MCSD Training Guide: Visual Basic 6 Exams [Hardcover]

Howard Hawhee (Author)

Book Description

Series: MCSD Training Guide | Publication Date: March 25, 1999

Each Training Guide will be organized around the exam objectives. This makes it very easy for readers to focus on areas where they need to improve. It also helps them identify what the key topics on the exam will be.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Each Training Guide will be organized around the exam objectives. This makes it very easy for readers to focus on areas where they need to improve. It also helps them identify what the key topics on the exam will be.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1248 pages
• Publisher: Que (March 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735700028
• ISBN-13: 978-0735700024
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.2 x 2.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (125 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,261,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book for 70-176 exam preparation, November 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: MCSD Training Guide: Visual Basic 6 Exams (Hardcover)

This book is the best yet published for preparing for exam 70-176, desktop applications. Many books, particularly the Microsoft Press books, cover only a subset of the exam objectives. Hawhee covers them all and covers them with a minimum of fluff. The exercises in Hawhee will help those without VB development experience gain some of the hands-on experience they need to be successful. The exam questions Hawhee includes are quite close in terms of difficulty to what you'll face on the exam. There's two groups of folks who'll probably be unhappy: those who are annoyed by typos and those preparing for exam 70-175, distributed applications. If you're one of those folks who gets annoyed by typos, why not go with a book that doesn't prepare you as well but has fewer errors? You'll be happier. For exam 70-175, there is not yet an adquate exam prep book. You'll want to work with books specifically on MTS, COM and ADO or spend some time with the MSDN docs.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but way too big for this exam, January 10, 2000

By 

David C. Gikandi "land.co.ke" (Mombasa, Kenya) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MCSD Training Guide: Visual Basic 6 Exams (Hardcover)

This is a great book. Its one of the easiest to follow and understand. Very well written (except for some typos, but that's OK). If you are looking to understand stuff quick, this book is it. The only downside is that it is way too big! You get bored soon and stop paying attention. Plus it covers maybe 60% more than the exam needs. For example, the questions on MTS in the exam can be covered in about 2 pages or three worth of text in a book. But this book has two chapers on it! Too much detail! So halfway through I realised that I should use an exam cram and then use this book as support where necessary. The best is the MCSD VB6 Distributed Exam Cram which can be used even for the desktop exam since most of the material is the same anyway. That cram book is excellent! Just covers what is needed and no more! So use that and when you don't understand something go back to the big book. All in all, these two books would be your best bet. I passed the exam with 871 and I am new to VB!

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Error-rich, but thorough, well-written and well-designed, July 22, 1999

By 

Ken Crosson (Kennesaw, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MCSD Training Guide: Visual Basic 6 Exams (Hardcover)

Howard Hawhee's VB5 exam review (Que) was an outstanding resource for Visual Basic in general, not just for the test. It covered most every significant area of VB programming in a relatively easy-to-understand format. A few sections contained factual errors or were unclearly written, however, and much, if not most, of the sample code was incorrect. Sometimes it was simple syntax errors -- more often, the code samples had fatal flaws in design. For more confident readers, this could cause confusion at first, and irritation after a while; for people relying on the VB5 exam guide to teach them the language, this could cause, literally, hours of anxiety and numerous consultations with both human and literary resources.

Sample code should be perfect. No exceptions.

In many ways, the VB6 edition (New Riders) is even better than the VB5, but it is characterized by a frustratingly high level of cut-and-paste laziness. Errors that never should have made it past a rough edit in the VB5 edition were included verbatim in the VB6 edition. Nonetheless, the book covers every subject on the exam, and covers them all rather well. The CD-ROM included with the book is excellent, the sample exam questions (both in the book and on the CD) are realistic and thorough, and the CD has the entire text of the book in a searchable Adobe reader format. It's a nice bonus. The "Fast Facts" section is the most useful appendix one could wish for, with all of the important elements of the book condensed into about thirty pages. It is an outstanding review, and very helpful to read right before going into the test. (The "Fast Facts" section seems to be a characteristic of New Riders' exam guides, and by itself should earn them the first look when considering exam guides on the market.)

This book would be excellent for anyone with some VB experience trying to prepare for the MCP exams. A novice would likely be confused by the errors, and find this exam guide lacking in VB fundamentals. (Although the book includes an appendix covering most of the essentials of VB, in general the text presumes a working knowledge of Visual Basic. The VB5 book did a better job of covering the basics.)

Overall, this is a good choice of exam guide. Hopefully, future editions/future printings will exhibit better proofreading and closer scrutiny of code samples. (So far at least two different publishing companies have failed miserably to ensure adequate editing of Mr. Hawhee's work.) The sample code should be taken with a grain of salt; the book as a whole, however, is good work, and valuable exam preparation.