Typical of Certification Books
This is a very decent overview of Windows-based programming in .NET. It's dry and boring in the typical certification-book style. The real question is, "Is it a great book for passing the certification exams?" I'll let you know after I take the tests myself. On that note, one of my major criticisms of this book is the practice exam on the included CD. It does a poor job of covering the specific skills that are measured on the Windows-based certification exams, and, worst of all, only tells you your total score. The practice test doesn't tell you which specific questions you missed, nor does it give you an explanation of the correct answer. Totally useless.
Decent for preparing for 70-316
I used this book and the exam cram book. The combination was more than adequate for passing the exam (scored 862). I didn't like having to remember to skip past the VB code (which is always listed first). The exam tops were covered well but the practice exam included with this book is ridiculously hard. The practice exams provided with the exam cram book were much more like the real test.
Worked for me- I passed
This book did a great job of introducing a considerable amount of material clearly, and without assuming much prior knowledge. If you understand basic O-O theory and terminology, this book should have you building Windows applications in no time.
Great start
This is a greate book not only to study for the test with, but also a greate intro to Windows programming for those new to .Net. This book alone will not get you through the test, but it will get you going down the road.My only complaint is that the practice test are pretty limited.
Do you judge a book by how many errors it contains?
Errors galore! And no, they're not all simple grammatical mistakes. There are dozens of examples of code that if entered into .Net and run would bomb or not do what they are supposed to do (here's just one example, on page 56 the VB code lists myForm.Activate() but the C# code lists myForm.Active()).Worse yet, I was planning to study just this one book and then take the test. But now that I've read the others' reviews I see that such would be folly: this book alone does not give enough to pass the exam.
However, let me point out that for someone who is just interested in learning how to create Windows-based applications using VB.Net or C#.Net (i.e., passing the exam is not the goal) I think the book easily provides enough to satisfy. That's why I gave it three stars despite the negative things I had to say about it: it really isn't all that bad (but it's really not all that great either).
PS: I bought the book at my local, but national, bookstore (didn't have a computer then) and paid the full [price]. Should have had a friend by it for me from here!
(39 reviews)
