MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-516): Accessing Data with Microsoft® .NET Framework 4 [Paperback]

Glenn Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0735627398 | ISBN-13: 978-0735627390 | Edition: Pap/Cdr

EXAM PREP GUIDE Ace your preparation for the skills measured by MCTS Exam 70-516—and on the job—with this official Microsoft study guide. Work at your own pace through a series of lessons and reviews that fully cover each exam objective. Then, reinforce and apply what you’ve learned through real-world case scenarios and practice exercises.

Maximize your performance on the exam by mastering the skills and experience measured by these objectives:

• Modeling data
• Managing connections and context
• Querying data
• Manipulating data
• Developing and deploying reliable applications

PRACTICE TESTS Assess your skills with the practice tests on CD. You can work through hundreds of questions using multiple testing modes to meet your specific learning needs. You get detailed explanations for right and wrong answers—including a customized learning path that describes how and where to focus your studies.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Glenn Johnson is a trainer and writer focusing on ASP.NET, ADO.NET, C#, and .NET internals. He is author of Programming Microsoft® ADO.NET 2.0 Applications: Advanced Topics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; Pap/Cdr edition (June 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735627398
• ISBN-13: 978-0735627390
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #208,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > Visual Basic

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Expansive yet still incomplete September 27, 2011

By A. Anderson

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I just passed this exam. The material that the book does cover, it covers well. The problem is that the exam covers way more material than the book could contain. If you only study the contents of this book and then go to the exam, you will find yourself blindsided by many of the questions. I recommend that this book serve as a foundation to begin studying with. Then, take the practice exams on the included CD. Any time you miss a question, go and read everything related to that topic on MSDN. This will take a lot of time, as much time as it takes to read this thick tome of a book, but you really need to if you want to pass this exam.

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Incomplete September 28, 2011

By Will

Format:Paperback

Before I start ranting I will say that what the book covers, it does in a way that is easy to read and understand.

On to the ranting.

I took the 70-516 exam today and did not pass. I received a 640 and of course needed a 700. I was not a slouch in preparing for this exam. I have four years of programming experience on the job. I read through this study guide, twice. I did the suggested practices and took the practice exams in study mode from the accompanying CD. I read the MSDN articles suggested by the learning plans after taking the practice tests. I even signed up for a month of pluralsight.net and watched every training video they had on the Entity Framework, OData, Linq Quering etc...

When I went in to take the exam I felt confident that I knew the material and would pass with now problems [ I did on my previous two exams 70-513 and 70-516 using the same techniques ]. But while taking the exam I was completely blindsided by many of the questions. In particular what the questions covered and how much detail they went into.

There is no coverage in the book or the practice tests for case studies or testlets. It does not focus on the areas needed to pass the exam and gives only a very basic overview of the topics that could be on the exam.

So in conclusion. Since this book is a training kit for a particular exam I would expect after reading it and utilizing the resources suggested by the book to be able to pass the exam as long as I did my part. I did my part, the book did not. If you buy this book make sure it is not your only resource for studying. Make sure you know each objective completely and thoroughly. A passing knowledge of a subject will not get you through the exam and neither will this book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not enough detail, some topics not covered at all February 15, 2012

By James Burkill

Format:Paperback

I bought this book with the expectation, due to a perusal of the Amazon reviews, that it wouldn't be sufficient to pass the exam. It lived up to those expectations.

I can't go into any great detail due to Microsoft's non-disclosure agreement, but I will say that there are questions on the exam that require intimate knowledge of particular classes that are not referenced at all in this book. As others have noted, topics that are covered are not covered in enough detail, but there are also topics not covered that should be.

In the end, I managed to pass with a score of 94%. This was achieved by purchasing, in addition to this book, Julia Lerman's "Programming Entity Framework" (for the necessary detail on EF) and relying heavily MSDN articles for other topics.