Passed the first exam in my soon to be MCSD certification yesterday.

“Developing and Implementing Windows Based Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio” aka 70-316

I have been learning C# for about 3 years on and off in my spare time (Work technologies are still back in Win32 days). And I began using the SharpDevelop free IDE and .NET SDK.

Have since got Visual Studio .NET and really enjoying using it as a tool for development.

Began studying for exam in anger using the “MCAD/MCSD.NET Training Guide: Developing and Implementing Windows Based Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio” published by Que and written by Amil Kalani.

I bought this book after reading numerous posts on the Microsoft Learning Communities with most posts stating it was the best resource to use to pass. I have to therefore add my further recommendation to those others as it has been an invaluable study guide and also it covers more than is just required by the exam, giving you (if you are an inexperienced C# guy) a broader understanding of the subject than just that required by the exam.

Just about to get the 70-315 book by Amit also. Reckon as I know much less about Web Applications than Windows forms that this should take a little longer to study, but going to give myself until end of October to do the exam (I also have 2 weeks away from home in that period where I will not be able to study).

ASP.NET, here we come...