Resources/References that can be used in preparing for MTA 98-361 Software Development Fundamentals

Here is the list of Resources / References  that can be used in preparing for MTA 98-361: 

• Programming in C# Jump Start
• MTA 98-361 Wikiversity (Very Useful)
• Microsoft : Preparation Resources
• CBT Nuggets
• Wiley Book - Message me, if you want these book, I will give you discount.
• MTA 98-361 Resources
• C# Courses
• Others 1
• Others 2

Keywords : Reviewer 98-361, Resources 98-361, Exam 98-361 References

1. Exam 98-361 (Step 1) How I Passed Software Development Fundamentals (Exam 98-361) ?
Yes! I passed MTA 98-361. It feels great to be a Microsoft Technology Associate in Software Development Fundamentals.

• 
  Sample MTA Certification - Badge
  

======================================================

This Story written by Someone on Microsoft Study Group and It helped me a lot to pass 98-361 :

I Frickin' Passed!!! - First Attempt!!! (Super Detailed Experience)

New Wiley link has been added. But I wouldn't rely on them being too relevant. I used them nearly a year ago. I am sure updates have been made to the exam.

Okay I don't know where to start but this will be long because when I was preparing, I wanted to know exactly what people did, how long they did it and everything else to prepare for the exam and pass. I want to share my experience because I have dreamed of being able to write this after passing. I know it is just MTA but I have never done anything like this and it feels like an amazing accomplishment to me. I will start from the beginning and go into what the test was like with my score at the end.

So first of all I came here. I spent my first day of prep gathering other's experiences and compiling a guide which I could follow to succeed. This all included the basics you will mostly find on this forum. My list came to look like this.

-Read through the Wiley 98-361 book. Go through it a few times and make sure you understand everything. Do not pass GO until you understand. 

-Watch CBT nugget videos on YT (they're useful and free) 

-Watch MVA videos (they are not enough though. They will give a good easy to understand overview but the book and CBT nuggets explain the more complex stuff)

-Go through MSDN (?)

So here is how I studied

While reading through the book the first time, I played the MVA videos in the background. I spent about 6 days total studying. While my plan was to do two lessons a day, I didn't come near that. I took my time and did a lesson per day. Some lessons were easier so I was able to do two sometimes. I progressed very slowly through the book. Doing every single exercise usually, the questions at the end, and sometimes doing the first two competency assessments at the end of each lesson. Because each lesson took me several hours(reading, understanding, writing code, taking tests, breaks, boredom) to really take in and understand, I would watch the MVA multiple times and then watch the corresponding CBT nugget video on replay. 

I did this for every lesson except the Understanding Web Applications. It wasn't hard it was just so boring and technical I didn't understand it the first time around and decided to move forward and come back to it on review day.

So I saved one day before the exam to review and go over the Web Apps Lesson. I devoted a lot of time to reviewing because I forgot about some other tools I had. One tool is the study guide that certiport provides for the exam. I also forgot about the FREE practice tests that come with the Wiley book. The tests are through Gmetrix and they ARE HIGHLY ACCURATE TO THE REAL EXAM. This is important. 

Then during the review I stumbled upon a resource I could not have succeeded without. It cleared up all the things I thought I knew but actually had wrong. You see, the Wiley book has lots of review questions and fill in the blanks at the end of each chapter. They are great and help you find where you stand in understanding. The problem is that there is NO ANSWER KEY. You just have to go through the chapter and be certain you have the right answer. Well guys, not anymore. I accidentally found all the teacher resources online and downloaded all of them. These include practice tests for each lesson and the solutionsto both the book and the practice tests. It ALSO includes clear slide shows(essential for simplifying the Lessons) and  PDFs that are essentially the whole book broken down. I downloaded all these files and put them into a zip, enjoy, Wiley Teacher Resources, I hope this is okay to do.

