I've always really enjoyed getting Microsoft certifications. I know that the use of brain dumps devalues them in the eyes of many, and that in the developer world they are not really considered important by companies that aren't Microsoft partners. But I believe that the structure that they provide for learning is very valuable, even if you don’t end up taking the exam. If you use the “Skills Measured” section of the exams objectives as a study guide, you can get a very strong foundation in a technology pretty quickly. Most recently, I really wanted to up my game in web development in general and in SharePoint development more specifically. For this reason, I decided to go after both the MCSD Web Applications and MCSD SharePoint Applications certifications. To achieve both of these credentials you have to take a total of 5 exams. The base level exams for both certification are the 70-480, covering HTML5 and JavaScript, and the 70-486, which covers ASP.NET MVC and Web API development. As of writing this, I have completed these two and I am currently preparing for the 70-489 Developing Advanced Solutions. I took an in-person training at MAX Training in Mason, Ohio and thought it was highly beneficial. Not least of all because we received access to virtual labs for a period of 6 months via a web interface similar to what CloudShare offers for SharePoint development. So I am able to return to those labs and review as well as go deeper into some of the topics. I’m currently in the process of writing up a study guide, I have posted some of it on TechExams but I intend on posting the final result here as well as my study notes for the 70-488 Developing Core Solutions and the 70-486 focusing on Azure development. Once I've completed them, I will publish links to the study guides here.

Study Guides

70-480 - My Semi-complete study guide - MVA Jump Start

70-486 - Study Guide by Virok - MVA MVC Developing Jump Start - MVA Building Web Apps

70-489 - OneNote Notes -

70-488