Rating: 
Summary: Decent for preparing for 70-316
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: If you buy only one book ...
Review: If you buy just one book for the exam - this should be it...
Pretty good coverage of exam topics.
Rating: 
Summary: A good Introduction Book, But not enough to pass the exam
Review: Just pass the exam, strong recommend supplyment material includes, ADO.Net core reference by Microsoft and transcend exam kit is a must have.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: Many of those who have reviewed this book to date have marked it down as insufficient for passing the associated certification exam. That may be, but I still think it's one of the best self-study programming books I've ever read - and I've worked my way carefully through quite a few (including Wave Technology materials to prepare for the MCSD, Element K online tutorials for various products, and a number of independent books).This is the third book on Visual Basic .NET that I've read (and worked with), so admittedly I'm not starting from scratch. Maybe that's the right preparation for this book: I can't say because I didn't read it first. But in any event I find its material exceptionally clear and focussed, and its quality far above the usual. An errata sheet is available online, and even with that, all bugs in the first 250 pages have been quite minor. In many programming books I've read, show-stopping bugs and the lack of a feedback loop with the author or publisher can run one's learning effort completely aground. I LOVE the fact that you can use this book to learn Visual Basic.NET *or* C#.NET - or both in parallel. The material is structured as follows: first, a concept is introduced in text; then the Visual Basic code is provided; then the C# code; then any differences in the facilities available in the two languages are noted and discussed. If you like, you can easily ignore the material on either of the languages addressed; but I find myself looking at the C# code out of curiosity, and being quite delighted to discover that I can understand it without difficulty, even though I have little background in C++. The parallel treatment of VB and C# really underscores how close together .NET has brought the different programming languages that support it, so that they now constitute a relatively superficial layer atop the application development tool set. Addressing how the book might be improved: the only thing that comes to mind is that I would like to see even more "now you try it" labs provided. The ones that *are* provided are excellent, but I had to make up my own "lab" for much of the material on using the Trace and error handling objects, and I'd like to see more than one lab in the ADO.NET section. There's too much reading in that section before the invitation comes to try out some of the concepts discussed. Notwithstanding those relatively minor deficiences, this book has provided, for me, a *very* positive first exposure to the exam prep tools provided by Microsoft Press. I don't know if all their materials are this good, but you can bet I'm going to look at their offerings first in the future. I paid ten times as much for some Wave Technology materials that were, at best, no better than this. For the record, I have no formal association with Microsoft and have never received a nickle from them for anything I've said or done. I just think this is a very good self-study programming book.
Rating:
Summary: MCAD Test Book
Review: Microsoft's guide for the 70-306/70-316 exams is just that an exam guide. Since I am new to VB .Net programming, I am supplementing it with another book, Programming VB .Net: A Guide for Experienced Programmers, from Apress and making extensive use of the online help; so far so good. Although it reads like a textbook, it offers a structured approach to learning the language and I have enjoyed working through the examples which are in both VB and C#. Of course, it supposedly prepares you for the exam, which I have yet to take. My advice is if you are new to either language and have a desire to obtain the MCAD certification, do what I am doing and buy a second book, sit down in front of you computer and read both. Use the online help as much as possible, which is quite good, and do as much programming as possible.
Rating: 
Summary: Good concept, too sloppy, too many errors
Review: The concept of this book is great, but execution is too sloppy. After reading through the first few pages, I discovered a number of errors in the sample code. Even the sample chapter posted on the MS Press web page is wrong! According to the sample chapter, a form's Activate() method is called Activate() in VB.NET, and Active() in C#. Rubbish! And this is in the very paragraph that explains Activate(), and the two samples are two lines appart! It hurts when you look at the thing! Another example is the section that explains how to return a value from a method. Can anyone explain to me how the following code would ever return a value?: public int Add(int first, int second)
{
int Result;
Result = first + second;
} This raises a compiler error immediately for the very reason that no value is returned! And that's in the example that explains how to return values!!! The VB.NET sample has the same probem. Or has anyone ever seen a variable declaration like this in VB.NET: Dim x,y integer Hello?!? If they at least would have typed this into the VB editor it would have immediately been flagged as wrong (AS keyword, anyone?)! Bottom line, this book explains a lot of good things, but the code samples are too sloppy. People that don't know this stuff already will be confused at best. People that DO know this stuff don't have much of a reason to read this. In all fairness, I have to admit that this book does cover things I didn't know before (hence two stars instead of one), and if you feel comfortable that you can straighten out the code samples on your own, you might get some value out of this. At the end of the day, I am not going to give this book to my employees to learn. It simply isn't a good vehicle for that purpose. And quite frankly: For the price of this, I would have expected it to be!
Rating: 
Summary: Intro Material
Review: The information in the book is designed for those with no practical experience. If you expect to pass the exam... skip this one! This book doesn't come close to the complexities covered on the exam... moreover most of the code and definitions are copied directly from the online help with VS.NET...
Rating:
Summary: Just right.
Review: There is a bunch of material that can be used to prepare for 70-316. For example, a lot of the information in this book can be found in the MSDN library. But I am sure you would first want to get a feel of what this brand new exam is like. You would want to get a summary of the .NET Windows Applications paradigm, a summary that is dense and gets to the point. This book did just that for me. For my level of preparation, this book turned out to be a good choice. As I started reading this two-language book, I soon got used to identifying the mistakes committed by those who wrote the C# code by copying and pasting the VB code and then changing the keywords. I'm talking about missed semicolons and such. I got disappointed here and there when a topic that was mentioned in the index of the lesson was not discussed anywhere in its body. Take "multicultural test data" for example, in chapter 5, lesson 3. Apart from that, the book has managed quite well to lead me through the most important topics of the exam. As I got used to the concepts, I was able to ask the right questions in newsgroups and do refined searches in the vast MSDN library. I found the sample exam included in the book very useful since I was relying on it more and more as the exam date approached. Considering my two years experience with Windows Applications using VC++ 6.0 I passed 70-316 and I don't think I needed anything else besides or instead of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Worked for me- I passed
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Worked for me- I passed
Review: 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.
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