Amazing!
This book really makes my day!
Its content is organized in such way that really helps us to understand "how things work". It gives basic and detailed information of the Dot.Net platform when building Web Aplications.
Great to whom wants to pass on Microsoft's 70-758 Exam!
Good Study Material
This book is exactly what is says a Training Kit. It is one of four books Microsoft recommends, along with the other MSPress books. So for the people who are bashing this book because it's not the only one you'll need please refer to Microsoft's website to get the other recommended material. If you don't like the MSPress titles you can use other books like Wrox or Apress. I used a combination of this book + Apress Pro ASP.NET 2.0 and passed with a 890 score on the first try.
Bottom line
Is this good training material: Yes
Will you need other books to pass the exam: Yes
All I needed to pass
Using this book and the CD that comes with it, I passed this test in just 3 weeks. If read from front to back, everything you need to pass is here.
Glen Johnson's half of the book was particularly sharp. His experience as a professional trainer were clearly evident; he's extremely easy to follow. Tony Northrup's half was not concise. I learned more from the end of chapter lessons than from his written contribution.
Good, but not enough
This was my first training kit book. I was preparing for 70-528 egzam using it. Now, after passing it (928 points) I can say, that this book contains some gaps (i.e. templated custom controls). Use another resources (msdn) to pass an exam too.
Excellent "how to" and reference
Apart from any exam-prep, this is an excellent book for learning and using ASP.NET. I have several ASP.NET books and this is the one that more often than not answers my questions. The organization and explanations are very practical and clear. If you are trying to learn ASP.NET then this is an excellent resource.
As far as the exam - I have not yet taken the exam. I have taken some sample tests (not the easy ones that come with this book). I can say that just breezing through this book once will not prepare you to take the test. If you want to pass the test you will need to pretty much memorize this book, and also study other books. I recommend Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference, Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Applications: Advanced Topics, and Microsoft ADO.NET - all good books also by Microsoft Press. You will also need to understand object-oriented .NET programming - using classes, etc. Of course, the more practical experience you can get with ASP.NET the better. If nothing else, start a hobby website or get some other project.
I don't remember a lot of egregious typos and errors, although I have not read 100% of the book nor tried out most of the sample code, etc. I bought this book summer 2007 so maybe I have a revised, cleaned up versions.
(31 reviews)
