the remoting part)
Also a good starting point is the articles on the 4 Guys from Rolla that will give you a pretty good introduction to web services and it’s best if read before you read any of the books above.
Next week I’ll go on vacation and when I come back I’ll start my studies towards the MCPD Web Developer certification. I should take the test by the end of November. I’ll let you know how this goes.