Rating: 
Summary: A Comprehensive Read; for exam and otherwise
Review: Amit Kalani's "Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Visual C# .NET and the .NET Framework" is a comprehensive overview of XML web services, windows services, .NET remoting and component services. I especially liked how this book walks you step by step through the development process and it's review breaks (section summaries). The exercises are good brain-teasers I also found this book useful in development scenarios too when you need a handbook to go through the forgotten basics or how did you do it last time. I definitely recommend this book and yes, it helped me in passing the exam too.
Rating:
Summary: Makes difficult material understandable
Review: Do NOT read this book until you've mastered the 70-315 and 70-316 material: then READ IT, MAYBE TWICE.The 70-320 tests "web services and server components." This book gives the reader some pre-requisites, but correctly puts them in the appendix. You really should understand databases (ADO.NET) and the internet (ASP.NET) before mastering the 70-320 material. Like the other Que MCSD/MCAD training guides, the 70-320 gives the material in an explanation and hands-on format. Do the step by steps and exercises. I can't stress this enough. Read it, make the code work, and then read it again. Once again, Amit Kalani hands us a well-written book. I am particularly fond of the Exam Tip side boxes and review breaks. This material reflects our new paradigm, and as such it's slower going than Windows and the internet. Consider that unless you are a DCOM or CORBA programmer, "remoting" is going to be new to you. Since managed code is a .NET concept, calling unmanaged code requires learning a lot of new rules. Pay particular attention to chapter 11's Security Issues, a topic worthy of its own 40 hour class. The Que training guides are an excellent resource, and the 70-320 is highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Makes difficult material understandable
Review: Do NOT read this book until you've mastered the 70-315 and 70-316 material: then READ IT, MAYBE TWICE. The 70-320 tests "web services and server components." This book gives the reader some pre-requisites, but correctly puts them in the appendix. You really should understand databases (ADO.NET) and the internet (ASP.NET) before mastering the 70-320 material. Like the other Que MCSD/MCAD training guides, the 70-320 gives the material in an explanation and hands-on format. Do the step by steps and exercises. I can't stress this enough. Read it, make the code work, and then read it again. Once again, Amit Kalani hands us a well-written book. I am particularly fond of the Exam Tip side boxes and review breaks. This material reflects our new paradigm, and as such it's slower going than Windows and the internet. Consider that unless you are a DCOM or CORBA programmer, "remoting" is going to be new to you. Since managed code is a .NET concept, calling unmanaged code requires learning a lot of new rules. Pay particular attention to chapter 11's Security Issues, a topic worthy of its own 40 hour class. The Que training guides are an excellent resource, and the 70-320 is highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great book overall - highly recommend for passing the exam!
Review: Great book! I passed the 70-320 exam this morning and used this book as my only resource. My only complaint is that the book's end of chapter questions and practice exam questions are easier than the actual exam questions; then again, the book's questions test your knowledge of the material while the exam tests more than that (the Microsoft way) . Other than that, the writing style and content are great! The authors do a great job balancing exam objectives, background information, concrete examples and coding exercises. This one is as good if not better Amit's book I used to pass the 70-315 exam. I'll definitely be looking for books written by the Kalanis when studying for future exams. Thanks Amit and Priti!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book, exercises and samples alone worth the price
Review: I am a recent MCAD and this as well as the other two MCAD/C# books that are part of this series were an invaluable resource in my learning. The CD that comes with the book has all the source code and project files used throughout the book and all the ones I experiemented with worked beautifully. Hands down one of the best certification books I've ever used.
Rating: 
Summary: Too verbose
Review: I am surprised by the reviews for this book. The MCAD 70-320 study guide by Kalani has overwhelmingly good reviews so I bought it initially instead of the MS Press book. True, Kalani's book was more verbose but that is where it bogged down. Everything had an exercise and trying to review a layout of features is difficult. This book would be good for someone who was starting from scratch and did not know the subject material at all. But I think that would be better served by getting a full book on the topic rather than try to piece together "just what you need to know" from this book and these exercises.
I learn the material from daily work and from MSDN walkthroughs and subject material from full books on the topic. Then I have used the MS Press books to review, backing them up with MSDN. I like the MS Press books better at that point because they are more like an elaborated outline. I can get all of the material and then hit MSDN as needed. Then I use Measureup.com over the last six weeks before the test to evaluate myself (I don't use the included tests in either book).
Rating:
Summary: I pass the exam....
Review: I pass the exam with 862, while the passing score is 700. So, i am comparing the exam with this book... This is not a beginner exam, it requires heaps of knowledge from outside world. This books can't cover everything included in the exam, so, take it as a supplmentary Sections which are excellent and help my exam
XML format
COM+
Windows Service
.Net remoting Section which you should read from outside and not rely on this book
ADO.NET, borrow a book, I read WROX ado.net programmer reference, foucus on relationship and constraints
XML.
Web services, particularly of the situation in using client certificates (the exam won;t ask u the code, but ask u the usage) and using soap headers
Using Windows API, search MSDN and read examples
Versioning of Remote object, COM+ and the stuff in the book And finally, read the syllabus from microsoft, they ask some hardcore questions on some topics
Rating:
Summary: Intermediate
Review: I passed the 70-320 with a score of 1024.
As one of the reviews state, the exam tests skills which are broader in scope and all of those are not (cannot be) covered in the book.
I had the advantage of real world experience and I supplemented my knowledge with microsoft help, msdn articles and used MS press for Advanced Web services.
But I would recommend this book definitely to start preparing for the exam as it explains the points clearly and gives a good launching pad for further studies and even if you dont, you still have a good chance of passing the exam.
I would like to praise the author on his excellent presentation of the COM+ services and Interop.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not great and not essential for exam prep
Review: I used this and the exam cram to pass the exam with a 964. While I found this book an excellent resource and read it cover to cover before going on to the exam cram book, I feel you could pass the exam with just the exam cram. I am still happy to have the book because it will be a good resource for real-world development in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not great and not essential for exam prep
Review: I used this and the exam cram to pass the exam with a 964. While I found this book an excellent resource and read it cover to cover before going on to the exam cram book, I feel you could pass the exam with just the exam cram. I am still happy to have the book because it will be a good resource for real-world development in the future.
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