Customer Reviews

Web Applications with Microsoft Visual InterDev 6.0 MCSD Training Kit (Dv-Dlt Fundamentals)

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

 

 

70-152 is a test that at a high level comprises of 2 main categories of questions. These are the development & implementation oriented [ ASP, ADO, MTS, HTML, DHTML, FP Server extensions, Web Security etc.. ] questions, and the web application/project analysis and design oriented questions. The splitup of questions [ based on the test that I took ] is roughly around 70%-30%, 70 being the programming/development questions. This book does a damn good job in covering this portion of the test and gives a reaonable high level overview of the stuff that you need to know to address the analysis and design oriented questions. There is no book [ and no amount of text book reading ] that can teach you how to answer the questions in the latter section. The ability to get the A&D questions right totally depends on the extent to which one has understood and applied the MSF model in a real time project. One needs to agree with and think using the Microsoft mindset to get them right.

The book was almost right on target in dealing with the programming/implementation aspects [ FP Server extensions though has not been dealt with the required depth .. ] addressed by the exam. If you are a web developer who has real world experience using the Microsoft web and component technologies then this book is all you need to get you through the test.

The exam covers a wide range of technologies and the VI specific questions [ stuff about the IDE and menu commands ] constitute a small fraction. Focus on MTS, ASP, HTML, and ADO to tackle the Programming questions. Get a feel for the VI IDE and make sure that you get some hands on with using the tool to create and manage local/master mode web projects, and ASP/HTML pages. You will need to do some additional reading on the FP Server extensions as it appears on quite a number of the questions.

Use the book as a study tool and your hands on real word experience with Microsoft Technologies as your main strength to take and pass this exam.

Microsoft certification exams do not focus on the ability of a candidate to recollect text book information. They are more focussed towards real world application of the MS tools and technologies in accordance with the Microsoft mindset.

I am giving this book 4 stars [ and not 5 ] mainly because the accompanying CD ROM does not contain a single Demo/Practise test and there are no chapter end exam like questions either. This is a major draw back in the book... but not so much a factor [ especially for a candidate experienced with MS web and component technologies ] so as to overshadow its strengths.

One final point...If you do not have any hands on real world experience with the Microsoft Web/component technologies and Visual Interdev then DO NOT TAKE THIS TEST. Unlike some other tests like 'Networking Essentials' there is no way by which one can get a paper certification by taking this test. The New Track MCSD exams are challenging and definitely do test a candidate's overall technology knowledge in addition to mere product proficiency.

This book will do the trick for a good overview of Interdev and distributed applications. It touches on MTS, SQL, DHTML, and ASP. However, as with all the other MOC Training Kits, don't rely on this book to give you exam success. For a more thorough look at VID, check out the Microsoft "Mastering..." series. If you're expecting to pass the exam with this book, then I give it two stars. If you're just looking for an overview of distributed programming/Internet applications, I give it three stars.

This is a hard book to be happy about. On one hand, this is probably the best (possibly the only decent) book available to help with 70-152. On the other hand, coverage of test topics is crippling weak in level of detail. The best to be said about this book is that it does introduce you to most of the test topics, so at least you have of some idea of what topics will be tested.

Since detail is weak, you will need to supplement study. Besides this book, I bought the Transcender practice test. Here is what worked for me: First, I read the entire book (skimming areas I felt particularly confident in already). Then I repeated three times (for each of the Transcender simulations): take simulation test, re-read book section for those I got wrong, and, if still unsure, follow Transcender's recommended reading. Transcender does a good job of explaining answers and recommending reading, often from MSDN. Incidentally, I failed all three Transcender simulations by 200 to 100 points, but passed the real exam on the first attempt by 140 points.

I should add that I have been doing software development for eleven years and web development for nine months. I spent at least a month preparing for this exam. I found it to be a hard exam because it covers so many topics.

So, although I do not think this is a great book, I still recommend it. It will do a good job of orienting you to test materials. In all fairness, many of the topics are complete books onto themselves. So I guess limited detail is to be expected. Unless you are already well versed in Microsoft web development, I do not expect this book alone will make the grade. However, I found this book to be a good resource when used in cooperation with the Transcender simulations.

For some reason, Microsoft Press just doesn't seem to be able to write training guides that correspond to their own exams. The book itself is only fair. The case study is useful, but I never managed to get all the code to work. The explanations are sketchy at best. As an exam guide it is highly inadequate. The book only covers a fraction of the topics in the exam. Unfortunately, at this time it is the only MCSD book for InterDev available.

This book does an ok job describing the technologies surrounding web applications, but as a study guide it was no help at all. I read it cover to cover, and it was a complete waste of time. The exam focused on things that were not even covered in the book. To understand things at a high level, the book is ok. The only problem at the time I am writing this review, there are no other books or practice exams available to use to study for this particular exam. But when another study source comes out, I would say choose anything over this book.

