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Rating: 
Summary: Good book for learning how to write Visual Basic code
Review: Chapter 5 contains a program using the tree view and list view. The program does not work correctly. There were no corrections or FAQ's for this book online, and it took me two weeks to get the author to write back and agree with me that the program does not work correctly. He said he will re-design it for the next version. Sorry, but that is not good enough! I can't wait until the next version to take the exam. To date, I have not received an answer from Coriolis - the publisher - as to why there are no corrections for this book online. Although the book is helpful, and covers the material I need to know, I will stick to O'Reilly and Microsoft Press in the future. They are better about providing corrections to programs that were found after printing. I am actually quite surprised the book was even published with this mistake. Just opening the program and using it for a couple of minutes would have shown that it just doesn't work.
Rating: 
Summary: No corrections online for this book
Review: Chapter 5 contains a program using the tree view and list view. The program does not work correctly. There were no corrections or FAQ's for this book online, and it took me two weeks to get the author to write back and agree with me that the program does not work correctly. He said he will re-design it for the next version. Sorry, but that is not good enough! I can't wait until the next version to take the exam. To date, I have not received an answer from Coriolis - the publisher - as to why there are no corrections for this book online. Although the book is helpful, and covers the material I need to know, I will stick to O'Reilly and Microsoft Press in the future. They are better about providing corrections to programs that were found after printing. I am actually quite surprised the book was even published with this mistake. Just opening the program and using it for a couple of minutes would have shown that it just doesn't work.
Rating: 
Summary: good prep but not enough breadth or depth
Review: I read this book and worked through the Transcender sample tests and passed the exam with a 957. I don't think I would have gotten that score without the Transcenders though. This book does cover data environment designer or data report designer. It does a poor job covering threading models and instancing behaviour of Classes. With the Transcender tests though I think you'll cover everything you need to. The Howard Hawhee book is a better choice IMHO; but this book is a 2nd or 3rd runner up.
Rating:
Summary: 4 Stars and Counting...
Review: I'm up to the 6th of 17 chapters, and I'm already very impressed. This book will, if nothing else, give you a solid grounding in VB fundementals. Very meaty code examples that are easy to understand, and each chapter walks you through a new programming project that will build on skills and tools you used in the previous chapters. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I'm not finished reading it yet... give it a try.
Rating: 
Summary: No Answers
Review: On page xix, it says "Solution Files Contain possible solutions to all the problems you are asked to create or modify in the chapters and cases." PROBLEM: the CD that came with my book does not include solutions to all the problems, or hands-on projects, at the ends of the chapters. For instance, in Chapter Two, the CD has answers, in the form of commented VB code, for Project 1, but not for Projects 2,3, or 4. The remainder of the chapters shortchange you similarly. My efforts over the last two months to obtain customer service, or effective support to solve this problem have been fruitless. Basically, I have been given the run-around, by being passed on from one person to another, until the 4th person passed me back to the first. Customer service at Coriolis can't even find Michael Ekedahl, the author. He has moved, leaving no forwarding address. There are plenty other competing VB books out on the market. Buy one of them, not this one.
Rating:
Summary: Good Preperation, Maybe TOO DETAILED for exam!
Review: Over 1000 Pages! I can see me use this book later to review some real world problems, that is why I did not give it a 3 star. For the test, it covers a lot, but sometimes it does not cover all that is asked by the Microsoft Exam Outlines. This should not be your only prep guide. I also used the MCSD 70-176 "Fast Track" book and MSDN Cd's.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe it is not for VB beginners
Review: This book goes into details to cover MCSD exam #70-176. Maybe it is not for VB beginners, if you are, you may need to read "New Rider's VB 70-176 and 70-175" first. The contents ia good, but the presentation is not as good as the New Rider's book. There are 2 set of VB #70-176 tests on CD-ROM, I like them.Answer to the "No Answer" review message:You can find the answers to the questions of each chapters on CD-ROM. You need to install Adobe 4.0 fron the CD-ROM to you machine to read/print this answers.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe it is not for VB beginners
Review: This book goes into details to cover MCSD exam #70-176. Maybe it is not for VB beginners, if you are, you may need to read "New Rider's VB 70-176 and 70-175" first. The contents ia good, but the presentation is not as good as the New Rider's book. There are 2 set of VB #70-176 tests on CD-ROM, I like them. <b>Answer to the "No Answer" review message:</b>You can find the answers to the questions of each chapters on CD-ROM. You need to install Adobe 4.0 fron the CD-ROM to you machine to read/print this answers.
Rating:
Summary: Good Learning Guide - maybe to much for the exam though
Review: This book is more of a learning manual rather than a preperation for the VB Exam. It's a great source for someone with light VB Experience as the book goes in depth on several topics and the exercises really force you to know how to apply what you just learned. As an Exam Prep though, there are better out there. I strongly recomend New Rider's Training Guide for both VB Exams, the content is good and the organization is much better and accessible than this book. I use the New Riders' Book and then went back and did all the exercises in the Exam Prep to make sure I know how to apply the information, not just know answers to test questions. But if I could return this one, I would, the New Riders Training Guide is much better.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for learning how to write Visual Basic code
Review: This book is one of the only certification books that covers the actual Visual Basic language and how to write code. All other books focuse almost entirely on the specifics of the product and the intrinsic controls. This book is definately meant for those with previous coding experience as the Summary on this page says "Assuming a familiarity with Visual Basic...." The section on object-oriented programming (OOP) is indeed interesting since this is the only certification book that address this topic. OOP is how VB is written in the real world of software. To summarize, this book addresses real world topics that real developers use all the time. Other guides focus on irrelevant topics that are nover used in a production setting. It seems funny how this book is better than any of the other "Microsoft Certified Professional Approved Study Guides", yet this book does not have that label. perhaps the authors cared less about that label because they knew they were writing a book for real developers, rather than people looking for a quick way to get an MCP title.
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