I just wanted to share that I took the Advanced Force.com Developer exam and passed the first part of the test which is the multiple choice 69 question exam. The exam test your knowledge on advanced topics covering triggers, execution context, visual force pages, standard and custom controllers, running unit test, development lifecycle, data migration tools among others.

You really need to know these topics in detail and the amount of materials to study is quite a lot too. I suggest about 1-2 months to prepare for the exam.

Below are the links to the docs and guides you need read from start to finish.
1. Get the Study Guide to know the full coverage of topics for the exam
2. Download and do the tutorial for Apex Workbook to start
3. Next go over the tutorial Visualforce workbook
4. The two tutorials above should get you started. Next is download the detailed document guide Apex Code Developer’s Guide and the Visualforce Developer’s guide. Its kinda long and requires patience to finish.
5. Also covered is using the Force.com Migration Tool
6. Development Lifecycle
7. Metadata API Guide
8. Apex CheatSheet
9. And another valuable resource Study Notes
10. And ofcourse use flashcards go to StudyBlue.com

That was the resource I used to pass the first part of the exam. I’m just waiting for the programming assignment.