Overall this book gives you the baseline for the requirements of exam 70-152. I found this book somehow inconsistent in its level of technical difficulties presented. It doesn't worth its price tag until the book goes on to MTS. Poor ASP, DHTML programming. But presentation on MTS technology is thoroughly clear, in-deep and precise. Well, at least, better than my exam preparing VB distributional books. However, there are inadequate and inaccurate information in the book. DTC and scriptlet events. Of course exam 70-175 doesn't have much to do with those issues. And yet, readers require the same level of consistency and accuracy in its content. (1)Page Object only works together with another page object presented in an ASP page. External properties calls work only in the following syntax, Poj.setproperty, or Poj.GetProperty, not the way the book says. (2)Scriptlet custom event is a result of the inability of an external window object, IE to handle detailed events of the Scriptlet object. MSFT extends a custom event sets to allow maximum programming capacities of the model. If one raises an custom event from the scriptlet say: window.external.raiseEvent "EventName", window.document (example quoted from the book, p144 ); He should program the -- Window.Document object in his customized script event because this is the object he passed from within his scriplet object. MSDN documented this but the book's example(p144) is unclassified and misleading. (3)Advising a custom DTC event is only workable if the DTC is using the client platform. It too, like scriplet, is a result of IE being unable to handle detailed events from an object it embeds. DTC would be written in VB using a ActiveX control by implements two additional interfaces. MSDN has a DTC SDK on DTC development. The book didn't mention anything on this. There are good stuff one can expect from this book though. Internal working of MTS is amazingly clear( I got 90%+ correct on this sub topic and Database in my recent VID test). RDS is cool. But please ignore the development process discussion. It is inconsistent with MSF's Mile Stone process. To its best level, what the book discussed is a waterfall development process. And one needs to refer MSDN documentation for EA and Business requirements and site Development process. ADO,SQL are okay. Finally, Frontpage server extension scatters in different chapters of the book, Becareful when reading them. I gave it a 4-star rating because of its MTS chapter.

I think that, in spite of the errors it contains (part of which are reported and corrected in Microsoft's site, included the unexplainable one of the Response.Buffer default), this book is a must reading in order to know the subjects of the exam.
Now, the cons.
I got 923 at my first test in spite of taking it in a foreign language (I'm Italian). However, If I had relied only on this book for taking it, I would have scored 200. The problem is that for some parts it is a very theoric exam. So, the questions are subject to very varied interpretations, and it's not enough to know the subject: you've got to know WHAT THE AUTHORS OF THE EXAM MEANT WHEN THEY PRODUCED IT. And it is only the simulation tests which helped me with this.
That's why most of my exam points are accounted for by the "MeasureUp" online exam simulations. I don't know about Transcender (I visited their site but it seemed a bit more expensive to me), but if you wanna take the Interdev exam, listen to me, go to Measureup. 50% of the questions of the real test were very similiar to those of the simulations, at times only the names of the variables changed! Moreover, the online test simulation suggested me there were subject I should study which absolutely weren't in the book. For instance:
WHERE IN THE BOOK do they say that a stored procedure must have a "CREATE STORED_PROCEDURE @var int AS ............" (this question WAS in the real test).
Or:
WHERE IN THE BOOK do they talk about the "System DSN"? They only speak about File and Machine DSNs! Yet the System DSN WAS in the exam!
And:
WHERE IN THE BOOK IS "CRS" (for multiple deployment) cited? NOWHERE!
So if you wanna take the exam buy the book, but do the online tests too, or you'd better not try at all.
Thanks Riccardo

This book is an excellent study guide for the MCSD exam. I passed the exam easily with this as my only resource. But...(there's always a but), this guide doesn't go into depth on the inner workings of InterDev or teach you how to use it. If you want to lean Visual Interdev 6.0, get a different book.

PROS: If you need to study for the MCSD exam, get this book. The MTS section is excellent! The ADO and RDS sections are also very good. The book (and the exam) concentrates on interactive database-driven web site design.

CONS: Like all MS Press books, there are several inconsistancies, and the labs have errors. Look at it this way, by figuring out what's wrong with the labs, you actually learn a lot.

TIPS: A couple hints, if you're taking the exam, brush up on HTML, HTTP, and web technologies in general. Don't overlook the architecture section of this book! Understand the sections dealing with why to use Client side as opposed to Server side scripting.

This book only glosses over each subject and does not go into the actual subject. If you just read this book then you will fail the test. The test really has nothing to do with Interdev 6.0 and the exam is forcused on the Web Application aspect of it. This book is focused on Interdev 6.0.

The Book mentions almost everything on the exam and gives the reader a false sense of security for the exam. If you want to buy this book then you will need to supplement it with more indepth information.

I recently took and passed the exam using the strategy described by Dale Santkuyl i.e. read this book and use Trascender. My Transcender scores were 800 and I passed the exam by 150. The exam is extremely wide ranging and the book at times simply lists items without any detail. However it does cover quite a lot of the exam material. I would not recommend this book for learning web development.

I had already passed the following exams before taking this exam 70-100 Architecture; 70-175 VB6 Distributed; 70-176 VB6 Desktop.

As part of my preparation for this and other exams I found the following books very useful (1) Jim Byens book on Web DB development (2) a basic book on HTML (3) Mary Kirtland on Designing COM Components (4)Steven Holzner for ADO 5)Howard Hawhee for the VB6 exams. I used Transcender for every exam; it worked for me.