I just passed my 70-573 exam today and would like to Share my experience on learning SharePoint 2010 as a beginner.
1. Book
Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Building Solutions for SharePoint 2010 by Sahil Malik
http://apress.com/book/view/1430228652
Sahil is an expert and MVP in SharePoint 2010.He certainly know his field and the book is well written. More importantly Sahil has got very good sense of humor in delivering the knowledge.
2.A development machine
It is of great importance to have a dev machine , you cannot learn a new technology by just reading a book nor by watching some training videos. You need get your hands dirty with SharePoint a lot.
3.Training videos
Since I have one year subscription with learndev , I use them as my learning resources. It is quite cheap , only cost US $99 for a year subscription and you will get not only the SharePoint training but the whole training library .The videos are from Appdev . Appdev training is of high quality.
http://www.appdev.com/
http://www.learndevnow.com/
You can also get the videos from Microsoft SharePoint site. They are pretty good too. But bear in mind , by just watching these videos you will not learn much , you need to build a SharePoint 2010 machine and play with it .Try to write the sample code yourself and not just copy and paste.
4. Write blogs about your learning. This will motive you in your long journey with SharePoint learning.
5. Do check out the patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance on codeplex.
http://spg.codeplex.com/
6.Thanks for Becky Bertram,who kindly put up all the exam requirements with links to MSDN
http://blog.beckybertram.com/Lists/Exam%2070573%20Study%20Guide/AllItems.aspx