Rating: 
Summary: 90% rehash of (irrelevant) Windows Architecture I & II books
Review: Someone said the publishers shouldn't be blamed - the book was written based on the MS beta. I took and passed the beta and also retook and passed the live exam (I taught a class to prepare 8 students for the exam). There were almost no changes, other than the beta being much longer. It even appears that the variety of questions on the live exam are simply subsets of scenarios and questions from the beta - no new material at all. So, in my opinion, the publishers should definitely be blamed for the inappropriate content in this book. While this book has a small amount of new and useful material (the 3 scenarios at the beginning in particular), the overwhelming majority is verbatim reprints from Sybex's obsolete Windows Architecture I and II study guides. Ben Ezzell was listed as author for I, but not II, though there are plainly identical chapters from both books. The MSF material is the worst offense - absolutely unrelated to exam material (again, even the beta). I have all 3 books (WinArch I, WinArch II, 70-100) and assure you that entire chapters have been copied wholesale - I'm not talking about similarities. I wonder how 'Ben Ezzell' can be listed as the sole author of material that originally appeared in a book he received no credit for. Clearly, this was a hack job to try to get to market quickly. The New Riders 70-100 book actually looked worse - with possibly all recycled material from WinArch (but I don't have their old books to compare - they might have actually rewritten all of that irrelevant material). So pickings are unfortunately slim so far. I see MS just released an 'official' book/cd for this exam. I would certainly give that a shot before this one. Mr. Ezzell's comments comparing the test to an intelligence test are accurate. It's largely reading comprehension. But if you think you need help compensating for limited real world experience and/or test taking skills, I think this book is a poor value. Sybex's 'Test Success' companion to this book is a little more on track, and perhaps a model for what this book should have been: about 300 pages shorter and $20 cheaper.
Rating:
Summary: Don't even bother
Review: The MCSD 70-100 test can only be passed by having real world experience. The book never provides the depth necessary to understand the concepts on the exam.
Rating: 
Summary: Exam 70-100: An interesting challenge
Review: The new MCSD exam (70-100) presents an interesting challenge in several respects. In one sense, the exam is almost an intelligence test, depending more on common sense than memorized facts. This is quite fitting since the title is "Solution Developer" -- and the qualities required for true solution development are distinctly different from common programming tasks. As the author of the exam guide, my challenge has been to guide you to success in taking the exam by showing you how seeming complex problems can have very simple solutions ... if you look at them clearly. Not that all solutions are simple, of course, but all problems do require the same clear analysis before attempting to create and define a solution. I hope you will find this book both useful and, at the same time, providing entertaining challenges.
Rating:
Summary: Worst technical book I have seen in a long time
Review: This book fails in a bad way. It needs to analyze the requirements of the reader and then present that solution (a new book). The scenarios are full of errors and editorial shortcomings and lack consistency in their approach. Statements like "this answer is obvious" help rationalize many answer explanations. The author's whimsical comments are nothing short of irritating and seem only to fill in gaps that could be used to present an erudite exposition of the subject at hand. If you are concerned with learning something besides what might be on the test, books like Instant UML offer a detailed and professional perspective on business analysis and requirements. But any good modeling books will provide the context and basis for analysis through implementation. The only reason this book gets one star is because its glossary is adequate.
Rating:
Summary: nodda
Review: Unfortunately, this book does not prepare you for the exam. The book contains a lot of redundant material and leads you into a lot of areas not necessary for writing the exam. The case studies were the only part of the guide that were worth using but his answers were confusing and condescending at times. In addition, the questions the cases present are not fully explained in the book. Definately NOT for the 70-100 exam.
Rating:
Summary: nodda
Review: Unfortunately, this book does not prepare you for the exam. The book contains a lot of redundant material and leads you into a lot of areas not necessary for writing the exam. The case studies were the only part of the guide that were worth using but his answers were confusing and condescending at times. In addition, the questions the cases present are not fully explained in the book. Definately NOT for the 70-100 exam.
Rating:
Summary: Not designed to make you pass 70-100
Review: Using this book for the 70-100 exam is like studying a dictionary to write a one page essay. The author's attitude and arrogance is unbelievable at times with comments like "if you missed that then you obviously were not paying attention" - how distracting and annoying is that? The answers to the questions in this book are all subject to interpretation and this makes it harder to use as an exam preparatory guide. The book should be taken off the shelves and re-written to cover more case studies - after all, that is the focus of the exam!
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