I’m currently studying for the Beta exam of Silverlight 4. So I thought, why not share what resources I’m using.

To start with one should be familiar with Silverlight of course, but refreshing some of the topics that haven’t be touched that often is always good. This is by far not the definitive learning guide for the exam, but it’s a start. If you know articles that should be in either one of the categories please let me know.

What Skills are being Measured?

You can start on the Microsoft Learning site first: Exam 70-506: TS: Silverlight 4, Development.

The are 7 main categories of topics that are measured (not sure what the last 1% is).

Laying Out a User Interface (15%)

Enhancing the User Interface (14%)

Implementing Application Logic (16%)

Working with Data (17%)

Interacting with a Host Platform (11%)

Structuring Applications (13%)

Deploying Applications (13%)

Structuring Applications

Create and consume resource dictionaries.

Utilizing sample data: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff602279(VS.95).aspx
Select resources: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc903952(v=VS.95).aspx#referencing_resources_from_xaml
Merge resource dictionaries: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc903952(v=VS.95).aspx#merged_resource_dictionaries

Implement localization and globalization.

Translating strings: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd882554(v=VS.95).aspx
Configuring right-to-left and FlowDirection: http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2009/11/18/whats-new-in-silverlight-4-complete-guide-new-features.aspx#bidi-rtl http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/all/bidi-right-to-left/

Handle application-level events.

Application Exit Event: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.application.exit(VS.95).aspx
Application Startup Event: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.application.startup(VS.95).aspx
Application UnhandledException Event: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.application.unhandledexception(VS.95).aspx