Customer Reviews

MCAD/MCSD Training Guide (70-316): Developing and Implementing Windows-Based Applications with Visual C# and Visual Studio.NET

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With a strong ASP.NET background but weak Windows Forms background, I read this book, merely reading though the labs and not studying in any other way, and passed the test readily. If you are new to .NET, it's better to start with the appropriate chapters of "Programming .NET" by Prosise. But with the basics of .NET under your belt, Kalani's book is great. I would say 95% of what was on my test was well covered by this book.

Kalani makes it all seem straightforward -- which is a nice change from some other authors who would have you believe that all this new stuff is tricky. His examples are really awesome: simple enough to follow quickly, yet teach the new point decisively. I do not think a seasoned programmer can learn this stuff in a faster or clearer way. The screen shots are nice and small, so that you aren't flipping through page after page of them.

The "Apply Your Knowledge" sections at the end of each chapter are very good at stamping what you just read into your brain a little better, and to highlight some important facts that were understated or even left out of the chapter proper. (For this last reason, these sections are required reading.) The "Exam Questions" in these sections are easier than most real test questions, but that is good because their purpose is not to frustrate you but to help you lock in your knowledge. (However, I didn't even try the practice tests at the end of the book or on the CD's.)

There are maybe 100 or 200 grammatical errors, almost always dropping a word such as "the" or "a". But this is not a big deal in a book of this size, and it does not cause the reader any grief.

Even after the test, I'm glad I have this book because the excellent samples will be very handy for reference at work.

Now the one and only area where the book is weak relative to the test is on security and authentication, the last chapter. Although it is clear and very well written (other authors can make this stuff seem like Greek) there are things missing -- such as a discussion of the GenericIdentity class -- which are covered by the exam.

So I recommend getting this book (I do not think you will find a better book for passing the exam), but further augment your knowledge of security and authentication with the Microsoft documentation.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. This is a great book for passing the 70-316 exam (I did with this as my only book.) and for learning C#, if you already have experience with a language like Java or C.

At first I was not sure about the book because it looked weak on in-depth-ness of examples. However, I found that it took me about 180 hours of study time to get through this book and the examples were great.

There are a few mistakes in this book (maybe four I can think of), but they are minor. As usual, Que Publishing and Mr. Kalani did a great job.

I am definitely going to use the same series for the 70-315 and 70-320 exams.

I am self taught in Access VBA - so object oriented programming, C#, and even visual studio are all totally new to me. This book was able to take me from being totally stupid and get me to the point where I did very well on the exam. It is a thick book - and I did take take the time to do ALL of the exercises. I also reviewed it about 4 times (remember, this is totally new to me). I also used the Transcender practice exams. They were definitely worth the money as they were an accurate gauge of my ability to pass the exam - and the questions were similar to ones on the actual exam. The reason for the missing star is that this book does a poor job of explaining to a newbie how to handle events and how to use delegates in event handling - it assumes that you actually know something about this topic. I had to read Jesse Liberty's book - just the chapters on event handling - in order to understand this topic.

Overall, it's an excellent book that is well written. The practice exercises are educational and when I finished studying the book, I had the skill to actually create my own .net pages. I would also recommend that you actually type in all of the practice excercises (vs. using the code on the included CD) as a way to better learn the material. The other recommenation is to go to the book's website and download the errata.pdf. Some of the practice samples have updated code.

This book includes thousands of useful examples that I use in my real life. The book is easy to understand and really helpful.

Compared with any other book it is the best for the 70-316 exam.

It includes 15 chapters with 15 question each one (225 questions) and 75 extra questions.

This is exactly the book that I was looking for.

I passed the exam in the first chance with a score of 980/1000 !!.

Obviously I used transcender and the MSDN, but 70 % of the studies were based on the book.

Amit Kalani is an extremely good writer. Congratulations for the book !!.

I bought this book 3 months before the exam. Studying 5-6 hours 2 days a week for aboout 10 weeks really helped me to pass the exam for the very first attempt.

Presentation of StepByStep examples was very useful.
Everything on the exam is thoroughly covered in the book.

I passed the exam, using just this book.

I found this book really good, especially when I did not have a whole lot of experience with windows forms in .net. The book covered most of the required topics in enough detail and the practical exercises helped with understanding of topics that I had less knowledge of. You will want to read up on security separately as the book doesn't cover enough on the topic. However, the practice exam included is nowhere near hard enough as a representation of what to expect. I used this book, the included practice exam, along with the Transcender exam and found these were enough to pass the exam first go.

If you're studying for the MCSD or MCAD then you've got to get the QUE certification books. This book is also an excellent resource for learning Windows.Net even if you aren't taking the certifications.

I read the 70-315 book first, as ASP.NET is my area of expertise. Depending on how you like to study, it might be a good idea to read both the 70-315 and the 70-316 before taking both exams. This way you can glean the differences between ASP.NET internet and Windows.NET considerations.

I like to concentrate on the differences between Windows.Net and ASP.NET. On Windows, drawing and printing are more important, the runtime runs on the client, and session is not the issue it is on the internet.

This volume has all the features of the Que Training Guide series. Amit is an excellent author. The material is presented in a step by step format.

I can't stress this enough: do the step by steps and exercises. When you come out the other side of this book, you'll be very good at Windows.Net.

Highly recommended.

I just passed the exam, using just this book and the trancender exams. There were a few things on the exam that I can think of that were not in the book or the trancenders (like 3 questions out of 58), but overall I think this is an excellent book. I used the book to prepare myself for the Trancenders, and the trancenders to make sure I was ready for the test. The reason that I am giving this book 5 stars is that I passed all of the tests for the previous version of the MCSD (VB6, etc..) and none of the books that I used for those exams prepared me as well as this one did. Everything on the exam is thoroughly covered in the book, and if you take the time to go through all of the chapters and do all of the excercises, I would say that this book is really all you need.

I just passed the 70-316 today by self-study using this book, ONLY this book and no other books or online exam.
Before using this book, I used to try some sample code, just a very begginner level.
It is a excellent book for those who know C# syntax and something about VS.NET. It help you to learn VS.Net step by step in very organized way. EXCELLENT!!!

Anyone looking for a single book to give them everything they need to know to pass the exam is simply asking for too much. That said, this is the best self-paced training and study book available. The presentation and breadth of the material covered is excellent. Use this in addition to the material available at MSDN and some decent practice exam software and you should be in good shape. One caveat: don't waste your time with the Prep Logic exam on the accompanying CD -- it's terrible.