Rating: 
Summary: It is Not a book to learn
Review: It is ONLY a good reading book ,but nothing to learn in i
Rating: 
Summary: Near-perfect preparation material
Review: New Riders continues to be the only choice for serious exam preparation. Using this book as my only text reference for this exam, I passed with over 940 the first time I took the exam.It is long, and requires patience, but working each section along with the case studies provided not only gives you the information you need, but gets you thinking about how to read and analyze the case studies. The detail provided helps you determine what in a case study is relevant, and this is exactly what you need to succeed in this test.
Rating:
Summary: Best of Class
Review: No cert book hits the nail on the head for 100% of the questions or covers all the material covered by the cert test, but this book does a fairly good job.
Additionally this book is does a great job of presenting how software design SHOULD go. (But never does) Anyway, great for newbies to IT and a general ref. and review for the more experienced. Kinda dry in spots for the experienced developer.
Bright spot is the test on CD that comes with the book. EXCELLENT practice exam. Every bit as useful for review as the ones I pony up cash dollars for.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the litter
Review: Passed the exam on the first try! Microsoft states that the 70-100 exam is for experienced developers. Cramming for this exam is mostly ineffective. However, of all the books, this one came closest to addressing the topics actually covered on the Microsoft exam. Less experienced architects should spend more time following the suggested web links and Suggested Reading. I found most of the chapters helpful and ALL of the case studies to be similar in style to those found on the exam. There are two additional parts of the book that were most helpful - Appendix E (How to Interpret Case Studies) and the exams on the enclosed CD.
Rating: 
Summary: Best exam prep book out there for the 70-100 exam
Review: Take a look a the average ratings and the reviews on the other exam prep books for this exam and you will see why this is the best book out there. Don't believe me? Then check out the review done by the MCP magazine folks...I edited this book so I know the quality that is there, but read these other sources of information and I'm sure you will agree with me that this is the best book out there of the Solution Architectures exam.
Rating: 
Summary: Not perfect, but very good
Review: The writing style of this book makes it very easy to work through. The author has a nice turn of phrase and an easy way of conveying information. The editing could have been better, especially in the data chapter, where you can tell they redid the example at least once during the editing process. On the whole I highly recommend this. I passed the exam very comfortably this morning, and give much credit to this book, the Exam Cram, and Transcender. If I was going to change something, it would be the Exam Gear software. That thing could definitely use some tweaking. Go with Transcender instead. Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: A good book on the market, but it will not fully prepare you
Review: This book is the best book for the subject on the market today in my opinion. It covers most of what you need to know and to get you started. However, to pass the exam, you also need to have additional two other skills: 1) Relational database concepts with focus on primary keys, foreign keys, and referential integrity. You should feel very comfortable with translating and drawing ER diagram based on a given scenario or a set of requirements. I took the exam today and passed it. But I was so surprised that the database skills carry so much weight on my exam. 2) Exam skills (the format of this exam is very different than other Microsoft exams). In my opinion, 1) If you are not familiar with the subject, get this book. 2) Brush you database skills, if you can't find a good book for you, then you need to make some friends with real database developers, get their advices and start to draw a lot of database ER diagrams. (Caution: This exam is not targeted to database experts, so you need to think the Microsoft way to handle the exam, not in the real world to develop commercial products.) 3) Practice the exam skills Wish you a happy reading and good luck on your next exam! -Joshua MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE+I
Rating:
Summary: Good book for the 70-100 exam
Review: This book not only covers what you'd need to know for the exam, but puts an emphasis on 'learning' the material. Its case study approach for every few chapters really tests the readers' understanding of what is covered. The book would go through a concept or two, and puts the focus back on the case study and how the concept applies there.
Tip : Try to come up with the application of the concept on the current case study before reading the actual concept application section.
Rating:
Summary: 3/4 of what you need...
Review: This book was excellent, and it did everything it could to present test-relevant material. The case studies that precede the chapters are very similar to the real exam, so it will get you used to the kind of story problems you'll have to analyze in the test room. Where this book fails is that it cannot prepare you for the E-R diagrams and work-flow process diagrams that you'll have to deal with on the 70-100. The only thing that can prepare you for that is a pencil and some paper and about 10 hours of solid diagramming. My advice? Buy this book, read the case studies, and actually draw some diagrams as you read. And make sure to read appendix E at the end of this book - excellent hints on how to properly analyze the case studies. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Almost there....
Review: This book will help you prepare for the MCSD exam. Unlike all the other exams I took for my MCSD though, this book alone is not enough to pass the exam. As usual New Rider has excellent exam questions at the end of each chapter. The problem is the format of the exam itself, it is much easier if you are an experienced software developer. In my opinion this book can help you on this exam as much as any book, it's just that this exam is very thorough. To pass the exam, you probably want to read at least two other books. -->Software Project Survival Guide, Steve McConnell -->Any database design book I saw some complaints about the practice exam, but I had no complaints. (a word of caution, the Microsoft Press study guide for this exam is HORRIBLE, it has almost no relevance to the exam)
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