Take that 70-340!

Despite my previous failure, this morning I retook and passed exam 70-340 with a score of 742. That being said... I am still puzzled.

Like last time, I answered each question with what I thought to be the best answer... and both times I was wrong a fair amount.

There is a part of me that wishes there was an ability to find out the actual answers and explanations of why one is better than another on those that I was truly confident in my (incorrect) answer.

Yes, I could always consult a dump however I have reservations about their accuracy.

Now just one more test stands between me and an MCSD, 70-300, a test I have heard nothing but bad things about. But first I am going to try my hand at the beta version of 70-552 in early March as I figure a free beta upgrade exam is a little better than rushing 70-300 before review time at the end of February.

Brendan's Student Loans.com

Previously here I've spoken about my student loans and the length of time that I will be paying them for and recently I decided to try something else to get them paid off just a little bit earlier. Blatant eBegging.

That's right, I am now soliciting funds and other help from the kind people online in the hopes that with their help, I can pay off my loans in less than the current 16 year time frame, and as part of it, I've updated the Current Debt image you see on the right of this blog and below. Now, it updates daily with my current debt load and takes you to my site related to this: brendansstudentloans.com. Check it out. Tell your friends. Donate.

Owned by 70-340

Out of a 1000 points, with 700 required for passing... I scored a meager 520.

The worst part... is that I know exactly what questions I got wrong. Most of those I missed were of the ‘select the best solution’ style when the question has choices such as:

You are a software developer for your company. You are building an application to add two numbers together to reach 20, which is the best way to do so?

1. 5*4


2. 10*2


3. pi/r^2


4. 10+10

Yes, this is an overly simplified version, however somewhat accurate to some of the questions where most or all answers were correct, the trick, was knowing exactly which was best and why.

Oh well... live and learn. Over the weekend I will expand my studying and retake this test in a week or two. Grumble grumble.

70-340: T-11 hours

After 6 weeks of studying, tomorrow at 9am I am going in to take exam 70-340, my 2nd to last test before achieving an MCSD.NET.

I must admit, this is the first test I’ve had any kind of... concern before hand. While I think I will pass. I have learned a lot during my course of study, things that I will be using later, and things that are still new enough too me that I am afraid I will confuse them when I’m at the test center tomorrow.

Also worth note: I am putting a bit of a rush on getting this test banged out so that I have a bit of time to study and attempt 70-300 before the end of February for review time.

Projects, Ideas and Fatigue

Over the weekend I was building an HTML front end to an ASP.NET application I’ve been pondering for quite some time. Never being very good at web design (the front end aspect of it at least) it was taking even longer than one would expect, of course, that’s not a bad thing given that like any project I believe in... or at least want to get done, I can be quite obsessive and spend the time and attention needed to get it done.

I had planned to go to bed around 10, but I didn’t.

Come around 10:30 I noticed that my eyes were having a hard time focusing on the screen.

At 11 I gave up and decided it was time for bed, the rest of the work would have to wait until the following day after work.

Unfortunately... sleep did not come as easily as I would have liked. For well over 90 minutes I tossed and turned... my mind racing with other ideas and enhancements for this project.

Always nice to intend to go to bed at 10, actually have your head hit the pillow at 11, not fall asleep until 1:30 and have to be up at 6am.

I expect this is only going to get worse until I finish this thing and have it go live to the world... something I think I may be able to get done within a week or two.