Customer Reviews

MCSD Fast Track: Visual Basic 6 Exam 70-176

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I'm not an expert at VB, but I have good experience and this book was useful but not enough to get me through the test. Use this book only as a guide as to what to study in detail if you want to pass.

As the authors say, this is a book designed for experienced VB users. Works extremely well at categorizing topics in alignment with the exam's. <RANT>Newbys who try to use this or any other book to obtain the knowledge required to become certified as professionals are neither professional nor realistic in their expectations.</RANT> I had pre-ordered this book back in April and, upon delivery, registered for the exam. Read the book (not scanned, but READ) from cover to cover the weekend before and felt extremely comfortable on exam day. And passed. The areas stressed in the summary sections are the ones stressed in the exam.

I laugh when I see reviews by people who are looking for a book that supplies the exact questions with all the answers. Try a braindump site. This book is for those that have an understanding of VB and need a little more knowledge as to what is covered on the exam. If you read the FastTracks and don't fully understand the topic being reviewed, open the VB manual and actually learn something. That's its purpose.

I got my MCSD via the Win Archs and VB5 route. I've actually written code in VB. I skimmed through both of the FastTrack books and part of the VB6 Desktop Transcender and passed both exams. The only fault I see is the duplicity of material between the Desktop and Distributed books. They should have been combined.

Being an MCT and doing visual basic programming for six years, I was really disappointed in this book. The questions did not relate to the test very well, and it appeared to me that most of the questions were from the old vb5 test. This book should concentrate on test points more than an explaination of visual basic. People buy these books to brush up on test questions not learn vb. If you want a test aid skip this book and hit the transender tests.

It is easy to see why this book is such a bargain. It is nothing more than a summarized outline of VB 6, written by coders, not authors. The information is often duplicated, making it unclear. Hierarchical outline topics, subtopics, and detail items are often not distinguishable throughout the book. For example, on page 123 it even lists the term COM component within a table labeled COM components. This ridiculousness continues throughout the book, resulting in one big chaotic nightmare. Note to authors, stick to programming. This pseudocode you've slopped together and tried to pass off as a study guide is an insult to many of the fine IT authors out there that know how to write as well as code.

I just wrote the 70-176 exam and do not remember seeing one question that this book helped answer.

Do not get me wrong, the material in this book should be known by all VB Developers, but I don't feel it helped in any way with preparing for the exam.

I am also confused by several reviewers who have mentioned DHTML being on their exams. The exam I wrote did not have any questions on DHTML. Although, as mentioned, neither did this book.

I give this book 2 stars only because it was written to be an MCSD Exam Preperation book. Unfortunately, it is only a good read for VB Developers without the intention of using it for the purpose for which it was written. Otherwise it would have received 4 stars.

FYI: I did pass the exam, but it was not because I read this book, twice!

A great review for experienced VB programmers who need to "brush up" on the many minute details which may appear on the exam. However, if you are a novice (or just a lousy programmer!) then this guide will be way over your head!

This book was perfectly good for passing 176. I wrote it a couple of days after 175 and passed comfortably. I would definately say write 175 first as it is the harder of the two and will prepare you for the database questions in this one. Aside from that this book covered the controls you needed to use and generally was very useful. I recommend it, again though, for the experienced programmer, not the newbie wanting to get certified quickly.

You cannot rely on this book as the only source of studying materials. It provides a good summary of topics that are covered in the exam. I picked up a few new tricks in VB6 from this book. To pass the exam, you need more...

As one of the cheapest exam prep guides out there, you might be really tempted to buy this book. My advice is DON'T. Having taken the exam I can tell you that this book was absolutely no help at all. I finally passed the exam but mostly due to studying the Books Online and a couple of other books. Although this book is organized by exam objectives (a very good idea), most of the material is trivial and doesn't really address what Microsoft wants you to know. Don't let the low price fool you. This book isn't worth it.