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Rating: 
Summary: Good Study Guide
Review: After reading the previous reviewer's comments I decided to take a trip down to my local book store to peruse this book "in the flesh" before I made the decision to buy it.Skimming through the chapters its instantly clear that this is NOT a Flash learning resource. But considering I already knew Flash (I was a Certified Flash 5 developer was looking to upgrade my certification to Flash MX04), I was more after a revision guide than a fully blown instructional book. With that in mind I splashed out and purchased it. Personally I found the book the book lived up to its promotion. It is an exam study guide that broadly covers the fundamentals of Flash. Whilst it doesn't go into granular detail on the finer points of Flash, one wouldn't expect that from a study guide. Contrary to Chris' (the previous reviewers) comments, I found that MOST of the questions I encountered in the actual exam were actually covered in some form or another in the book (I destinctly remember quite a few). Whilst the sample questions in the book are not identical to those in the actual exam (for obvious reasons) they are actually based on the content covered in each chapter (hence them being easy if you've just read the chapter). It would be a bit pointless to ask questions relating to content not covered in the book. Macromedia themselves admit that this exam is not easy, with over 40% of candidates failing on their first attempt. I kind of get the feeling that because of Chris's comments maybe he was one of the 40% that didn't pass his exam and blamed it on the book. I purchased and read this book, and also took the companion online exam at (...) and scored 89% in the exam. I have used Flash for over 4 years and have used Java for the last 2. I found the book great revision of what I already knew.
Rating:
Summary: Good Study Guide
Review: After reading the previous reviewer's comments I decided to take a trip down to my local book store to peruse this book "in the flesh" before I made the decision to buy it. Skimming through the chapters its instantly clear that this is NOT a Flash learning resource. But considering I already knew Flash (I was a Certified Flash 5 developer was looking to upgrade my certification to Flash MX04), I was more after a revision guide than a fully blown instructional book. With that in mind I splashed out and purchased it. Personally I found the book the book lived up to its promotion. It is an exam study guide that broadly covers the fundamentals of Flash. Whilst it doesn't go into granular detail on the finer points of Flash, one wouldn't expect that from a study guide. Contrary to Chris' (the previous reviewers) comments, I found that MOST of the questions I encountered in the actual exam were actually covered in some form or another in the book (I destinctly remember quite a few). Whilst the sample questions in the book are not identical to those in the actual exam (for obvious reasons) they are actually based on the content covered in each chapter (hence them being easy if you've just read the chapter). It would be a bit pointless to ask questions relating to content not covered in the book. Macromedia themselves admit that this exam is not easy, with over 40% of candidates failing on their first attempt. I kind of get the feeling that because of Chris's comments maybe he was one of the 40% that didn't pass his exam and blamed it on the book. I purchased and read this book, and also took the companion online exam at (...) and scored 89% in the exam. I have used Flash for over 4 years and have used Java for the last 2. I found the book great revision of what I already knew.
Rating:
Summary: Covers the exam foundations
Review: Due to the author participating in the writing of the Flash developer exam questions he is the obvious candidate to write this book, and as such I think does a good job.
Having taken (and passed) the exam (after reading the book) I found that the majority of the questions I encountered in the exam were covered in broad (not specific) detail in the book.
The main thing I found difficult to study for was ActionScript 2.0 and this book doesn't cover it in huge detail (although the updated terminology is used eg: Class Vs Prototype Object). I did note that a few of the other reviewers found the lack of ActionScript 2.0 a problem. I think the main reason for this is probably because the author had to cater for both the ActionScript 1.0 and ActionScript 2.0 camps and couldn't be seen to ignore one or the other. This is obvious by the way he swaps between the two during some of the chapters (which can be slightly confusing for an ActionScript 2.0 newbie like me).
Bottom line though, this book is not a reference or learning book (like Colin Moocks ActionScript 2.0) its a Study Guide for the Flash Developer exam and as such I think it works well.
Rating: 
Summary: Good content overview, but poorly edited
Review: Executive Summary:
Overall the book helped me prepare for the exam, and I'm glad I had it for that purpose.
It is good for giving a broad overview of exam topics, but read it with caution and be prepared to research the content if it doesn't seem to make sense -- otherwise the occasional unclear writing and bugs in example code listings will give you grief.
Positive:
Since the author was one of the subject-matter experts for the test, he presumably knows the range of topics which will be covered on the exam. This book gives a good idea of what those topics will be, and provides a good introduction/overview to most of them.
Some other reviewers have mentioned that the practice questions don't match well with the actual exam questions. This was one of my biggest concerns going into the exam. I personally found that the practice questions match very well with the real exam questions, specifically in terms of how question style and difficulty. What doesn't match is that there are too few practice questions (even including the extra ones on the book's web site) to adequately cover the breadth of each chapter. So there are many areas that don't have any practice questions, but which are still tested on the exam.
Negative:
This book is in great need of editing for technical details and, in a few cases, clarity of writing. Here are my gripes:
- The book was apparently just adapted from the previous (Flash MX) edition of the book. There are numerous references to Flash MX which should have said Flash MX 2004. (There are also some legitimate references to Flash MX.) Most of these are benign, but it still makes me question the quality of the book. I found at least one case where the information was correct for Flash MX but is wrong with MX 2004.
- There have been a handful of places where the writing was unclear and gave a strong impression that the author was just skimming over the content and had difficulty explaining it clearly. In two such cases, I thought the writing was really confusing so I looked up the topic in the Flash help, only to find that (in both cases) the confusing text is word-for-word out of the Flash help!
