How to Prepare and Pass Microsoft 70-480 certification Exam

[caption id="attachment_1454" align="alignleft" width="260"] 70-480 Microsoft exam[/caption]

Hey guys, welcome again on my personal how to tutorials. Today I am going to help you  all  to prepare and pass the Microsoft's 70-480 Certification Exam based on my experience with the exam. 70-480 Exam is based on programming HTML5 with Javascript and CSS3.I passed this exam today so I am writing this article for the help for future candidates to make their task easy. This article will include syllabus, reference and important topics to study for exam. Overall exam will be easy for those who are familiar with web technologies (Html (4), Javascript and normal css).

So let's start talking about 70-480 Exam now.....

First things first why Microsoft Certification?

More Probability to get hired by companies....

=>Eighty-six percent of hiring managers indicate IT certifications are a high or medium priority during the candidate evaluation process. (CompTIA, Employer Perceptions of IT Training and Certification).

=>Eight in ten HR execs verify certifications among job candidates. (CompTIA, Employer Perceptions of IT Training and Certification)

=>Ninety-one percent of hiring managers consider certification as part of their hiring criteria. (Microsoft, Microsoft Certification Program Satisfaction Study)

=>Sixty-four percent of IT hiring managers rate certifications as having extremely high or high value in validating the skills and expertise of job candidates. (CompTIA, Employer Perceptions of IT Training and Certification)

=>In a survey of 700 IT networking professionals, 60 percent said certification led to a new job.

=>Training and certification will play essential roles in preparing IT professionals for the evolving IT org. (IDC/Microsoft, Climate Change: Cloud's Impact on IT Organizations and Staffing).

Others.....

=>When you pass a Microsoft Certification exam, you become a member of the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) community with access to all of the benefits provided through the Microsoft Certification Program. You can use your Microsoft account to access the MCP member sites, where you’ll find lots of ways to keep your skills relevant, applicable, and competitive.

=>Exams you pass and certifications you earn become part of your official transcript, which you can allow potential employers to access directly. A Microsoft Certification is an industry standard that is recognized worldwide and can help open doors to potential job opportunities.

Note-For Microsoft Student partners it is a mandatory activity to pass this exam.

How to schedule the Exam?

You can schedule the exam through Prometric at-register.prometric.com with fee $80 with specific time and center of your choice. It was free earlier using voucher-HTMLJMP while I registered for the exam and HTMLMPN for some time but those vouchers have been stopped working and now you have taken the exam with payment of $80 unless you are a Microsoft student Partner as they have received a free voucher for that exam from Microsoft.

What are the resources/Study material to jump start the preparation for the exam?

Now the important part- preparation. Basically Microsoft’s  70-480 is divided into three web technologies-HTML5, Javscript and CSS3.So let’s have a look at resources compiled by me.

1. HTML5

If you are new in web development then having a look at whole html5 w3schools tutorial series will be great option for you. Do the Html5 tags and html5 input  types very carefully due to their importance in the exam.

Other important parts of html5 are-Web storage, Web worker, Canvas, Svg, Geolocation, Media, Object, Audio, Video, Form elements and methods.

Prepare for Web Storage, Canvas, Svg, Geolocation, Media, Object, Audio, Video, Form elements from W3Schools HTML5 tutorials.

Prepare for Web worker from here-Basics of html5 web worker.

Prepare for Various Methods here-HTML/HTML5 methods.

If you are looking for a quick HTML5 tutorial then check out this-Learn HTML5 in 5 minutes.

 

2. CSS3

CSS (Cascaded Style Sheets) is relatively easy compared to html5 and Javascript.CSS3 also includes the topics of CSS2 and CSS1 but CSS3 properties are more important. Again for CSS3 a good reference is W3Schools-short, simple and Effective tutorials.

Check out various CSS properties here-CSS Properties (Do all the CSS3 properties very carefully due to their importance in exam.)

3. JavaScript

Now the most important and most difficult part of the exam. The javascript section will decide that you will pass Microsoft Certification or not. JavaScript Questions include part of JSON (javascript object notation), JQuery,Ajax and JavaScript. If you have worked with javascript earlier then this will not be that difficult but for beginners it may sound little complex.

Now for JavaScript I am not going to say W3Schools tutorials again as for javascript it includes some errors in their syntax. So for JavaScript preparation check out here- Microsoft JavaScript Tutorials-Fundamentals of JavaScript and Advanced JavaScript.

Some other Important Reference  for JavaScript Object(For Json and other js objects),Constants,properties,methods,operators,statements,directives ,errors and Reserve keywords check this out-JavaSript Doc Reference.

JavaScript Validation using regular expression.

Jquery Reference-Jquery Events, Ajax and Manipulation.

Now Preparing  them(HTML5,JavaScript and CSS3) together.

Video Tutorials…

=>Mcrosoft Virtual Academy: Developing in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 Jump Start.

=>Pluralsight - Hardcore Developer Training as they have a ton of good training material that will cover much of the scope of this exam. (Get 3 months free subscription using dreamspark key).

Ebooks…

=> Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript by Microsoft

=>The complete reference-HTML and CSS-Preview  version or buy full version through Amazon.

Books By Microsoft….

=>Training Guide: Programming In Html5 With Javascript And Css3
will be available on March 22 2013
=>Exam Ref 70-480: Programming In Html5 With Javascript And Css3
will be available on April 22.

 

Now My Exam Experience with Exam pattern, Questions Types and other Exam details…

 

=>There will be 39 questions in the Exam (in my case but I heard that sometime questions will be 40 also).

=>There will 3 types of questions in the Exam-1.Multiple choice questions with one or more correct answers, 2. Drag and Drop questions (Some code is left blank and you have to fill the blank space/spaces by drag and drop) and 3. Combobox questions (Where a combo box with 4 or more options will be given and you have to select the correct  option.

=>According to Microsoft Exam section is divided into 4 parts- 1. Implement and Manipulate Document Structures and Objects (24%) (Basically html5 tags and elements-Relatively easy), 2. Implement Program Flow (25%) (Basically programming with javascript using events, exceptions, operators, loops and statements-Moderate difficulty level .),3. Access and Secure Data (26%) (Basically Validating user input by using HTML5 elements. Security, consuming data and Serialize, Deserialize, and Transmit Data-difficult.) and 4. CSS3 in Applications (Basically all about CSS3-Moderate difficult).

=>Exam duration will be 2 hours so approx. 3 minutes per question.

=>Total Marks=1000 and passing Marks=700 and although nothing has specified about marking scheme and negative marking in the exam but i think there is some negative marking as i experienced after the Exam but i am not sure though but try to response for correct answers only to be on safe side.

=>You will get a hard copy of your score with section wise performance details and official certification will be given after some time.

Final Words-I tried to include all the resources which I referred during preparation and I hope these resources help you all to pass 70-480 with flying colors but remember try to implement resources practically for better understanding as exam 70-481 and 70-482 will be based on these concepts too. If you think that I have left out some important resources then please post them in comments and I will include those in the article.