Rating: 
Summary: ONLY used this book, Passed Both Exams
Review: The first time I took 070-176 I failed (in the 60% range). Then I decided I would try a book so I bought this one. After 2 weeks with the book I Passed 070-176 and two weeks more I passed 070-175. This book is the ONLY study material I used and I rarely even use the VB Development Enviornment.
Rating: 
Summary: Full of errors and absolutely not for beginners
Review: I have programmed in VBA for several years and have a fair amount of experience with Visual Basic 6. I thought this would be a good book to augment my VB6 knowledge. With that kind of background I did fairly well with this book until Chapter 12 (COM).A beginner would have problems with this book because the exercises often skip critical steps. For example, a couple of exercises in Chapter 12 instruct the reader to use a complied component from a previous exercise in the chapter as though it had already been compiled (and, therefore, registered), but the steps in the previous exercise never involved compiling. Also, exercise steps often refer to the same controls using different names in different steps. In short, you'll spend a lot of time filling in the blanks, that is, if you are already knowledgeable enough to spot and fix them. It is obvious that the exercises were created in a hurry and published with little, if any, verification. This book is a thought-starter for the exam concepts at best, but truly learning and feeling comfortable with them will require more of a hands-on approach.
Rating:
Summary: Don't rely to this book for passing the exam
Review: First time I went to take the exam (70-175) I used Study Guide by Michael Lee and failed. I missed 2.8% to pass the exam. But the book so poorly covered the topics, that after the test I could not even remember all of the questions. I read the critics for this book, bought it, learned for one month, went for the exam again and failed. Only second time I missed more than 10% to pass the exam.
I noticed that the people who passed the exam used the Transcender test and that could be the key for success. Or perhaps is still better to have much of programming experience. My experience: only this book will not make you pass the exam.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost everything you need
Review: This book contains all the information you need to pass the Desktop Exam (I have not done the distributed yet). The detail contained is at the appropriate level for the exam if you have some experience using VB, the commonly used controls, and a splattering of COM. The test questions are excelent for reviewing each chapter, but are not the same format as the exams themselves. If used in conjunction with transcender exams for fine tuning (and some hard work) you cannot fail! The book is pitched at people who are familiar with VB, if have not used vb much then go get a "learn how to program using VB book", this is a "learn what you need to know to pass the exam" book.
Rating:
Summary: Big book, but lots of good information
Review: This huge book (1300 pages) is the combined work of five authors and three editors, and is designed to teach the material that appears on the 70-175 and 70-176 exams. Considering that there is a lot of overlap on those two exams, it is natural to tackle them in the same study guide. If you make it through this book, you will be knowledgeable, but will probably not translate to on the job success. Like all MCSD exam books, this is not a "how-to" or a tutorial. It is a well written and verbose study guide (which could have communicated the information in half the space). In some areas it presents too much information and I felt it became too cluttered with screen shots. In many other areas, it lacks depth. Likewise, if you are looking for a book to teach you Visual Basic programming, this book is obviously not it. On the other hand, if you are just looking to pass the exam and don't mind a little extra easy reading, this is your book. I do like the format. The chapters are usually focused and small. Chapter objectives are presented, then the material, then case studies, and then review questions (and answers) to reinforce the material. It makes it easy break the monotonous study routine in manageable pieces (like a chapter a night). Although this book lacks depth in many areas, it is one of the better study guides that I have purchased on the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Be careful
Review: There is serious "how to" information lacking. This is a very large book creating a very large disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: This book is full of errors, doesn't worth the money
Review: This book is full of errors; if you try to prepare for an MCP exam, use it with caution. When I used it, I always had to use MSDN, because there are few pages without *serious* errors. Numerous code examples in this book won't even compile with VB; it's only advantage is the hierarchy of topics, which really helps you to find the necessary things in MSDN. I wouldn't buy this book for 50-60 dollars.
Rating:
Summary: Will not teach you Visual Basic as a language
Review: Although this book had some good features to it, it is the structure of the MCP exams that make this book rather useless for learning VB as a production-level language. The exams seem to test on totally irrlevant aspects of the product, and do not focus much on writing Visual Basic code. Visual Basic is a programming language as well as a product. This book, as well as the MCP exams, do not focus on the actual language (code). It focusses entirely on the specifics of the product, such as the intrinsic controls and the specifics of each dialog box (fairly irrelevent topics in the real world). Writing code is what we do in the REAL world. Using controls such as the Data Designer or the ADO Data Control are meant for prototyping or for novice "power users" who need to build a database front-end quickly (hence Micosoft's use of the term RAD). We NEVER use these controls in the real world, but this book and the exams focus heavily on them. Microsoft has tried to market VB for people at all levels, from the small workgroup that is using a local Access database to the software developers building complex business applications on SQL Server or Oracle and to the engineers building object models. In doing so, VB has gotten a reputation for producing sub par apps (because of novice people who feel they can learn the product in a week and build high quality apps using the controls I mentioned above). Real software written in VB is done meticulously and uses a lot of carefully developed code. You will not learn how to do this with this book; that knowledge is gained through experience only. Also, to illustrate another topic covered heavily in this book and on the exams, but is not used in the real world, the Package and Deployment Wizard is probably the most useless VB feature out there. There are build enginneers in every development shop that handle this area. In my 3 years of VB and SQL programming, I have never once used this feature (and we produce award winning software). As a developer, you write the code, then the build team will make an installation program, register all the controls and handle dll dependencies. Furthermore, certification itself is really only useful (in the job market) only if you have significant experience (and even then not that much). I suggest that anyone thinking about getting certified consider also learing how software is written in the real world. Learn the actual language of Visual Basic and how to write code before attempting to pursue a career or take certification exams.
Rating:
Summary: This book accomplishes its objectives.
Review: Using this book alone you can pass 70-175 and 70-176. You can not learn VB from this book, it assumes you know VB and would like to prove that by getting certified. I have passed both tests, a 942 on 176 and high 800's on 175. It amazes me that people use certification exams to learn the subject... If you don't already know the subject, why bother with the exam?
Rating:
Summary: Leared a lot for the WRONG reason
Review: After reading the rave reviews this book is getting, I'm worried about what else may be out there. While this book is full of information, there are several mistakes PER CHAPTER. In the first three chapters alone there are at least 8 mistakes in the labs and the test questions. In several of the labs the screenshots don't match what the text tells you to do. If you follow the labs as written, often you'll find they tell you to do something that can't be done from where they've lead you to. The sidebar examples don't match up with the text, which is confusing for someone new to VB. I found though, that in trying to make the labs work I had to do a lot of research on my own, this is where I learned the most. I took the transcender exams and found that almost 1/3 the questions on there are in topics or issues that this book didn't even touch. The MCSD In A Nutshell book is a must have companion to this one. I wouldn't rely on this book alone to guarentee a passing grade.
| 
