Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I purchased this book to prepare for the 70-300 exam and it was great. The authors do a great job of brining you the most pertinent information about the material and what you will see on the exam. I passed the exam on 8/2/2003 and my preparation was done exclusively with this book.
It is also a great book to keep around if you are doing systems design.
Rating:
Summary: Well done
Review: I thought this was one of the best Exam Cram books I've ever read. I truly felt that the author had written the exam and was providing me with a targeted overview of what needed to be covered. I would highly recommend this book with another exam prep resource such as Transcender and you should be fine for the exam. I should say though that I have both of the previous versions of the MCSD too so given the fact that I have already passed 70-100 this was more of a refresher for me.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent preparation for the exam
Review: I used this book as my primary study guide for the 70-300 exam and passed last week. Like the earlier versions for the 70-100, this book gives you a great overview of everything that can show up on the exam. The writing style is friendly and conversational, really a pleasure to read. I also recommend supplementing this with the Transcender practice tests.
Rating:
Summary: This is the One to Get
Review: It is a pleasure to study for a Microsoft Exam and actually learn something along the way. This book is well conceived and well written. It covers all of the material necessary to pass the .NET Solution Architectures exam. In fact, it includes enough real-world knowledge and background information that I would suggest it for learning about Microsoft architectures even if you aren't planning to take the exam.Other reviewers have written about the execellent references that the book provides, so I won't repeat all of that here, except to say that the book was published after the exam came out and that some of the material in the book is more up-to-date than what is being tested by Microsoft. This will not pose a problem for the person taking the test, however.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: Simply the best 70-300 test prep book so far. If you seriously want to pass the exam, go ahead and get a copy.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Intro into Architecture for MS Developers
Review: The book is readable and gives a good overview of the various stages of Software Design and Development. It covers the most pertinent .NET features as well as other Microsoft Products and what they do and how they can be integrated into the solution.
The book is well structured and covers pretty much everything that comes up in the exam.
The Praxistests on the CD are shoddy, though! SHAME ON YOU, THEY GIVE THE BOOK A BAD NAME!! Full of typos, grammatical errors and wrong answers contradicting their own explanations. It's better than nothing, but frustrating and inexplicable, seeing that a few hours of editing would clean up this whole mess.
Rating:
Summary: A slightly different approach than Microsoft's Exam Guide
Review: The just-published Exam Cram 2 for .NET Solution Architectures presents a different approach than Microsoft's Exam Guide which I recently reviewed. Both books appear good and my initial reaction is recommend both as there are areas that each cover that are not covered in the other book. If you must choose only one, I recommend this one. Interestingly both books have almost the same number of pages - slightly under 500. Overall in the Exam Cram book, there's much more exam-taking and strategy discussion. This book also appears to have much more up-to-date information including extensive discussion of XML. I was also impressed with the amount of just good practical information in the Exam Cram vs. the Microsoft book. Another plus for this book is it's statement that much of the actual exam involves case studies where a wide range of information is tested on each case as opposed to the earlier 70-100 Solutions Architecture Exam where only a narrow range of topics were quizzed on each case. The Microsoft guide has no case studies in the text as opposed to the Exam Cram version that is chock full of thought-provoking case studies. There is also ample discussion of how this exam uses questions where you must move things around (drag & drop, etc.) as opposed to the classic programming exams that are largely multiple choice. I still haven't taken the actual exam, so I can't speak to which book covers more of the material. The Transcender practice tests for this review aren't due to be ready until June 2003 either. I plan to study both of these books and practice on the Transcender exams when they become available.
Rating:
Summary: glad I waited
Review: This book is now on the shelves in the bookstores. It is different than the Microsoft Press one. It is loaded with case studies and practice questions. The writing style is easy to read and the links to other material are GREAT! If you're planning on taking the 70-300, consider this book.
Rating:
Summary: Tons better than the Microsoft book
Review: This is a focused book - focused on the exam. The microsoft book is a propaganda book for the microsoft method and MIGHT be useful in general terms. However, this one has personality and examples, whereas the Microsoft book is dry, humorless, and is little more than an endless series of lists. This book seems to be written by a person who has a lot of experience doing analysis and design and really wants to comunicate knowledge, whereas the Microsoft book seems written by a computer.
Rating:
Summary: Better than most
Review: This is the best study guide for 70-300, but it isn't a home run like the Exam Cram 2 series for other exams (like 70-315). There was a lot of redundancy and emphasis on operations-level aspects, though the emphasis on the logical data model was done alright. I felt I was being told too much reference info (like the DFD example). The book could be improved by turning every end-of-chapter summary into a case study exam, and reworking the practice tests into better case-study examples. I passed the exam thanks to this book, chapter 1 of the MS Press book, and the Transcender exam.
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