Customer Reviews

MCAD Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual C#(TM) .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio(R) .NET Exam Cram 2 (Exam Cram 70-315)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book cuts to the chase regarding what you need to know to pass exam 070-315. With a single page, Amit Kalani teaches the same key development skills that require about 6 pages of reading in the counterpart Microsoft Press Book. It's nice to have the MS Press books and VS.NET online help as references to answer questions that arise as you study, but you'll save valuable time with this book! I passed all three MCAD exams on the first try. By the time I got to the third exam, I realized that I only needed to study with this book to prepare and I scored a whopping 90%!

NOTE: If you are planning to take the MCAD exams, please realize that nothing can replace real-world experience with VS.NET. Before using this book to cram for the exam, get a solid understanding of C# and ADO.NET. I recommend "Inside C#, Second Edition" by Archer & Andrew Whitechapel and "Microsoft ADO.NET (Core Reference)" by Sceppa.

This book must be among the best technical books ever.

The book is a recap of the big blue Training Guide for the same Exam and by the same publisher and Author--which is also outstanding. However, this book is a later release so the items in the errata have been included in this book.

The differences:

The training guide has 95% of the material in this book (often with the same paragraphs, diagrams, samples, questions, etc. so don't buy both books like I did) plus additional practical examples, questions, and answers. For someone with less than a few years of experience with web development and less than 1 year with C# and ASP.NET, I suggest buying the training guide instead of this book. But for the more experienced and busy, this book might be just right. The sample code often only have relavent segments of a program which make the book a lot more compact. If you read sample code on other books, sometime you wonder if these people are trying to impress the readers too much with their 100 line program with only 10 lines of relavent information. Even MSDN is like that very often.

There's a few typo's I've found in this book, but that's it. No completely off the wall and difficult to spot errors I've found so far--I'm sure an errata section will be available soon for this book. I'm presuming the reason why his books are better is because the author runs his own Microsoft Certified Training Center.

I'd pick Kalani's books over Microsoft Press books any day. Books are cheap compared to other preparation material. So even if you already have a training guide for this exam or even if you already past the exams, I think his books will make great addition as a future reference and/or for supplimental exam preparation tool.

Like all the other Exam Crams in the C# series, this book is exceptional. If you had to pick one resource only to prepare this would be it. In fact, I think you could pass the exam simply by reading this book, answering the questions at the end of each chapter, and taking the two practice exams at the end of the book.

If you are preparing for 315, you would be making a big mistake by not getting this book.

I spent weeks methodically going through the MS press book and picked this up for review five days before the exam. What a shock! The MS book hadn't organized and clearly explained 80% of the material as well as Amit Kalani. The end-of-chapter questions and sample tests clearly pointed out my gaps as well as Microsoft's test question style, which raised my scores on practice tests by 25%. I have experience working with webapps/ADO.NET, but never would have passed the exam without this book.

This book provides excellent preparation for 70-315. It's a very fast read because it only covers exactly what you need to pass the exam.

Each chapter is oriented around one of the stated exam objectives. Illustrative, simple examples are included in many of the chapters. The examples are particularly useful when covering a topic that requires more space than is available in an Exam Cram book.

I highly recommend answering the "test prep" questions at the end of every chapter as well as taking at least one of the two included exams. The questions were great preparation for the questions on the real exam.

Except for the occasional reference to MSDN this book is the only one I used to study for the exam and passed it within 3 weeks of starting the book. I highly recommend it.

This book is very good in preparing, and explainging most if not all of the concepts that a developer must know to pass the exam. The book is loaded with examples and they work very well in explaining the concepts.
If you want to study for the exam, and know everything to be expected in the exam, use this book from Que. I would highly recommend!
It comes with a companion CD that contains all code examples and an electonic copy of the book in pdf. You can search through the pdf and jump right into that chapter!

This certification study-resource from Author Amit Kalani, served as a rather indispensable part of the revision portfolio for Exam 70-315 (Web-based Application Development with C#.NET).

like the 70-320 Exam Cram book -(also by Amit Kalani), it is a very useful & sound comprehensive reference for Exam 70-315.

