I recently passed Exam 70-480. Despite the lack of official study material and information regarding what was on the exam, I passed the exam. I am going to share what I did to study for the exam and list some tips so that you may have an easier time studying for this exam.

What’s on 70-480:

This exam primarily deals with web programming in JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3. Much of the exam is focused on implementing HTML5 API’s such as Geolocation, Local Storage, and the Canvas.

A list of skills measured can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/exam-70-480.aspx#skills

I found that the exam closely tracks the list of skills measured. I’ve taken a number of non-Microsoft exams and 70-480 is very straightforward. Most of the questions consist of a block of code and you need to select the proper code block to answer the question. You will need to read the question carefully and know the material, but there are no tricks.

Here’s the list of Microsoft Exam Question Types:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/certification-exams.aspx#item-ID0EDAAAAACA-label

Most of the questions I ran into were multiple choice, repeated answer, and case studies.

My Study Guide for Passing the Exam:

I started learning web development in 2001, have been a professional web developer for over six years, and I’ve been tracking the technologies in this exam for several years. These are the things I did to study for the exam:

1. I watched the 70-480 Jump Start Videos on the Microsoft Virtual Academy:

   http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/learn-html5-with-javascript-css3-jumpstart-training#fbid=_zEjOXFTvMD

2. I read this book:

   Training Guide: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3

3. I went through each of the skills measured and made a code demo for each feature. I used a combination of local websites and jsfiddle.net This was the most useful of the three exercises. The best way to prep for this exam is to research and practice the exam objectives. You can not pass this test on concepts alone, you have to actually code.

Exam Tips:

1. Read the questions very carefully. Many of the questions are very specific and the correct solution hinges on the wording of the question.
2. Practice the exam objectives. All of the questions on the exam involved reasoning around code. You need to know how to actually write the code in order to pass this exam. This is not a purely conceptual exam.
3. The Mozilla Developer Network is a great reference for HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. I used it constantly while preparing for the exam.

Written by Dustin Ewers who lives and works in Southern Wisconsin. GitHub | Twitter | LinkedIn