Rating: 
Summary: An adequate alternative to pricy test kits and classes
Review: I bought this book together with the self-study guide for 30-316 (Developing Windows Applications with .NET). I had already passed exam 70-316 before starting to prepare for 70-315. I liked this book better than 316 because it has more chapters and fewer lessons per chapter. Since there is one lab per chapter, I got to do labs more often and practice a smaller set of skills at a time.The chapters on XSLT and web security were quite digestible. The lessons on custom controls however, were a bit tough especially because I could not get the correct results in the lab. I rank ADO.NET as a special skill, judging by the thorough way that it is tested in exams. You cannot expect great coverage of ADO.NET in a book that is not primarily dedicated to the topic. And even though this book does not provide that kind of coverage it does explain the ubiquitous DataGrid and DataList controls and gives a good picture of how to do data binding. I found it necessary to review the ADO.NET material in the 70-316 book as well. The quality of the remaining topics is satisfactory. I would say that the practice test was quite adequate. I might have thought otherwise if I had not got a score of 70 and 84 percent the two times that I took it. I did not like the fact that you cannot pause the test, something that the 70-316 practice test lets you do. I found the exam quite challenging because a lot of the questions tested the key aspects of a professional website such as security, performance, scalability, migration, etc. So be sure to review forms authentification, stored procedures, caching, web farms and gardens and working with legacy ADO pages. And above all - practice on your own!
Rating: 
Summary: NOT A BEGINNERS BOOK! MUST KNOW LANGUAGE BEFORE-HAND!
Review: I can tell from reading the first few chapters of this book that the author assumes you know somewhat about ASP and concept of OO programming as well as the intrinsic and functional objects ASP has to offer. YOU MUST KNOW EITHER VB.NET OR C# TO READ THIS BOOK! I have been developing in C# for over a year now and I can tell you that there are concepts in the book that you will not be able to understand unless you know either VB.net or C#. I also noticed how there was a discussion about server control events and an example of an Event Handler procedure/method but the author failed to discuss how you need to add a new EventHandler object to the server control's event handler property in order for the example to work. For example, on page66 there is a code example of an event handler procedure for a button (Button1_Click) but no mention of the event handler being defined like this (for C#): Button1.ClickEvent += new System.EventHandler(this.Button1_Click); If you don't add this code to the example you the event will NOT be raised and the example will fail when run! So, LEARN, LEARN, LEARN either VB.NET or C# WELL before reading this book! Other than the assumptions the author makes about the reader's understaning of the underlying languages and ASP I thought it was a pretty good book to prep for MCAD exam for! Good luck to all on the exam!
Rating: 
Summary: A real disappointment
Review: I expect more from Microsoft. Perhaps I shouldn't but I do. Besides the ever present grammatical mistakes, there are a plethora of logic errors which make it impossible for a beginner to learn. Also, some key topics are used before they are discussed in the text. Try another book
Rating: 
Summary: Full of errors and does not teach anything
Review: I found the book poorly written and confusing. I found significant coding errors that a novice would find very frustrating. If you are new to .NET, I believe this book will do more to confuse you than teach you. If you are preparing for the exam, many of the exam objectives are not adequately covered. I expect the exam to have in-depth questions about DataSets, Server Controls and ASP.NET web site design scenarios. All you get is error-prone code examples and one or two generic overview. I highly suggest bypassing this book and look for alternative means to studying the exam objectives.
Rating:
Summary: Passed 70-315 with this book!
