Certification : Microsoft : MCSD

Number of free and low cost resources that will help in studying for exams. I've shared a number of these resources with the MCDBA discussion list and the following is an updated version of my resource list for the MCDBA and MCSE certifications. I've sent this out to so many people, that I finally decided to make it more widely available.

Updated: 04/20/2005

MCSD for Microsoft .NET Certification Requirements

Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) for Microsoft .NET candidates are required to pass four core exams and one elective exam. The core exams provide a valid and reliable measure of technical proficiency and expertise in developing and maintaining enterprise applications that are based on Microsoft development tools, technologies, and platforms. The elective exam provides proof of expertise with a specific Microsoft server product.

Updated: 04/08/2005

MCSD in a Nutshell: Working with Data Sample Chapter

One of the biggest changes in Visual Basic 6 is the way in which you access data (or the way in which Microsoft wants you to access data). Microsoft is making a conscious effort to create a paradigm in which data is accessed through a common interface, regardless of the data's underlying format. In the past, developers often used a number of data access techniques, including the two common data access object models, data access objects (DAOs) and remote data objects (RDOs), as well as directly using APIs such as the ODBC API. Usually, code used to access data with one method is incompatible with code that accesses data using another method, which creates a number of drawbacks. For instance, scaling a database (such as migrating from a Jet database to a SQL database) often means rewriting the majority of data access code. In theory, if the mechanism used to communicate with different data sources remained consistent, using different back-end data sources would require little or no code modifications.

Updated: 04/08/2005