|  | Author: Tony Northrup
Publisher: Microsoft Press
List Price: $69.99
Buy New: $41.00
as of 11/23/2009 19:38 CST details
You Save: $28.99 (41%)
New (20) Used (14) from $39.99
Seller: Cameron1
Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 3277
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 2 Har/Cdr
Pages: 794
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.4 x 2.3
ISBN: 0735626197
Dewey Decimal Number: 005
EAN: 9780735626195
ASIN: 0735626197
Publication Date: November 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 24
 Training Kit Review August 17, 2009
learning newbie
this was recommended by an experienced Developer and it does contain lots of topics for review with sufficient lab exercises
Contains a lot of helpful material August 4, 2009
Ashley L. Sheppard (Philadelphia, PA USA)
I was waiting to review this until I took the exam. I just recently took it, and I passed. I do think that this book had something to do with it.
This book is a good place to start studying, read through it and at least answer all the questions and case studies. If you are a beginner, do the practices and labs as well, but I didn't find them necessary. Be careful, there were a few errors.
Many of the chapters are dry, but I didn't expect them not to be. It was slow going, but if you set a reading goal for the day, you'll get through it.
After finishing the book, take advantage of the practice questions it comes with, they were helpful. Supplement with some other practice tests, and maybe some video training, and you should be good to go!
 Pity theres no alternatives July 24, 2009
Donald Z
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'll start with the positives:
The book tries to cover an immense subject area in about 700 pages (the other 300 are the answers and the index). It covers everything from a general point of view which lets one discover areas of the .NET framework that they didn't necessarily know about - in my case I'm web focused so about half the book covered things I've never used. Overall, the book is adequate for the exam. There are few errors and they are minor enough to just gloss over.
Now the negatives and the reason for the 1 star:
To start, the book gets boring. Really quickly. Its not because the subject matter is boring, far from it. But the author manages to make it so especially chapters 9 through 12. As another reviewer said, one begins to daydream midway through a paragraph in some places.
Some of the chapters are badly organised. Example: Chapter 12 is 80 pages long, which is twice as long as a lot of the other chapters. One of the 3 lessons is 40 pages long which is as long as most chapters. Inside this lesson are three sections longer than most lessons. It would only follow that chapter 12 lessons SHOULD have been chapters and the sections within lessons.
Also, I found this book to be quite humorous (though unintentionaly). One of my favourite quotes: "For many years, I simply refused to learn regular
expressions. Regular expressions were the UNIX way of doing things, and I was a Windows guy". And this is the man trying to teach us? One that refuses to use an immensely powerful tool just coz they're a "Microsoft guy"? Close minded is one thing a teacher should be not.
Also, there are a lot of places where the author explains something really well including what its used for and why it should be used, but then in the second half of the book theres a lot of unexplained "why"'s left hanging in the air and a lot of "use it this way only" with no further explanations.
To sum up: the book is adequate to learn for the exam, however it is rife with bad advice and bad writing. Learn what you need from it and throw it away. After all, you will only buy it because you have to - just hope its your employer paying.
To pass and not to ace July 16, 2009
Aparajithan Vaidyanathan (sacramento, ca usa)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had a voucher for a free exam that was about to expire in a month. I had 3 weeks to prepare and pass this exam. Though I didn't feel confident at the beginning, the content of this book, the flow of information and ease of reading boosted my confidence to take the exam. The examples are straight-forward and the exercises are practical. Depending on someone's determination, this book can be read from page to page in 3 weeks.
The test is a whole new ball game. There were many questions that were not covered by this book. This book can be used as a tool to be familiar with the materials, to pass the exam and to apply the knowledge in day-to-day work. However, this is not a book if you want to ace the test with flying colors.
Overall, a good text book. I hardly noticed any issues that other Developers frequently point out.
Errors July 13, 2009
infocyde (Saline, MI)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The second edition may be better from the first, but I found an error on the review section in the first chapter. That doesn't give me a lot of confidence in the book. I'll go through it, but I'm going to have to double check everything in here. Microsoft needs to provide training materials that actually train you both to have adequate skills in the real world to succeed as well as past the test. I'm not sure this book does a great job of either, but it is one of the few resources available so we are stuck with it. Also put a freaken link to the errata section in an easily findable spot. If you *((^*% up your own book I at least want to find where an update is without having to hunt around the internet for it.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 24
|
|
|
