Exam Passed!

I passed my exam! I've been studying for a little over a month to take the Microsoft Exam for Developing Windows Applications with Visual C# .NET (070-316). My company received a state grant that would cover some of the costs of study materials and exams for us to get our certifications. This exam is the first of five towards receiving my MCSD. Way, way back in 2001, I took the Distributed and Desktop Application exams for Visual Basic 6.0. I passed both. By passing any one exam, you are considered a Microsoft Certified Professional. Now that Microsoft has released the .NET framework and the Visual Studio .NET development tools, they are pushing for all of the certified folks to update their certifications. If I pass just two more exams (Developing Web Applications and Developing XML Web Services) I'll be considered a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD). If I pass another two after that (Analyzing Requirements and SQL Server 2000) I'll be a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer. I used part of the government funding to get a set of study guides by Microsoft press to help prepare. I was surpised with how well they prepared me for the exam. In the past, I had used the Wrox and MS Press books to prepare for the VB exams, and they were not all that great. The Java book I used to prepare for my Java 2 Programmer certification has been by far the best book I've used. The MS Press book for C# Apps was a pretty good one though, and by far better than the VB books I had used. Hopefully I can set a pace to take a test a month, or even every other month. I think our government funds are good for two years, so I have plenty of time. Still, I'd like to get through all of my education (certifications and MBA) before Corbin gets much older. I don't want to miss out on him growing up.