70-536 and everything after...

I'm writing this at work...feeling good...work's under control, my headphones are on...TMS...1st day of the 1st test, Lord's - England Vs India - England are batting, 225/2. Geoff Boycott's laying into Andrew Strauss, who has just fallen. I love Geoffrey Boycott...

OK. Now for the science bit (courtesy of MSDN):

The following list includes the topic areas covered on this exam. The percentage indicates the portion of the exam that addresses a particular skill.
•
Developing applications that use system types and collections (15 percent)
•
Implementing service processes, threading, and application domains in a .NET Framework application (11 percent)
•
Embedding configuration, diagnostic, management, and installation features into a .NET Framework application (14 percent)
•
Implementing serialization and input/output functionality in a .NET Framework application (18 percent)
•
Improving the security of the .NET Framework applications by using the .NET Framework 2.0 security features (20 percent)
•
Implementing interoperability, reflection, and mailing functionality in a .NET Framework application (11 percent)
•
Implementing globalization, drawing, and text manipulation functionality in a .NET Framework application (11 percent)

This is pretty clear, and I'll use the attached percentages to divvy up my effort. So based on a (maximum of) 2 months to cover this syllabus, I'll...well...you can do the maths yourself.

Also I've ordered a few books:

http://amazon.co.uk/o/ASIN/0735622779/ref=s9_asin_image_3-2259_g1/202-8371832-7578263?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=12BJF7MXNZ4C67NYW1KR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=139042191&pf_rd_i=468294
http://amazon.co.uk/o/ASIN/0764578472/ref=s9_asin_image_1-2259_g1/202-8371832-7578263?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1WP63H8EZH83BTCGGFYE&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=139042191&pf_rd_i=468294
http://amazon.co.uk/o/ASIN/1590595890/ref=s9_asin_image_1-2259_g1/202-8371832-7578263?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=07KEWJYGJB8HXWN2G908&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=139046091&pf_rd_i=468294

The first one is the recommended MS Press text, which has got pretty good write-ups. The other two are deliberately not from the Microsoft List - my team leader, Ben, sensibly suggested that getting a non-Microsoft view of their technology often reveals things which you wouldn't get from the party mouthpiece.