70-300 is the one where experience counts the most, IMO. Yes you can study for it, but back when I took it there were no study guides. I took it anyway, and it was the easiest MS exam I took. If you have been a tech lead for a year or so, and are relatively current on the basics of software development, you should do fine.

I agree with Darrell. Experience and common sense will be your greatest assets on the 70-300 exam. The Transcender is probably the best prep material out there; don't waste your time with the MSPress stuff.

Most of the study guides I looked at (including the ones from MS) were very focused on the MSF methodology -- which is good stuff to know, but not really covered that much on the tests. The study guides make it seem like the exam's all about MSF, but it's not. If you know the basic principles of software lifecycle management, you'll be fine.

The Transcender exam is good because it gets you familiar with the "case study" question format. Get used to reading through a large amount of information (some of it relevant, some of it not) and being able to pick out requirements and critical infobits from the case studies. Once you've identified the requirements as presented in the case study, it's up to you to apply your experience and general architectural sensibilities to determine the right solution based upon the scenario presented.

Personally, I found the 70-300 exam to be (by far) the easiest of all the MCSD.NET exams. It's really more of an exercise in reading comprehension than anything else.

The recipe is:
experience, reading comprehension, ER modelling with a little bit of ORM, some UML, knowing a little of the MSF bits (not so much, know well at least the first chapter from the MS book; there is a whole exam for it if you want to become an MSF Practitioner) and experience...

What? I said experience two times... Yes you need more experience than anything else

Books that covered topics about this exam apart from official MS related books?

I agree completely with the experience comments. Its really just a reading comprehension test, with the subject matter being technology-related scenarios. Just make sure to take your time on the exam. I would advise you to not bother studying - its probably not necessary, if you've been doing this stuff for a while. I didn't study, and I had no problem passing.

I'm looking to take this one soon. I'm trying to combine it with some Object Oriented Analyis & Design studies (!MS)
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I've been a developer for years, but in a new leadership position - I find it timely to put some focus on analysis, design, modeling... Seems like I'll be tasking out development work more that doing it first hand.

Hopefully, going after this exam will keep me focused. Glad to hear experience counts.

I only have a few years of experience in the software industry, and I don't write product code. I managed to pass the required exams and the SQL exam (70-229). Let's see if I pass 70-300 with my little experience..

hi,
if some one have a latest dump of 70-300, please email me @ rshakadi@yahoo.com

thanks
raj