Get in-depth exam prep for Exam 70-536, a core MCTS exam for the new Microsoft Technology Specialist and Professional Developer certifications —and build real-world job skills. Includes reviews, case studies, code samples, and more.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 84 Ratings

Mixed feelings - 2009-12-17
Reviewer Rating:
I cannot explain the degree to which this book frustrated me, but after a bit of thought I've given it a rating of 3. That reflects the fact that I did pass the exam using this as my primary reference. But in my opinion it is a pity that as far as I know it is the only book specifically geared towards the exam, because I just couldn't get enthused about it.

Ok, to be fair to the authors there are certain givens when studying for an exam. I never did expect a book that prepares for an exam to be a "quick fix" for one's own lack of knowledge. A fair degree of .NET experience is an assumption before attempting it. But what bewildered me was that in places it seemed to make relatively simple concepts seem confusing, which is the last thing one would expect. And often the specific detail likely to be encountered in an exam seemed to be almost obscured rather than emphasised.

If it wasn't for the fact that it does, I suppose, expose one to the requirements of the exam I wouldn't even contemplate bothering with the book. Something like the WROX C# 2008 book would win hands-down for actual content, though it does not necessarily cover the 70-536 criteria fully (but is a far superior and more in depth examination of most of the topics you'd need).

A plus is that the sample test questions (unlike the ones at the end of each lesson) did seem to me to be reasonably similar in difficulty to those in the actual exam. I personally used them near the end as a way to identify weaknesses, and to some extent cram.

I believe that the second edition has corrected the unbelievable morass of errata, but to me there was a bit more wrong with this book than that. It just isn't well written.

To summarize, I found it difficult to rate this book. It's the book I reluctantly admit helped me pass the exam in the absence of anything else similar.

Don't Bother - Go for the Second Edition - 2009-12-16
Reviewer Rating:
There are heaps of mistakes in this book - it makes it so hard to learn things for an exam from! I believe the second edition has been fully revised and the mistakes fixed so I have purchased this one now for my study.

Decent Book - 2009-06-11
Reviewer Rating:
This book has a lot of useful information in it and the practice tests do help quite a bit. Good book for beginner developers with some experience with visual studio.

Mandatory book for Microsoft MCTS certification (and old Mainframe Developers) - 2009-04-24
Reviewer Rating:
As an outsourced Mainframe programmer (Job outsourced to India...Thanks Citibank!), this book is the 1st book on the road to a MCTS certification. If you have a working PC development background, this book will be straight forward and you will be on your way to the MCTS certification of your choice (Windows, Web or Enterprise). If you are an old mainframe programmer (like myself), you need to take a Visual Basic.Net or a C# course before you study this book. My warning is that there are a lot of "common terminology" that Microsoft assumes you already know...but it is not common in the mainframe world. Don't be discouraged, use GOOGLE (or a search engine of your choice) and you will be alright...it will just take you a lot longer to finish this book.

Book alone is not enough to pass exam. Several misleading information - 2009-03-02
Reviewer Rating:
The book has several information, several errors too. The errors can be corrected by going to the Microsoft web site (press). The book skims through several topics required for the exam. But, the exam focuses on in-depth information. You will find questions in the exam that is not directly provided in this book. For example, the attribute [ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None)] used for specifying how the .Net class should be exposed to COM objects is not mentioned anywhere in the book, but it was asked in the exam. There are several other such examples. Also, there are several notes in the book that says that it is important for the exam. But, the exam does not cover those topics at all. In another one of the review for this book, someone had mentioned about buying Transcender. You can buy Transcender if you want to learn about the topics. But, as far as the exam goes, you may find a question or two that is anywhere similar to those in the Practice exams. For each of the topics, you need to use MSDN web site for in-depth information. And you need to cram the properties and methods. For instance, there is a question about which property to use to check whether a method is accessible to a derived class when using reflection. The correct answer is IsFamily. But, there is no way you can remember this without cramming. It is virtually impossible for every developer to have experience in every topic covered in this book. By the way, I passed this exam after two months of rigorous study.

About me: 15 years in the IT industry. 12 of those in Microsoft technology. Master's degree in Computer Science.

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