Rating: 
Summary: The best of the lot by far
Review: I read the last book by Hawhee for VB5 and passed the exam on the first try. For the VB6 Desktop exam, I tried some other books while waiting for this one to come out. The Mezick-Hillier "All-in-One Guide" wasn't very good, I don't think. The MS Press MSDN Kit was better, but not specific enough. Finally, Howard's new book came out. Read it and passed the VB6 desktop exam today in the 900 range. I highly recommend this book.It has problems, though. One piece of the included software is missing. There are a number of mistakes both in the test software and in the book, some of which are transferred over from the last version of the book. That's why it only gets four stars instead of 5. If you are looking for the one book that truly offers value, I would without hesitation say this is it. I recommended it to a friend of mine who had been using the Transcender exams, and she credits the Transcender and Howard with her certification two weeks ago. Best of luck, everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: over sized vb manual good for basics
Review: This book is way to big to study for the exam.It does cover most of the topics related to vb and serves quite ok as a vb reference book for the basics.But for the exam go Foxall.This may help for stuff like the Treeview controls and menu bars but is too fat to digest before the exam.And yes the practice test that come with it , well they just s**k.The answers are wrong and some question's topics are not even covered in the book
Rating:
Summary: Good exam Prep book, I past...
Review: I used more that this book, but I thought this was the best coverage and prep. Definitely not for beginners, does have some errors, but definitely has good excersises at the end of each chapter to make you apply and use the concept and details required... As a working VB and ASP pgmr ya don't use all the features reguired to pass the test. This book does supply the complete range on knowledge required for the exam. This book, the product doc and all the practice exams you can find will get ya thru the tests...
Rating:
Summary: GOOD Reference and Study Guide (Errors don't matter!)
Review: First of all, EVERY computer book has errors. Big deal. If you can spot them, you're a good programmer, but I'm sure there's mistakes in all our code too. The point is that Hawhee's book is a GREAT reference tool, and the exam simulation CD that comes with it was a help also. This book will get you about 75%-80% ready for the desktop exam (NO book can do 100%). He gives you way more info than you need for the test, sort of like drinking out of a firehose. BUT, if you supplement it with the Visual Basic 6.0 Programmer's Guide (that every VB developer should have ANYWAY), you should do fine. The exam seems to be based off of Programmer's Guide (makes sense if it's Microsoft). I passed the exam on the second try (not Hawhee's fault by any means). For you first-timers, the fail rate for first-time takers is roughly 80%... HOWEVER, where most books get shelved after the exam, Hawhee's book will continue to be a great reference tool in your job. Highly suggested.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware the content!
Review: The benefit of this book is that it provides an intelligently structured approach to reviewing the material needed to pass the VB exams for the MCSD certification. On the other hand, the text itself is rife with errors of fact, which is not acceptable in a technical manual and especially not in a book that purports to help you review for technical exams that may be worth thousands of dollars to you. For example, chapter 9, exam question 7 has no right answer because none of the T-SQL code samples actually work! In a backward sort of way, this book will prepare you for exams 70-175 and 176 because you'll reference Microsoft's documentation so often to correct errors in the text that you'll know your subject by the time you've worked your way through the book. Two stars for the review outline, but there's probably something better on the market.
Rating: 
Summary: I started reading it 3 times, but now its in GARBAGE!!
Review: New Riders Books are one of the most awful books You could ever find: 1) Completely useless Index
ok, lets talk about this book - (besides useless index some more frustrating things):
1) A lot of mistakes in (Apply your knowledge) exercises - How the heck Im going to apply it with mistakes??? and of course they most of the times refer to examples in the middle of chapters (which are small piece of code most of the time also not working)
2) I threw this book garbage when in 3rd attempt trying to read ended in MTS chapter which said - "We are assuming that You are using Windows NT 4.0 Server with MTS installed"
Well im using Windows XP/2000 Professional and I have no clue how to install MTS ( and believe me You dont find that in the book). So everybody in their right mind - DONT BUY Easy Rider books. I know I tried using one of their books for SQLServer7 exam. I passed it not because I read the book but because I had Experience in Oracle SQL language and I used Practice exams from STS
Rating:
Summary: Too Big ?
Review: This is a pretty good reference (I still have it and use it), but it is too big for the material covered. My bookshelves are overflowing (I have gotten rid of many GOOD books) and it is frustrating when a book is good enough to keep, but the material could have fit into a space half its size. Still, one of the better VB6 references.
Rating: 
Summary: Technically, everything you need -- except experience
Review: Many people think they can just pass the VB6 exams without experience and/or think that all the exam guides should just give them the answers. This is a huge misconception. Microsoft tests (at least for the MCSD track) are designed to fail those who only have book knowledge and not used the product. Hawhee's VB5 book was "overcomplete" it was a big huge mess that if you could get through it (and I couldn't) *practicing* each skill along the way, you could pass the exam (and I didn't.) However the VB6 book is nicely trimmed down to it's most pertinent points. There isn't much coverage on IIS applications and DHTML applications, but far more than there is any of the other books. It's still far more than you need for the exam, but if you practice the exercises, and really study the questions and text, not only will you know most everything you need for the exam, but most everything you will need for VB as well. I passed the VB6 exams in a large part because this book filled in the holes that Foxall's book couldn't (or rather, wouldn't!) I would recommend this book be supplimented with Transcender exams though.
Rating:
Summary: Handy, but not good enough.
Review: This book was one of the first ones I purchased when studying for the MCSD. However, within the first 2 chapters I found over 8 mistakes that would have cost points on the exam.
While the labs in this book are useful, they do not work straight out of the book.
I went out and bought other books to help me pass the exam. While you may get by with this book, you'll come up short more often than not. Just because it's an MS approved study guide doesn't mean it's correct. All that means is that it covered the essential areas of the exam requirements, not that the information was correct. Most VB courses do this, but you can't pass the exam from them.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of mistakes and inconsistencies
Review: Both the book itself and the testing software have a lot of mistakes and inconsistent information. The text of the book says one thing, but the test answers say something different. Because of this I often had to stop, and research from other sources to find out whether the text in the chapters, or the answers from the review and exam questions was correct. And I've downloaded the errata from their website, and it covers some of the inconsistent information, but not nearly all of it. For a book that was published almost 2 years ago, you'd think they could put correct info out there to use. And their testing software apparently has no updates; but it has a lot of incorrect info in it also. So you may get a lower score when you take their tests than you should have received.
| 