It was going to that stuff last minute that easily cleared up my questions and helped my shortcomings.  I was able to understand the whole Web Apps Lesson with just the slideshows alone (this helped me answer like 4 or 5 questions with confidence). So, to review I used all of these. Here is my process: First I breezed through the chapter/lesson, just scanning and flipping pages. I then read through the fill-in-the-blanks and questions I had already answered (I sometimes had the MVA or Nuggets playing in the background while doing all this). I then went through the certiport study guide for the Lesson. After that I went through the Solutions document and checked my answers for the Wiley book. After that I took the 20 question practice test found in the resources. All this cleared some blanks and actually corrected my original thinking many times. Doing this for each lesson gave me crazy confidence. People claimed that the OOP stuff was hard but I actually scored highest there. It was no problem. All the questions, answering, and trial and error helped dig this stuff into my brain.

After all this I was supposed to take all three free practice tests but I ran out of time. If I had taken them and taken them seriously I would have done WAY better. The free Gmetrix tests are very accurate. In fact the first question I had on the real exam was the first one I had on the one practice test I took. However, I didn't take them seriously because I thought they were wrong. They mentioned terms that were not in the book. Well, those terms are on the test. Get the Wiley book new and take those free tests. They are almost exactly what the exam is. 

So that is how I prepared. Here is what I wish I spent more time on that would have gotten me an easy 90+: I wish I did all the competency and proficiency assessments at the end of each lesson. I wish I did all the sample code in the lessons. I also would have liked to spend more time learning the terms better in the book, specifically the OOP section. Finally those gosh dang practice tests! I should have taken them and spent a lot more time going through the test slowly. This would have helped me think through the drag and drop exercises much faster. 

Either way I went into the test pretty confident. Although while I taking it my confidence went down. I was so ready to fail, don't know why, but then I clicked the end exam button after reviewing the 10+ I didn't know. The screen loaded and I saw a big green check saying that I passed. Not close to the passing score of 70 BUT WITH AN 84! I still can't believe it. This means much more to me than just getting an entry level certificate. This is a milestone and me proving to myself what I am capable of with nothing but my mind.

After taking the test here is what I suggest as well as all the above: 

-Gestures took me by surprise. I am sure I failed those. Just go to MSDN and search "Windows Store Apps" and "Gestures". I did this before the exam but didn't feel it worth my time so I didn't really study it well. KNow what swiping, taps, and sliding are, and what happends when people slide things certain ways. Like what happens if the user swipes in from the left (opens charms bar, I think)

-Do more coding. Write more programs and learn how to think through recursion and learn how to read code and build classes and methods using drag and drop (in practice tests). 

-Read through the book again. 

If you really want to ace the mess out of it, then write code and follow along with the CBT nuggets. Watch all the videos Microsoft recommends under the skill requirements a well. 

If you do all this, I promise you will pass the exam. Do the extra stuff and you'll get a 100%! It is not hard either. When you really push to understand concepts and the details of a subject, you are no longer using the slow part of your brain, you have transferred understood material to the fast part of brain which makes things second nature. It is why I was able to answer many of the questions in ten seconds with absolute certainty. Leaving me review time to check the ones I didn't know well. 

Lastly, to give you and idea of the questions. Some of the questions in the Wiley book were given and many of the questions in the practice tests were given. Some stuff isn't covered in any of them. That is why I recommend going through the videos Microsoft recommends under the Skills Measured section.

I think that is it. Please feel free to ask any questions and I really hope this helps you.

Oh, wait! my background if you are wondering. I am a computer science student switching over to Software Development at WGU. I really hated my old college and even though I took quite a few programming classes I never understood the deeper parts of it. I heard OO terms but never knew what they meant. I have programmed with Assembly (the push and pop stuff, super fun) and java, c, c++, lots of console apps, etc , but never c#. I am not really a programmer, I can just learn anything I want. I can do algorithms but was only writing programs for school before. So I came in with general softwareDev, a bit of OO, and Intro to Programming covered. But still, each chapter I learned a lot of new stuff. It taught me more of the "what" and the "why". I still feel like I was starting over though because, I have only been doing CSS and HTML for the past few months. Not much coding of anything else. If I was coming in with nothing, I think this all would be extremely hard to grasp alone or it would just take some extra time.

(Credits to the Owner)

I didn't alter any of his Post. I just copy then I paste it here.

Labels: 98-361, C#, Certification, Microsoft, Microsoft Technical Associate, MTA, Software Development