Rating: 
Summary: Book Decent...CD VERY POOR !!!
Review: This "study guide" is more an overview of ASP.NET. It merely touches on the topics and does not go into much detail. Granted it does contain some useful information that you may not find in other books, but it does not prepare you for the test. Also, the CD is very poor; it does not allow you to choose the number of questions, nor does it provide you with the explanation for the correct answers. Study on your own for this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not enough
Review: This book covers all the topics that you will need for the exam, but I don't think that it will be enough to make you pass the exam.ADO.NET for example is only covered in Chapter 5 and not in great details.
The exam on the CD only contains 50 questions, and it's really REALLY annoying that you can not review your answers at the end! Here are the additional resources that will help you pass the exam
1- transcender exams -- am a big fan and their exams are usually harder than the real one. Moreover, you'll know exactly what to expect for the real exam after doing the transcender ones!
2- Wrox ASP.NET Professional covers some features such as ADO.NET in much more details that this MS Press book does, and you will need that for the exam So, in a few words, this book is good, and I would recommend it, but it is simply not enough to pass the exam Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: You'd better already know this stuff
Review: This book doesn't give a writer's credit, and if I were the writer I wouldn't mind, because it wouldn't be a feather in my cap. Since this book is "official" from Mount Olympus, you probably need it to get a good idea of what concepts will be tested. Other than that, though, it's not worth a lot. Microsoft should be ashamed of publishing this book. As you struggle through it, you'd better have other references or online doc at the ready to help you navigate through the unexplained terms, the incomplete tables, the inconsistent use of terms, the out-of-context code fragments, the persistent MPC (Microsoft Politically Correct) terminology, AND the completely wrong statements. Wow... It does have a pretty cover, though. That's why I gave it two stars instead of one. Mike
Rating:
Summary: It's Ok but you need more info
Review: This book is great to get the necessary info for the exam. Unfortunally, it's not enough. I'd recommend to combine it with Wrox's Professional C#, Wrox's Professional ASP.net and Microsoft Official Curriculum for ADO.net. Anyway, this book it's a must if you reallya are seroius about the exam.
Rating: 
Summary: Good For Nothing
Review: This book just covers the basics of all topics. The examples in the book are not fully explanatory and the Exam test provided on CDROM does not give any explanation of the answers. I took the practice test several times and getting 13 wrong answers everytime which I think to be correct. There is no way to know which questions I gave wrong answers and their correct answers. I don't recommend to simply rely on this book for the preparation of MCP Exam.
Rating:
Summary: Truly useless
Review: This book pretty much fails to be a useful reference and study guide for the MCAD/MCSD test. It is written in an extremely abbreviated "for beginners" sort of style that utilizes lots of bullets and tables. This would be great if the content were coherently assembled, but I've worked with ASP.Net for over a year and the information looked like it was put together by a committee of editors who had no idea how to use this stuff. There were holes in the explanation big enough to drive trucks though. This combination of simple syntax and incomprehensible content make this book confusing, frustrating, and about as understandable as a patent brochure. One thing's for certain--it sure helps me go to sleep at night (that is, when I'm not seething about the (money) I spent). Why don't I just send it back? Well, I thought that at least the practice test would be worth something so I ripped open the paper cd container thingy in the back and tried the test. The questions did indeed seem pretty dead-on Microsoft Test-type questions, but when I tried to see the answers for the questions... there were none. What is the use of a practice test if you can't review the test answers? This was simply one of the worst technical books I've ever purchased. Don't buy it if you can help it.
Rating: 
Summary: This book will help you pass the test but that's about it.
Review: This book serves its purpose sufficiently: It is a study guide for the 70-315 test. I was able to pass the 70-315 with the help of this book, Transcender, and the MSDN documentation. Most, but not all, of the test content is covered within the book. The book comes with an evaluation copy of Visual Studio .NET, a practice exam, and each chapter contains a number of practice labs to give you some real practice in using .NET The chapters are well organized and cover the bare essentials of how to create web forms using .NET. You can plug blindly through the labs and at the end of them, you'll have a few working web pages to tinker with. The practice exam was poorly worded, overly complicated, and some of the answers were ambiguous. In addition, the exam will not tell you the right answers or the reasons why. It just gives you a percentage score. Don't count on keeping this book around on your reference shelf when you're through with it. I have tried to go back to this book when I needed help with programming, but it has yet to be helpful. The book does not cover concepts in great enough detail, it does not enforce solid application design concepts, and it uses simplified examples. The labs at the end rely heavily using design time controls and using the design wizards to add components to the web forms. Most of the data access uses embedded SQL and a few rather dirty tricks. Buy this book, pass the test, and pass it on to someone else.
Rating:
Summary: worst book for exams
Review: This book should not put Exams word in the cover. It is very misleading. Because it is offical published by Miccrsoft Press, many people would think that it is enough to pass exam. It should warn readers not to rely this book for Exam. If you do rely, you will fail. I hope all other readers are aware of this. Don't waste money buying this book for passing exam.
Rating:
Summary: A Joke and ripoff
Review: This is a useless book. It has so many errors that you will have headache. Very poor explanation. Normally MS Press books are good but Microsoft did a very poor job on this. I should use this book in fireplace to get some benifit out of it. I would like to give this book negative star if I can but I cant.
Rating:
Summary: Chock full of Errors and BIAS!
Review: Though this book does indeed have useful information in it (which is the only reason I gave it as many as two stars), I could never get over the glaringly heavy VB bias of the text. I'm studying C#, not VB.NET and it *appears* this author has no experience outside of the bubble world of VB. It is clear that this book was written specifically for VB.NET and later, someone came along and added C# code samples to it. Virtually all of the terminology in the book is VB terminology which has no place outside of the shielded world of VB. For example, "event procedure" is used on almost every page, where "event handler" should have been used. "sub Main" is used where no such term exists outside of VB.net. "Imports" is used in the text where the C# version is "using". Very annoying. Every page has AT LEAST one or more errors and/or VB bias. Most pages have multiples. The sample test application has a less than amateur UI and asks VB.NET questions even when you tell it you're taking the C# path. Also, it does not tell you what answers you missed!... Only a final score. If you uninstall the test application, you hose your .NET settings on your IIS server!! This is documented on the errors web page for the book on Microsoft's own site... speaking of which, they only list a tiny tiny percentage of the actual errors that are in the book. Stay away from this book. I see that the 2nd edition is about to come out. Hold off and get that one. Hopefully they'll have fixed many of these annoyances and errors in that edition.
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