Rating: 
Summary: The depth of book for exam is not enough.
Review: Do not expect to pass exam with this book. Comparing with book for VB, this book cover only 50 percent for exam.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not exceptional
Review: I bought this book with no idea of what to expect on the exam. I have since taken the 70-016 exam and passed it. I have two years of experience with Visual C++ and MFC but had never used COM.Overall I feel that this book did a good job of giving a general overview of the material on the test. A warning though, you will need to know more about COM than this book alone covers. I also purchased the Exam Cram book for this exam and was very pleased with it. ( I also read the first five chapters of The COM / COM+ Primer and it cleared up a lot of COM issues for me ) For any one who can afford it I would highly recommend the practice exams that can be purchased from Trancender.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not exceptional
Review: I bought this book with no idea of what to expect on the exam. I have since taken the 70-016 exam and passed it. I have two years of experience with Visual C++ and MFC but had never used COM. Overall I feel that this book did a good job of giving a general overview of the material on the test. A warning though, you will need to know more about COM than this book alone covers. I also purchased the Exam Cram book for this exam and was very pleased with it. ( I also read the first five chapters of The COM / COM+ Primer and it cleared up a lot of COM issues for me ) For any one who can afford it I would highly recommend the practice exams that can be purchased from Trancender.
Rating: 
Summary: Not much help for the test, but well worth the $.
Review: I gave it 4 stars because the book did not help much with the exam itself. But it is definately worth the money. The two cds that come with the book bring an sql server 7.0 trial and a nice tutorial. The tutorial gives a good intro/review of C++ and OO, plenty of step by step examples and some nice videos that explain how messages are routed and how the document/view architecture works and a few others. The ratio of knowledge per dollar spent gets 5 stars in this book, but as far as help for the exam itself it gets 2.5 stars. This book alone will give you a 50% chance of passing the exam. I think that the test went a lot deeper into com/atl and the capabilities provided by specific interfaces than what the book talks about.
Rating:
Summary: Good for a Visual C++ programmer
Review: I have all the books in this series and give all the books 4 stars. Apart from the odd typo here and there, the books are well presented. Exams 70-016 and 70-175 are relatively simple if you are a Visual C++ programmer who has only used Visual Basic as a test harness. The content of the Training Kits cover 80% of any exam (VC++ exams too) and was enough for me to (just) pass them. If you also read the 'orange' books, you will get 100% for the VB exams. 'Desktop Applications for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 MCSD Training Kit' 'Distributed Applications for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 MCSD Training Kit' 'Programming Components With Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0' 'Programming Distributed Applications With COM and Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0' books.
Rating:
Summary: Good for a Visual C++ programmer
Review: I have all the books in this series and give all the books 4 stars. Apart from the odd typo here and there, the books are well presented. Exams 70-016 and 70-175 are relatively simple if you are a Visual C++ programmer who has only used Visual Basic as a test harness. The content of the Training Kits cover 80% of any exam (VC++ exams too) and was enough for me to (just) pass them. If you also read the 'orange' books, you will get 100% for the VB exams. 'Desktop Applications for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 MCSD Training Kit' 'Distributed Applications for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 MCSD Training Kit' 'Programming Components With Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0' 'Programming Distributed Applications With COM and Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0' books.
Rating:
Summary: Good material; Difficult reading.
Review: I have little experience with VC++ and was using this book and exam to better my understanding. This book offered alot of good help, but like most MS Press training kits, is not focused on real exam preparation as much as on giving alot of details (even if the exam doesn't require those details). This is my 6th MS exam (3 NT4 , 2 SQl7, and VC6). I have always used MS Press training books (I like the depth), Transcenders, and sometimes TestOut material. All my other exam scores have been over 800, but this exam was in the 500s (but enough to pass). I also spent more time going over this material. The reality is VC++ a detailed subject area, and I blame my low score more on my lack of experience than on the book. Also for the first time, Transcenders only gave practice on half the material. I didn't use TestOut. Remember also these exams are really geared for those already comfortable with the material. The book says it covers the exam material, not that it prepares you for the exam itself (though the title "... for Exam 70-015" may give you another impression).
The thing about the MS-Press books is you have something that is useful beyond the exam. I gave the book 3/5 because I passed the exam mostly on this material. More exprerienced VC candidates will do well, I suppose. I thought it was difficult reading (alot of detail), not enough diagrams, and not enough summarizing of key exam points. Be prepared to go over the material, making your own "exam-geared" notes.
Rating:
Summary: Great Content
Review: I think this book is great. After taking C++ courses at college (Foundations and Data Structures) that focus on UNIX, I wanted to learn about Windows Programming. The "Visual C++ starts here" program that comes on one of the included CD's is a great reveiw and primer for the book's material. I found the whole package to be chock-full-o information and I have learned tons of stuff from it. Compared to College tuition this book is a steal, but I don't think I would have enjoyed it without a solid foundation in C++ first. I recommend it to anyone that wants to learn "real" C++. With products like this, it's no wonder Microsoft is so damn successful.
Rating:
Summary: I found the book to be useful for the exam
Review: I used this text to help me prepare for the exam I also used the Mastering MFC Development using Visual C++6. I also used the Transcender for my final prep and all of the tools together helped me pass the exam. I hope this helps
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this book if you are on Window 95 or 98
Review: I'd give it 0 stars, except Amazon's silly interface won't let me give below 1 star. Despite the fact that the authors claim this book will work for Windows 95/98 as well as NT, and that you can use the "professional" edition of VC++, I found the following problems: - They require the personal web server. This failed on every install while adding MTS elements to the registry in Win98. - They require SQL server. The install from the CD supplied with the book failed with a "missing file" every time. - They require Visual Source Safe, which despite their assurances does not ship with the professional edition of VC++. I have only skimmed the subject material in the book. It looks so-so; there are certainly better books about many of the individual topics (e.g., MFC development) out there. But maybe its enough for the test. All in all, I would have to say trying to install the necessary components to Windows 98 was very, very frustrating.
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