It served greatly in gaining both an overview of all the elements that would appear on the 315 exam,but also served well in my overall review and revision endeavours for the 70-315 Exam.

using this resource got me to the place where i felt i had covered the core objectives for the exam and was ready to move on to the next phase ie: having a go at tackling past question scenarios.

Indeed , i was glad i bought it.

what i liked about this book :
- it is a comprehensive read at slightly over 400 pages -ie:[404pages],the 2 Testing chapters non factored)
- there are exam questions after every chapter, relating to that chapter
- Answers with explanations are provided with every question featured in the book.
- The book comes with a CD which offers a .pdf, e-version of the book.

I purchased the book in question as a pair with the 70-315 Exam Training guide counterpart -(equally written by the same authors: Amit Kalani + Priti Kalani) from Que press ISBN: 0789728222.

the two books complement each other very well and provide a very fine balance between the need to train & equip the reader with the strong hands-on .NET web-application development skills he/she will require in order to thrive as a C#.NET web developper; whilst at the same time fully framing these necessary hands-on expertise , in the context & framework of the exam the reader probably seeks to take at the end of working/ploughing his/her way through the book.

Afterall...studying the material and arriving at a place where one is confident of ones capacity to develop a really functional web application is most desired, just as much as passing the exam & obtaining the certification validates this acheivement & know-how.

In addition to this 70-315 Exam Cram book, those starting out with C# may need a pure C# language reference book, in order to learn about how things are done in the C# language ie: about OO programming ie :Classes & Constructors,Abstraction & abstract data types, Structures, Casting, Encapsulation & Delegation, Inheritance,Polymorphism, Namespaces, Methods & flow control, Events & delegates, Enumerations, Interfaces,Attributes et cetera.

these are the C# language basics and need reviewing in order to understand the how & where of everything working,fitting & sitting together in C#. otherwise, things can get rather confusing come Visual C#.NET development time. (# see review for Exam Cram:70-320; ISBN: 0789728974)

Checking to verify that the .NET developper possesses this knowledge has also become a requirement at Microsoft, especially with the new .NET series of exams for Framework 2.0 ; while versions of what is essentially the Framework 3.0 Beta is already being used & embraced by lots of companies already.

the featured Exam 70-315 Exam Cram book and the 70-315 exam training guide from Que go quite some way in equipping one with this C# background knowledge, but one might still need a separate text or reference for good measure.

After working through the 70-315 ExamCram resource and using the Training guide i felt set for the next phase ie: going on to tackle past exam questions.

using Transcender and Testking more than sufficed to ensure & assure success at the exam;

Take & Ace the exam with ease: 150minutes & 43 questions.

The passing mark is 700 ie: 70%. i sat the exam on monday (10th October 2006); scored 91% ie: 910.

Good luck.

cheers :-)

Using this book, in tandem with the Transcender Exam, I easily passed the C# Web Applications Exam. The Kalani(s) do an excellent job of providing an outline of the key concepts with links to more robust sources of information. This book is an excellent value!

The 70-315 is my favorite. I love ASP.Net. Despite its smaller size than the Training Tuide, the Exam Cram still has plenty of meat.

First, read it just before you take the exam, to remind yourself of the key concepts.

Second, keep it around as a reference when the Training Guide is too heavy and Google is too light.

I also like it because I often switch among ASP, VBScript, ASP.Net, C# and PHP on any given day, and the Exam Cram is a good way to re-ground in the .Net world.

The 70-315 Exam Cram is worth a buy.

This is an excellent reference if you want to quickly brush up the topics for the exam. If you do not have hands-on experience in ASP.NET, I would suggest the Training Guide by the same author. I used the training guide initially and then used this as a quick refresher. The practice exams were excellent. They had a few questions on ADO.NET, XML and Security which were not covered in either book. I used MSDN/www.codeclinic.com (esp. for ADO.NET, Security and XML) as a supplement. Transcender was very helpful too. Overall a great CRAM book for 70-315.