Eric Maino

We have a small MCSD study group here in the Twin Cities. It is just a bunch a friends who get together to study for the tests. We have 7 participants, although it has really gotten down to 3 or 4 hard-core participants. So this may not work the same way for you, if you are able to get together a much larger crowd.

First, all have the same set of books we are reading. (I think they are the Microsoft Press set of books for the .NET MCSD.) We meet weekly for two hours, and assign a few chapters per week. Then, we get together and discuss the chapters, and questions we may have about the material. Sometimes we do the labs together, if that will help to draw out questions.

When we are done with a book, we start taking practice tests and sharing information with each other on the areas we are still trying to understand.

Problems we are having: the books we have aren't that complete. We got them on Bookpool for a deal, but there is a lot of material that isn't covered. The Transcenders continue to be an excellent gauge of how we will do on the actual tests. When we get to the practice tests, we read the sections in the MSDN documentation where we are having trouble.

Anyway, I hope that helps a little. Good luck.