Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive but editing problems
Review: This was the most helpful material in my pursuit of my MCSD to this point. It covered more material better than some of the Microsoft Press texts. However, there were errors scattered throughout my edition (October 2000, First edition). Often these errors appeared in the review exercises at the ends of the chapters.Luckily, the publisher is on top of these and may correct them in later editions. The O'Reilly web site includes the corrections to the errors. I downloaded the corrections and found them to be a reasonable solution to the problem. O'Reilly invites its readers to submit corrections and suggestions. The process appears to be working.
Rating: 
Summary: Take the kiddie gloves off !!!
Review: This book is a work of frank honesty. James Foxall is an author who finally respects my time! (And shares my opinion on HTML interfaces) I am an everyday VB6 guy and this book didn't insult me with "This is a variable" type kindergarden stuff. In the intro Foxall says that is the type of book it will be and it turns out it was not lip service. He delivered on his promise. I used this book exclusivly to pass both 70-175 & 70-176 on the same day. Today, btw. I would recomend this book alone for everyday VB folks and and this book with a companion book for entry level people. I learned a great deal from this book. Not only what I needed to pass the tests, but, day to day items that are now demystified. Usefull nuggets fell out of this book in nearly every chapter.
I am a tech editor and I read development/concept books literally every day. So I say with authority, If you are not going to take the tests, Buy this book! If you are going to take the tests, Buy this book! You will benifit as well as your organization will benefit.
Rating:
Summary: Bad paper cover but good in content
Review: The paper cover is bad, not well glued to the paper. However, I bought this book as it has high star rating and I find it so. Then, I agree with others who gives high rate but I truly disagree with the quality of paper cover finishing.
Rating:
Summary: Very impressive:
Review: I am a VB developer with four years experience. I decided to pick up this book to fill in the gaps in my skill-set. However, I found it so well written and comprehensive, I decided to start preparing for the 70-176 exam. As far as it being a tool for preparing for that exam, I would would highly recommend it. It spares us from the arrogantly overused techno-jargon that you find in most books. It uses diagrams appropriately to supplement its explanation of concepts and it also includes end-of-chapter quizes and assignments to help you retain its lessons. (Do the assignments! Doing is learning in the IT field.) I have the October 2000 edition and I must say that I was less than impressed with the typographical errors, but at least they are not counter to the point of the lessons. I hear the later edition is better. Had it not been for the errors, this book would have received 5 stars. Good luck.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book.
Review: I agree with the other assesment in that this assumes a moderate to advanced level of knowledge... but who else would be going toward MCSD if they didn't have this already? This book is a timesaver due to this fact. The book is well written and covers most subjects with enough detail to not only pass the exams but actually understand the material.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy any other!
Review: This book is simply the best preparation guide for MCSD certifications exams. I wonder why there aren't more books of the author out there. I read four other guides for 70-176 and 70-170 from Microsoft and Sybex. The training kit from Microsoft is good, but for beginning developers. The Sybex guides are awful. Believe me if you need to go to basics, get the Microsoft guide and then go to MCSD in a Nutshell to get all answers for the exams.
Rating:
Summary: High content/$$ ratio
Review: Some books are dog-earred by the time that you're done with them. My copy of this book, on the other hand, has been folded back so many times it's grown wings. I passed the 70-176 (1000/1000) & 70-175 (900/1000) using this book as my primary study guide. Having read many VB, Java, C++, etc. books, I have found found very few that combine good readability, in-depth content, and low price. This one does all that. To give you an idea of the depth of the content, my 2nd time through the book I took notes on the key points. I ended up with 250 pages of notes. That's quite a bit of key points packed into a <600 page book. Another couple of nice things about this book (& O'Reilly, in general) are the font and binding. O'Reilly is one of the few IT publishers that realizes that smaller fonts are actually more readable and allow more content on fewer pages. Also, the binding allows you to lay the book open on a page, and it actually stays open - nice when you're working through examples. It's worth noting that you will need to supplement the data access portion with the ADO help file and plenty of practice. That is the only area that I found seriously lacking. The other area that is doesn't cover is Microsoft's data services/business services/user services tiers, but questions related to this on the exams are fairly straightforward. If you're taking the exams, read this book, write plenty of code to cover the tests subjects, and supplement with MSDN & ADO help.
Rating:
Summary: A must have
Review: This book is great. Unlike those very thick books, the author deals with the topics that you REALLY need in order to pass the exam. I recently passed one of the exam and I give lot of credit to this book. It is also indispensible reference after you used it as a reviewer. To James Foxall, I really admire your writing style. To those who want to pass the exam, you'll be sorry if you don't have a copy of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good for preparing for Desktop exam
Review: I used this book for preparing for the desktop exam. Make no mistake about it, it does not teach you how to program in Visual Basic. But if you feel comfortable in the VB, I dont think there is a better resource out there to help you get ready for the exam.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing like this out there
Review: I am a project manager at a consulting company and have been looking for a good book for the
MCSD exam. I have several books on VB in my collection but all of them
explain about syntax and no more. I borrowed this book from a colleague and
read just 1 chapter and I was SOLD. I immediately went online, ordered the
book and have been religiously reading it everyday. What I like about your
book is that it explains about technology rather than syntax etc which is
what most books try to sell. I am enjoying every word of it and plan to take
the desktop exam by the end of the year.
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