Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely irrelevant to the exam
Review: Fortunately I knew somebody who attempted to pass the exam with this book before my attempt (I had already read the entire thing though). He failed miserably. I'm sure the book has some good content but it takes a very long time to get to the point. If structured better this 1000 page book would have been about 100 pages. None of the information int he book is relevant to the exam. I bought transcender immediately and passed with a mark exceeding 900 (can't remember exact mark). Am now an MCSD.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely irrelevant to the exam
Review: Fortunately I knew somebody who attempted to pass the exam with this book before my attempt (I had already read the entire thing though). He failed miserably. I'm sure the book has some good content but it takes a very long time to get to the point. If structured better this 1000 page book would have been about 100 pages. None of the information int he book is relevant to the exam. I bought transcender immediately and passed with a mark exceeding 900 (can't remember exact mark). Am now an MCSD.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT what you'd think
Review: i am annoyed that i read this book. 650+ pages of well-written, interesting (for the most part) but NON-APPLICABLE information. i don't think anything mentioned in the book was on the test. i had a pretty strict deadline for passing the test and really wish i would have spent my valuable hours on something else.i did use the Transcender tests and they were good for getting the hang of what the questions wanted, although the pass/fail mark seemed a little high at 85%. after i was scheduled for the test i found out about these people troytec.com, they are probably worth a look if you are actually looking for test prep material. i highly discourage you from reading this book if what you want is something that will help you pass the test. it did offer good info on team-building and team/enterprise projects but since the test i got had nothing to do with that, it was not good study material.
Rating:
Summary: Good Information. Bad Preparation.
Review: I can definately say there is a lot of good information in this book. If you want an high level understanding of Microsoft Technologies, this is the book for you....BUT, if you want to pass the Microsoft exam (70-100), try Transcender.com. This is common theme that you will notice for the Microsoft Press Materials. Good Material... Bad Test Preparation. After receiving and reviewing the transcender material, I immediately passed the exam. The exam test whether you know how to structure databases (fields and tables), if you understanding event sequences, etc....which is not covered in this Microsoft Press Book. After reading this book and failing my first try at the exam, I was a little disappointed, so I called Microsoft. They suggested that I "use some of the Third Party Materials"... Good Luck.
Rating:
Summary: Not an Exam Prep
Review: I found this book to be interesting, informative and reasonably well written - but *not* an exam prep! I am not sorry for having read the book, I learned a lot (especially about MSF), but it was of absolutely no help on the test. I took (and passed) 70-100 a few hours ago. The exam's format is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I passed because (1) I work with databases and MS technology (2) I spent two weeks using Transcender to prepare me for the unique test format. Microsoft has done a good job making the test as "real world" as possible. The knowledge being tested is too broad to fit in a cram book. Know your databases. Know your Microsoft products. Know your business processes. Get Transcender. Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: Exam 70-100
Review: I have not bought this book, so your probably wondering why I am writing this. I just thought I would say though, I bought the Transcender test for this exam and studied hard for about 3 weeks. I failed the MS test with a score of 610. The exam I took was very, very tough. My advice to anyone who is going to take this exam would probably be to buy this book also, I passed both VB exams with the VB books and VB Transcenders. The Transcender for this exam is not right on the money like it is for the VB exams.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book, but beware
Review: I have to somewhat disagree with some of the other reviews of this book. This book has most of the information required in the test, unfortunately I come from the perspective of someone who already has a degree in Computer Science, so it is possible that I had much of the knowledge not covered in the book. It is a very good book on the MSF (Microsoft Solutions Framework), but I must issue one exam caution. The coverage of the User Interface portion of the exam is extremely light. You should consult the MSDN libraries for this information. If you are looking for test preperation software, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES use the self test software that Microsoft reccommends. It is horrible. Use the Transcender software. Good book, but light coverage of user interface chapter may leave you shaking your head after the exam is over.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have For the 70-100 Exam
Review: I just passed the 70-100 Exam earlier today by a wide margin, and the only material I used was this book, MSDN, and Transcender. The Transcender didn't teach any material, though. I only used it to find where some of my weaker points of knowledge were and to get used to the exam layout (which is quite a bit different than just a multiple choice exam). I realize that MSF is a bit dry, so don't expect to read the entire book over a weekend. If you do, I doubt you'll retain all of it. I reread parts of the book before taking the exam to really make sure I had some of the technical things down. If you don't have a background with designing databases (or at least studying database concepts), this book probably won't help you, and personally I don't think you have any business taking this exam. After all, passing means you are a "Microsoft Certified Professional" and that you understand "Defining Solution Architectures". If you're planning on passing this exam just to "break in" to programming or computers, adjust your plans. Take a low paying job that introduces you to computer programming through experience. Don't bother wasting your time to get the cert, especially when a lot of places look for experience to go with it. For those of you out there with a good understanding of databases and Microsoft products from an overview level, this exam will be simple (as it should be for those who are qualified). I recommend using this book as a good study guide to make sure you're ready to go when exam day comes.
Rating:
Summary: Book good for the theory included, but not to take the exam
Review: I tried to take the 70-100 examination using the information contained in this book, and one transcender test. I have many years experience in Microsoft Programming, so it shouldn't have been for me a problem to take this examination. So, I examined the material contained in the book thouroughly several times, I get to the examination,... and I failed far enough, with 100 points under the minimum passing score. I analysed the result and I reached the conclusion that this book is not proper for taking this examination. The information contained in this book counted I think 20 % of the goal of the examination. There are hundred of pages related to MSF, I think more than half a book, but during the examination I received not a question related to MSF process, but only several study cases that were pure technical, not related to the process actually. So, this book I appreciate is good for managers, Project Managers, some Senior Programmers, but not good enough for people trying to pass this examination. The study cases presented in this book were more pictural than technical. The dialogues and feelings presented have nothing to do with the real experience a programmer should have to pass this examination. So either you have enough work experience to pass this examination, or better to bend more on study cases books to pass. Anyway many questions in the examination are not very well conceived, and even having experience is hard to know what the authors of the test meant when they wrote this question, but if you don't practice enough study cases, probably first iteration of this exam will be a failure.
Rating:
Summary: Well written book, but does not prepare you for the exam
Review: I wished I had listened to the other reviewers before buying this book. In the books defense, it is very well written, has good examples, and cites plenty of sources if you want to read further. The bad part, I read the first half of this book and the information had only the most remote connnection to the real exam. You should know, in fairness, that I gave up at this point and didn't read the rest of the book. It did look like the remainder of the book was more relevent to the exam, but I was too frustrated by that time. I relied on Transcenders heavily to prepare me for this exam and did OK (I failed the first attempt by a small margin - 1%). My advice: If you are getting your MCSD to go into distributed application development using MSF, it would be a good read. If you are not, find another tool. This review was written 8/26/00. I can be reached at MGrosso@bwn.net if anyone has any further questions.
| 
