Second Edition now available!!
Please note that the second edition of the 70-536 Training Kit is available. Fully updated and revised, the second edition replaces this first edition, and is the one to buy to prepare for the 70-536 exam.
A great example of how to NOT write a study guide
After having purchased book and used it to study for the 70-536 exam. I can summarized my experience in the following:
The book will not be sufficient to pass the exam, and makes for a really bad and frustrating study guide.
The authors of the book that have an incomplete understanding of the material.
The authors and editors of the book have horrible writing skills.
First of all the book is missing much of content from the actual exam, probably about 40 percent. Don't let the books objectives insert fool you, there are huge gaps in the book, and you will not pass by using the study guide as your only resource. While the study guide is missing a lot of content, it also goes too far into detail for some content that is actually included in the book. For example, for the exam you will only need a broad understanding of reflection, you will not need to be able to write an entire section of code on "creating code in runtime", you will also not need to memorize the exact steps of using the .Net configuration tools.
Often it seemed then when the authors didn't understand an item, instead of researching it themselves and then thoroughly explaining it, they just cut and pasted random information / code examples from MSDN with no after thought, or they simply skiped the difficult item all together. It's understandable that the authors would have such bad knowledge of coding, since as they personally state that they have only written "hundreds if not thousands of lines of code" (pg 68).
Some examples of their poor understanding include:
The StrongNameIdentityPermission in the book (pg 661), is generically described as "defines the identity permission for strong names" , pasted verbatim from MSDN. A more complete and meaningful explanation would have been "Restricts the assembles that can call this method, based on a specific public key from the calling assembly."
On page 603, instead of actually explaining how to use the PerformanceCounterClass, the author instead find it necessary to show us how to append PerformaceCounter properties to a StringBuilder class.
On page 819, the authors the describe how to perform "Exception Handling in Managed Code". They quickly list how you shouldn't do it, and that "you need to do something else". Of course instead of actually saying what it is, and even mentioning the solution, they list a 2 page cryptic code example.
As of the second edition, there are still many code and grammatical mistakes. The authors often try to get cutesy with inappropriate personal anecdotes that feel completely out of place, or use bad worded filler material like "These two classes have an intuitive synergy that becomes evident when you use them." (pg 482).
Reading the book I got a feeling that the authors got paid per page written, so they felt compelled to stretch things out as much as they can with extra tables for class parameters and methods and unnecessary code examples. Mind you, instead of actually adding all of this filler material, they could have just been more thorough with the exam material.
Bottom line is that there is no excuse for incorrect code samples, grammatical mistakes, very poor writing, and missing content. Especially since this is already the second edition.
Some other reviewers of this book have stated such ridiculous explanations as: "i'm glad there's errors and that you have to research to figure them out." or "Places where this book is "weak" is where YOU as a reader need to learn how to use MSDN and look it up yourself." , those are NOT valid excuses for such as horrible book.
For a good example of a study guide see: Kathy Sierra's study guide for SCJD, even though that exam is much harder, the book is concise and straight to the point. Teaching you only what you need to be taught.
As for the actual exam:
It was easier then expected, especially when compared to the Sun Certified Java Programmer course (mind you I did purchase extra exam practice questions, and study from them).
Whereas in the SCJP exam, there are many tricks questions, and you needed a thorough understanding / memorization of writing specific code, and knowing when code wouldn't compile, run, etc. For this exam, having a broad general understanding of all topics will be sufficient, the most obvious answers are typically the correct ones, and you really don't need to memorize/ be able to write entire sections of code .
For study preparation I recommend reading through the book, without trying to memorize code sections. Skipping the labs. Purchasing extra exam questions like Transcender, and working through them, and looking up any missing items on MSDN.
It took me about 100 hours to prepare for the exam, but this is having already a solid understanding of Object Oriented Programming, having passed some Sun Java Courses, and having used .Net at work. I probably could have studied for less time, if I was warned about this book.
Also make sure to place special emphasis on studying streams, including all related streams types, crypto , compression, text, etc, and their corresponding method signatures.
I'm giving this book 2 stars, instead of 1, solely on the fact that that this is really the only 70-536 study guide in print, and using it will save you time over trying to figure things out using Microsoft's atrocious MSDN, which is just as poorly written and confusing.
Study guide for .NET Framework
I have just started studying for my certification for the .NET Framework and this book is real helpful. It provides me with answers that I was not able to get through school. I have learned some new things that make developing a bit easier now that I have learned about some different approaches with this book.
Good preparation, though not perfect
The majority of reviews of this book are quite right in that it is a good preparation guide, but the plethora of errors can cause some confusion. Microsoft has posted the corrections for the book, but the best way to overcome the errors is to go through the practice tests and look up questions you feel you are right about. Additional reading is a must and missed questions are the best prompt to guide you to additional resources.
While definitely a thick book, the content is extremely detailed. Though keep in mind that there are many ways to reach any given end or effect - the various authors programming / example styles expose the reader to a few ways to expressing the same result, which is quite beneficial.
In terms of organization, this book is very good, especially considering that multiple authors were involved. The only chapter that merits additional scrutiny is the security chapter, which helps throughout the book, as security considerations are sprinkled throughout.
In summary, with a moderate amount of experience with .NET (2.0+), this book is an excellent primer for the test and provides the requisite understanding of the framework to prepare one for the exam. The only caveat I found was that for people with .NET 3.0 or 3.5+ experience, some of the methods may be a slight bit different due to minor changes between 2.0 and 3.5.
Despite corrections, still a lot of errors in this book
I also have the newer (corrected) version of the book (check the copyright page in the beginning of the book, mine lists version: 5 6 7 8 9 QWT 1 0 9 8 7). Despite the numerous corrections, I still find some errors, even those that are unlisted in the errata list. When looking at the four KB articles on the Microsoft site, the errata list shows a gap between part 3 and 4. So I think there is something missing in the errata.
For example: an error I discovered today, on page 712, the second bullet reads:
"One or more PrincipalPermission properties. Use Authenticated to restrict access to authenticated users, Role to restrict access by group memberships, and User to restrict access to a specific user name."
This is incorrect, there is no 'User' PrincipalPermission property. Replace 'User' with 'Name'.It should read instead:
"One or more PrincipalPermission properties. Use Authenticated to restrict access to authenticated users, Role to restrict access by group memberships, and Name to restrict access to a specific user name."
This is in particular a strange error, because on the previous page the authors says:
"Memorize these three properties (Authenticated, Name, Role). Remember, PrincipalPermission doesn't expose any other properties--not a user's full name, phone number, password, or any other attribute."
For the rest of the book, I found the topics are not very well explained. Except for the chapter dealing with Code Access Security, which I found was very clear. In general, I did not like the fact that there are so few images in the book that could clarify the text. Sometimes the text alone is a litte bit boring to read. But then again, it's part of the job, no?
As there is no alternative for this book yet, I hope I will pass my exam by using this book and some internet resources... We'll see.
Good luck to all exam takers!
