Larry Smithmier: C# For You (with a side of SQL)

So I dropped by a local Incubator on Friday to get my BizSpark started and had a blast. Jonas and Kevin were awesome to talk with, and they imparted a load of information in the hour. We went over my Executive Summary (one pager that covered the concept, market, principals, and plan) and then just jammed about technology and startups. It was a truly high bandwidth discussion. It will take a while for me to fully digest everything and get it blogged about. I have a couple of books to track down and loads of work to do. Once I get product out the door, I will probably engage much more fully to try and ramp my growth. I hope to also get some good local networking out of it.

Heather’s mother is coming into town for a visit, so this past week has been more ‘honey do’ than study. This is just a delay, not a termination of my quest for certification.

I passed! I reviewed last night with 6 practice tests and got a 1000 on all but one (933) and took the exam today. I found the exam included more low level diagnostic details than the review material, but that the form and material covered was very similar. I felt confident throughout the test and was very sure on 70% of the questions. I believe I marked 8 of the 10 or so questions I missed. My pass was a 794 with my Implement, Manage, and Maintain Routing and Remote Access being less than 50% correct. I believe this is the first (or at most the second) exam I have taken that I got a full bar as a result (Implement, Manage, and Maintain IP Addressing). On the whole, I found the uCertify test preparation to be well worth the time and effort. The material was presented well, the questions covered the material, and the structure allows for a good way to top off your knowledge preparing for a test. It definitely directly contributed to my passing the exam.

I now have my MCSA in Windows 2003. I will be taking the SQL Server 2008 exam next, but I want to eventually upgrade my MCSA to an MCSE in 2008 with the security component. I believe that to be a good complement to my development and Architecture background.

I am reviewing the entire question list, but I believe I am ‘good to go’ for the exam tomorrow. I am scheduled for a 1:30 start time and have a 3 hour and 30 minute window to complete the exam. More when I get through.