Customer Reviews

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-528): Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0 Web-Based Client Development (Pro-Certification)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a good book to use for preparing for the specific exam it covers. I read it for that purpose and passed the exam on the first try. The writing is clear and the examples and practices are relevant. The typos, errors and omissions are noticeable but tolerable (somewhat expected for the first printing of this type of book). I enjoyed the writing style and especially the first few chapters that covered conceptual topics. The later chapters are a little dry--I would guess that even the author was bored by the last chapter recounting the endless minutiae of deployment and monitoring.

If you're not planning on taking this exam--get a different book. There are no tips and tricks, no in-depth coverage of how to accomplish real-world tasks, no hand-holding for novices, and a whole lot of extra chapters covering what is likely miscellany to most developers. The book is exactly what it purports to be: a training kit for the purpose of passing this particular exam.

I did pass the exam in the first attempt after one month of preparation.
This is a good reference book to start preparing for the exam.

But it is not good enough to pass the exam. You will need to do lot of
reading online. Take the practice tests provided on the CD. Go through /
read / understand the MSDN links provided on the CD under the learning
plan tab (which is displayed after you take the test).

After all these things what is most important is your experience in this
field and that if you can think the Microsoft Way?

Long story short - Can I just read this book and pass the exam - NO!

I'm only up to chapter 4, but I've already learned more about ASP.NET from this book than I ever did from MSDN tutorials. It's well-written, and has reasonably good code with plenty of room for improvement by a practical programmer who is looking to practice his design skills.

It's cheaper than taking a class (and goes into MUCH more detail than any programming class I've ever been in), more thorough than either MSDN tutorials or webcasts, and seems comprehensive enough... I suspect that a reasonably intelligent entry/mid-level person with .Net skills could read this, go through every example, and come out very well informed. Maybe not ready for senior-level work, but a better programmer for making the effort, whether they take the test or not.

I think the book covered the content well with plenty of code samples. The text is easy to read. I didn't do the labs and just reviewed the text in detail. I noticed some errors, typos, and editing problems, but it seemed to be fewer than other study guides I have used.

The review questions at the end of each section were excessively easy and did not provide good preparation for the actual exam.

The simulated exam was quite difficult and I failed it with 67% (out of 80% needed to pass). I decided to take the actual exam anyways. It was substantially more difficult than the simulated exam. The actual exam went into some extreme detail on many of the esoteric subjects, and I found myself guessing on many questions. I thought surely I would fail, but it passed me.

So, I recommend this book as a study guide. It's best to combine this guide with some serious on-the-jobs experience. Otherwise, I think it will be difficult to pass the exam.

I've struggled to form an opinion on this book, but reading the other reviews has made things clearer for me. I feel that the reviewer who gave it two stars was being overly harsh... although I do agree with some of his/her points.

The book is of no real use to anyone not writing the exam - it does not focus on giving you the kind of knowledge you need to write "real world" web applications, but rather on covering the exam objectives, as laid down by Microsoft. It does a pretty good job of covering those objectives though. I have not written the exam yet (and that of course is the real test of the book's worth), but I thought some of the sections were a bit superficial. This annoyed me at first, but realistically speaking the book would need to be 5000+ pages long to cover these many objectives with any sort of depth. You could write a 1000 page book on ADO.net and still have to leave information out, for example.

The book gives you a pretty good overall understanding of the concepts involved in each exam objective, and the labs are great at reinforcing those concepts. The authors have done a good job, but I would have liked more depth on some of the chapters. I believe it's necessary to supplement this book by using Google to get indepth knowledge of some of the topics... but then anyone who actually wants to master his/her subject matter would be doing this anyway. One book, no matter how good, can never deliver mastery of something as "big" as ASP.net.

There are some typos and mistakes, but not enough to be a problem if you are paying attention. My biggest gripe with the book (and the major reason for only 4 stars) is not actually with the book itself, but rather the test questions on the CD. Surely it can't be that hard for a Microsoft Press book to have questions that are actually close to the Microsoft exam questions in terms of complexity? If you are going to use the existence of the test-software as a "drawcard" for potential buyers, then make the questions as real as possible please. The last exam I wrote (many years ago) was C++ Distributed Applications, but the exam questions were a lot more complicated than the practise questions on this CD.

Before writing of this review I have read some rumours about the book. Some people say it does not cover all the details for the exam itself. Again as with 70-536 Training Kit from the same set I have found out that the contrary is true. It is a very good book that concentrates on main aspects of .NET web development. Even a beginner after reading the book is able to use EVERY important functionality. Of course if you are a professional you have to study and develop yourself your .NET web applications at least in order to confirm and assure what you have learned. Again the book is very self-motivating. Probably that is also the main reason why some in-depth details are missing at right places and moments. The book has all you need to master the technology and exam itself.

I am a junior level programmer for a large internet company. I've been disappointed with most programming books I've found. They are more reference than learning, tutorial based. This book however is a solid learning tool. I'm about half way through it and I'm very happy with it. The lessons in the book are great. You must know some c# already though. On the negative side a few times the book strays away from lesson based learning. For me following the step by step lessons in the books have been the best way to learn .net 2.0.

I purchased this book as part of a set, but will be reviewing just this book (70-528).

I bought this to prepare for my first certification exam. The subject focus was excellent, and very targeted to the questions on the exam. It gave me a good "starting-off" place, from where I knew what areas I needed to explore more on my own.

What I found appalling, however, was the number of errors in this book. There were careless typos (which I could let slide), but in addition there were totally inaccurate statements. For example, the word "page" might be used instead of "control", and sometimes a "NOT" was forgotten, which obviously totally changed the meaning of a phrase.

All in all, if you were familiar with the material, and were looking for a refresher, it was a good guide. Some chapters I was totally unfamiliar with, and it was still helpful because after reading the chapter, I would research it online.

The other thing that bugged me was that in some of the labs, the instructions were tedious (walking the reader through how to copy something -- "highlight the name and press control-c), but then in other places in the labs it would totally gloss over something less basic, like configuring IIS.

Overall, I was disappointed in the quality of this book, but I will continue to use them because I am unaware of any other book available. Also, the practice tests were useful.

This book really makes my day!
Its content is organized in such way that really helps us to understand "how things work". It gives basic and detailed information of the Dot.Net platform when building Web Aplications.
Great to whom wants to pass on Microsoft's 70-758 Exam!

Using this book and the CD that comes with it, I passed this test in just 3 weeks. If read from front to back, everything you need to pass is here.

Glen Johnson's half of the book was particularly sharp. His experience as a professional trainer were clearly evident; he's extremely easy to follow. Tony Northrup's half was not concise. I learned more from the end of chapter lessons than from his written contribution.