Customer Reviews

MCSD Analyzing Requirements and Defining .NET Solution Architectures Exam Cram 2 (Exam 70-300)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

First, I totally agree with the reviewer who said this book isn't for you if you're not trying to pass the exam. It's all about the exam and is not intended to be anything more than an exam study guide.

I read this book, the Microsoft Study Guide for 70-300, and most of the Osbourne book for this exam. I'm totally convinced that this book is the best of the three. Having recently passed the exam, I can say without hesitation that this book was a big help. The other two books overemphasize the Microsoft Solutions Framework, which is a Microsoft System Development Methodology. While you will need some perspective on the MSF to pass the exam, this overemphasis is very misleading.

If you need to pass the exam, my suggestion would be to use this book as your major source of study. For any areas that you don't feel really well-versed in, read applicable MSDN articles to get the Microsoft spin on security, layering, deployment strategies, requirements analysis, design, globalization/localizaton, etc. I do recall that the test had a few questions on ORM and not many on UML.

I would be inclined to rate this book more positively were it not for two things. First, the sample test that came on the CD really bore almost no resemblance to the real rest. It was laden with typos and got into some really esoteric things that the exam didn't deal with at all. Secondly, the book delved into some areas, like Yourden/DeMarco-style Data Flow Diagrams and some organizational theory, that I think are not relevant to the exam. These topics not addressed in the exam nor in the Microsoft Study Guide. Further, I don't think there's anything in the MSDN Library that would imply that they would be covered. I also think that Exam Cram isn't extremely accurate in how the MSF is represented.

But, it does seem to be your best option for this particular certification exam.

I just passed the 70-300 exam and used this book to study for it.

The book is a comprehensive review of everything that you may need to know for the exam. However, some sections are repeated without any good reason. The questions at the end of each chapter are similar in nature to the ones that I saw on the exam.

It took me 12 days, spending about an hour - an hour and half per day, to get through the book. I did pass the other .Net tests before I read the book, so majority of the material was a review.

Although I do have many years of experience as an architect, I found a lot of useful information in this book that will help me design better products and solutions in the future.

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.

Although I passed the test, I wasn't very satisfied with this book. When I didn't already understand something before I started, I often found their explanations hard to understand. Sometimes an additional small piece of information was needed to grasp the concept, or the wording was ambiguous or incorrect in some subtle way that made it hard to follow.

For example, I had a hard time understanding the notation for Object Role Modeling until I found Terry Halpin's excellent explanation at [...]. Another trivial example is the sample error message exhorting users to make sure that "all numbers are numeric." Of course I know exactly what they mean in that case, but it illustrates the quality of the writing.

On the positive side, they cover all the material and give lots of references in case you need more information. The alerts are good, too.

I must say that several people recommended this book to me, so not everyone shares my concerns. Perhaps I'm spoiled by reading Amit Kalani's excellent books in preparing for other exams. Also, I am not familiar with other books on this subject, so I cannot offer a comparison. This is what I used, and it was good enough.

I chose this book over the MS Press offering because of the emphasis on case studies and practice that was more closely matched to the real exam. I highly recommend it to anyone (especially the "classic" MSCD people working toward MCSD.NET certification) about to take the exam. You can go thru this book at different speeds, depending on your prior background.

Hint: If you find this book in the bookstore, take a peek at Chapter 12 and at the links at the end of each chapter.

I gave up on the MS Press 'training kit' book about half way through. Fortunately this book was an easy read, great preparation for the exam, and even included additional advice for the real world. In fact, I wish more people in the IT field would read this to better understand the context in which they work. Be aware that this is not technical beyond helping you understand which business problems suggest which technologies (web site, web service, windows application, ...)

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.

After attempting to read the MS study guide, I had come to the conclusion that the Microsoft Solutions Framework was just a bunch of UML rebranding, hastily cut and pasted together by lone wolf code hacks with no interest in organized software development. This book has led me to believe that I may be wrong. It IS a bunch of UML rebranding, but MSF still forms a lucid useful framework.

The book is packed with helpful real world advice and is a down to earth pleasurable read, even if you're not taking the test. My hat's off to these guys.

I did not find this book helpful in studying for the test. While the information may be good, it did not accurately represent the material covered by the test.

The reason I am rating this book so low is because of the numerous errors I found in the practice questions. (One was a simple mathmatical conversion that an editor should have caught.) Most of the other errors were typographical and fairly easy to catch, but it made me wonder how many errors I did not find. If I bought the book to ensure I could pass the test, then I may not have the knowledge to know when the book was leading me astray.

As an added negative the preview of the PrepLogic practice exam on the CD was laughably poor. The questions and answers appeared to have been cut & pasted together multiple times. (One sentance embedded in another, the first 10 words of the sentance repeated, etc. etc.) Another problem is that the test only had multiple choice questions; there are other question types that test takers might want to practice before the test. If you want a practice test, pay the money for the Transcender one.

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.