- The book is plagued with bugs in the example code (most commonly changing variable names mid-way through the example).
- There are several examples of the (somewhat deprecated) ActionScript 1.0 Object-Oriented Programming. Some of these appear in early chapters which are talking about much simpler topics, which would have been very confusing had I not already read a book on OOP in AS1. I don't remember seeing anything using the AS1 style OOP on the actual exam.
- The code and content in the chapters on how to write ActionScript 2.0 classes are all very wrong and will not compile (and give misinformation and don't give important details). I honestly don't think that they tested the code on even an early Beta of Flash MX 2004 or they presumably would have found these things out. Admittedly this is a particular sore point for me, since I am a big fan of the new AS2 OOP model; it didn't seem to make a difference from what I saw on the exam. Don't expect to learn any valid AS2 from this book. (See Colin Moock's Essential ActionScript 2.0 for stellar coverage of that topic).
Note: I originally wrote this review before taking the exam. After taking the exam, I came back and made some changes based on how I think it really compares to the exam. So if you read it before, that is why it may look different now!
Rating:
Summary: A good resource book
Review: I found this book to be a very good resource for preparation of the exam. It provides a broad range of topics, and although it doesn't go heavily deep into each topic, it gives you an idea of what will be on the exam.
I think anyone who decides to take the exam must not only rely on this book but other resource as well. I found Moock's Essential Actionscript 2.0 and the flash documentation to be pretty helpful as well.
My score on the exam was a 78%, and although I expected it to be higher, it just goes to show the difficulty of the exam. But all in all, I was pleased with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Covers the Flash essentials
Review: I just completed my Certified Flash MX 2004 developer exam, and after purchasing this book to swat up on my knowledge I found it quite helpful. Some of the questions in the exam were pretty hard and while I just failed, I think this was more due to my lack of knowledge (about Flash) and not enough prep time, rather than the book. After reviewing the book (after the exam) I found that most of the topics in the exam were all "broadly" covered by the book (as they should be), and if i'd actually taken time to read the book more thoroughly I think I would have definitely passed. While the review questions at the end each chapter are pretty easy, they're really only there to test your comprehension of the chapter you've just read. My only criticism is that the exam pass mark should be 65% instead of 70%. Because my mark of 66% would have seen me pass ;)
Rating:
Summary: The exam was a big suprise
Review: I purchased this book after taking the test online at forta.com. I scraped by with 75% and decided that I needed to study a little to be confident when I sat the exam for real.
After purchasing the book and studying each chapter carefuly, it vastly improved my score to around 90%.
I continued to study hard on the topics I was not acheiving good scores on for a following two weeks, and felt confident enough to take the test.
What a big mistake. I found the questions far more difficult and felt extrememly under prepared about five minutes into the exam. I found the questions structured quite differently and the choice between answers far more obscure than in the book.
The book has definitely clarified a lot of things for me, especialy web services, which I have not used very much, but I feel it does fall short in other places.
One thing I do know for sure is that you cannot rely on this books entirely as a study guide. If there are areas where you have little knowledge you would be better off researching it further online or through another book.
For the record I got 65%, so I agree, bring down the pass rate to 65%.
The difficulty of the exam is definitely reassuring and in my eyes, adds a lot more weight to the qualification. It means that not every Sam, Dick or Sally can get qualified.
Rating: 
Summary: Great exam preparation!
Review: I recently decided to take my Flash Certification exam and bought this book to help me study. I have been using Flash for 3 years and felt I had a good understanding of Flash. This book validated that. If you're after a "How To" or "Complete Guide To Flash" book, this is not it. You won't find any tricks, effects, or reams of example code. What you will find are concise revisions of the fundementals of Flash written in simple, easy to read chapters. As the intro says, the topics covered in the book are the ones which you're likely to encounter in the exam (which makes sense as the author was one of the five people to write the exam). The authors analogies helped clarify a few topics which I was a bit rusty on and were easy to relate to when I was in the exam. At the end of the day, whether it was my knowledge of Flash, or the revision I did with the book, I scored 84% in my exam. A good book to confirm what you should already know if you're doing the Flash Developer exam.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: If you are preparing for the developer exam this is not the book to buy. I just took the exam and out of 25 chapters in the book, I would say that it references maybe half of them. The sample questions are very misleading also. In fact that is my biggest complaint. They are extremely easy, but when you take the test your mouth will just hang. The first thing in your head will be "This isn't anything like what I was encouraged to study." I would compare it to asking someone to add 2+2=4 and then saying okay now on the test due physics word problems(and I took and passed quantum mechanics in college). If you want to pass the exam you need to learn all the obscure things that never get used in flash and I mean everything. As far as for learning flash, this book isn't worth the paper it was printed on. That doesn't bother me though because it was meant to be a study guide for the exam. It just doesn't do that. In fact the only thing it does is cost you money. It will not help you.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: If you are preparing for the developer exam this is not the book to buy. I just took the exam and out of 25 chapters in the book, I would say that it references maybe half of them. The sample questions are very misleading also. In fact that is my biggest complaint. They are extremely easy, but when you take the test your mouth will just hang. The first thing in your head will be "This isn't anything like what I was encouraged to study." I would compare it to asking someone to add 2+2=4 and then saying okay now on the test due physics word problems(and I took and passed quantum mechanics in college). If you want to pass the exam you need to learn all the obscure things that never get used in flash and I mean everything. As far as for learning flash, this book isn't worth the paper it was printed on. That doesn't bother me though because it was meant to be a study guide for the exam. It just doesn't do that. In fact the only thing it does is cost you money. It will not help you.
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