Microsoft Exam 70-536 - Nitpicky test or bad study guide

[SomeGuyHere]

I'm studying for the Microsoft .NET 2.0 Application development foundation exam. I just finished the 1000 page study guide cover-2-cover doing all examples. My first try I failed the practice test that came w/ the book miserably with a 51. I took it again and got a 58. I'm going through all 302 questions right now and I am highly discouraged as to how most questions are terribly similar and figuring out the answer requires you remember whether a particular class is static or instance based.

I feel like I have a good grasp on concepts and am hoping that some of you guys who have taken this exam can tell me if this exam is that detail oriented. To pass this practice exam you need to have memorized all the type conversions from managed-unmanaged class types, know all classes as instance or static, memorize parameterizations of Implemented interfaces, and other highly nitpicky details. I don't feel like I'm learning to code by memorizing something that intellisense will throw at me the second I type it...

[r035198x]

I'm studying for the Microsoft .NET 2.0 Application development foundation exam. I just finished the 1000 page study guide cover-2-cover doing all examples. My first try I failed the practice test that came w/ the book miserably with a 51. I took it again and got a 58. I'm going through all 302 questions right now and I am highly discouraged as to how most questions are terribly similar and figuring out the answer requires you remember whether a particular class is static or instance based.

I feel like I have a good grasp on concepts and am hoping that some of you guys who have taken this exam can tell me if this exam is that detail oriented. To pass this practice exam you need to have memorized all the type conversions from managed-unmanaged class types, know all classes as instance or static, memorize parameterizations of Implemented interfaces, and other highly nitpicky details. I don't feel like I'm learning to code by memorizing something that intellisense will throw at me the second I type it...

The point of the exam is to test your knowledge of those things not your ability to search/find them from an IDE.

If they shouldn't ask you about things that intellisence will tell you then
they'd have nothing to ask at all.

For those exams, I'd suggest reading the language specification documents e.g(C# language specs)

[SomeGuyHere]

I almost didn't write the intellisense part because, as I suspected, posters often can't see the forest for the trees. I am looking for useful information that can assist me in passing the exam. I do not wish to argue abstract vs concrete.

I've read comments on amazon regarding the relevance of the practice exam and I am happy to report that the test takers have reported the practice exam questions as being entirely unused on the actual exam. Now I just need to find some good references for the material that actually is covered.

[SomeGuyHere]

Found a preparation guide for the test on Microsoft.com. All I've used to study is the MSDN site and the .NET Framework 2.0 Application Development Foundation book. I'm going through the book quickly a second time and I'll let you all know how I did so future test takers will know what to expect.

Prep guide: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-536.mspx