Review: I had about 6+ months of experience with .NET, mostly with ASP .NET and I also used the All-in-one MCSD C# book by Osborne. The most valuable tool from this kit is the sample test included with it. Be aware that the test will only give you a score, it won't tell you whether you passed or failed and it won't tell you the right answers (although I've seen the password for the database in the MCAD MS newsgroup). There are some very basic sections in this book and some are somewhat irrelevant for the test. For instance the chapter on working with multimedia. There are also some test objectives that are vaguely covered, for instance using Platform invoke. On the other hand there are some chapters that go into a lot of detail, I specially like the depth they go into creating custom controls libraries. It is true this book may not enough to pass the test, don't rely on it as your only source, especially if you have no previous experience with .NET. This is not a typical exam cram book. I would've like exam tips, or highlighting critical concepts for the test, as well as a quick review guide per chapter. The approach taken in this book is to prepare you for the test by doing. There are very valuable examples in this book as well as in the labs. If you have little to none experience with .NET, doing as many of these examples is critical for preparation for the test. Consequently this is a more long-term preparation book. What I found really annoying from this book is the incredible amount of typos/mistakes in it. Some are minor typos, but others can be very misleading. For instance page 319 mentions a SaveXML method of a DataSet, there's no such thing, it should read WriteXML. Page 548 the line of code 'return null' should read 'return ""', it's even written in a comment above it. Page 295 "To turn tracing on ... set ... Trace property to False", should read "To turn tracing off". I strongly recommend reading the MSDN documentation for relevant topics, there's a very good compilation of links per objective, which you can find at codeclinic.com.
Rating:
Summary: Good Introduction material but not enough
Review: I just passed the exam 70-315 C# version. The material I used are this book, MSDN on line help on some special topics and transcender practice kit. The transcender kit is very help in preparing for the exam after you completed reading this book and MSDN online helps. The coverage on ADO.Net is very basic, I passed 70-316 a few month ago. The coverage for ADO.Net is almost the same.
Rating:
Summary: Good overview but you'll need more to pass
Review: I just took and passed the Windows version of this test. A big problem for me was that not everything on the test was very well documented online (IMHO) and the study materials weren't available yet. This book does seem to cover most of the objectives of what I know will be on the Web version of the test but you will also need to go through the online reference material, especially the walkthroughs and .Net framework BCL, to get more details and a good feel for the subject. This is usually the case with study materials. You can't expect any one book to be comprehensive (even if they say so)- you need to consult many sources and give yourself a few months to practice and get a feel for the material. The most you can hope for is an overview of what will be on the test. I've passed about 10 different Microsoft tests (I'm an MCSD) so my opinions about this should be considered even if you don't agree with them. The practice test on the CD has very good questions but doesn't tell you which ones you get right or wrong, which was a pain for me. One thing I like about this book is all the practice labs. I find it more useful to learn by doing than by reading. Much of the Windows test was just common sense so I think if you use this book, go to the online docs for more details and walkthroughs, then read each question very very carefully and use common sense you should be able to pass this test also. No this book is not for beginners (there are plenty of good books and online material for beginners). Why would a certification book be targeted at beginners? All in all, I'm glad I got this book and I do recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Check the system requirements before buying
Review: I purchased the book but had to return it because the system requirements for the accompaning software would have required me to purchase a new computer. The book is worthless without the software. Since I am unemployed, purchasing a 450 MegHz, Pentium 4 running on Win2000 or Xp Pro, and having a DVD Rom drive was out of the question.
Rating:
Summary: Buy the Amit Kalani (Que) book instead
Review: I purchased the first edition of this book--which is twice as big as the one currently in the bookstore (2nd edition). I was very disappointed with the first. As I browsed the 2nd edition in the bookstore, my faith in the MSPress series was not restored. Bottom line: buy the Amit Kalani book from Que instead. That is tremendously better. I think it is the best book for studying the material on the test. Also, don't forget to get the Trancender exams and flash cards. They too are also very helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Buy the Amit Kalani (Que) book instead
Review: I purchased the first edition of this book--which is twice as big as the one currently in the bookstore (2nd edition). I was very disappointed with the first. As I browsed the 2nd edition in the bookstore, my faith in the MSPress series was not restored. Bottom line: buy the Amit Kalani book from Que instead. That is tremendously better. I think it is the best book for studying the material on the test. Also, don't forget to get the Trancender exams and flash cards. They too are also very helpful.
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