Glenn Wiley's Blog

I just took the 70-536 exam (Microsoft .Net Framework - Application Development Foundation) and I have to say it was disappointing.  I've read about this exam being rather nefarious.  I signed up for the free second shot, so my strategy was to take the exam cold without studying, and if I pass great, if not, I'll know what to study before I re-take it.  By my calculations I was within a question of passing - close, but no cigar.  The exam questions I got really didn't seem appropriate for what I'd expect from an overall .Net development foundational exam.  The questions I got were focused very heavily on globalization and security - important, but there are other foundational concepts I expected to be given equal treatment.  I think what I liked least about this exam is the number of questions focused on something that I personally have had little to no experience in, and will likely not utilize.  I did very well on the globalization and security questions, but my weak areas were "embedding configuration, diagnostic, management, and installation features into a .Net application" and "Implementing serialization and input/output functionality in a .Net framework application."  This was very much a surprise to me.  I would've expected those two areas to be stronger for me because I've had more experience there.  After all, what application doesn't deal with configuration management, diagnostic management and installation features?  Oh well.  I'd say a lot of the questions were bordering on being trivia questions, or just doing something in a completely different or unusual manner.  As with most MS exams, it's a bit of a game anyway.  There are usually one or two answers that are totally ridiculous, and then out of the other two, they may both look feasible, but even if one appears more correct, it just doesn't quite sit right because it's not the most straightforward or sensible answer.  It'd be nice if these exams were fill-in-the-blank.  No multiple guess - either you know it or you don't.