MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework Application Development Foundation, Second edition [Hardcover]

Tony Northrup (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735626197 | ISBN-13: 978-0735626195 | Publication Date: November 12, 2008 | Edition: 2nd Updated, Revised ed.

Your 2-in-1 Self-Paced Training Kit. Fully updated and revised! Ace your preparation for the skills measured by MCTS Exam 70-536—and on the job. With this official Microsoft study guide, you’ll 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 learning to:

• Develop applications that use system types and collections
• Validate input, reformat text, and extract data with regular expressions
• Create services and multi-threaded applications
• Implement code-access security and role-based security
• Implement serialization to read and write complex objects
• Leverage legacy code using interoperability
• Monitor and troubleshoot applications
• Create applications for a global audience

Practice Tests assess your skills with 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.

Your kit includes:

• 15% exam discount from Microsoft. Offer expires 12/31/13.
• Official self-paced study guide.
• Practice tests with multiple, customizable testing options and a learning plan based on your results.
• 300+ practice and review questions.
• Code samples in Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual C# on CD.
• Case scenarios, exercises, and best practices.
• 90-day evaluation of Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2008.
• Fully searchable eBook of this guide.

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD:

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to [e-mail].

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tony Northrup, MVP, MCSE, MCTS, and CISSP, is a consultant and author living in New London, CT. Tony started programming before Windows® 1.0 was released, but has focused on Windows administration and development for the last 15 years. He has written about 25 books covering Windows development, networking, and security. Among other titles, Tony is coauthor of the Windows 7 Resource Kit and Windows Server 2008 Networking and NAP. You can view his animal photos, bird photos, and travel photos, read his Windows Help blog.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 794 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 2nd Updated, Revised ed. edition (November 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735626197
• ISBN-13: 978-0735626195
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > .NET
  • #50 in Books > Computers & Technology > Certification > Microsoft
  • #83 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Systems Analysis & Design

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enough to Pass, a good starting point if you're looking for more, January 15, 2009

By 

J. Comstock - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework Application Development Foundation, Second edition (Hardcover)

Overall, if you're considering taking the 70-536 exam, I recommend getting this book (not that there are a lot of alternatives). It may contain a few errors (honestly, I don't recall anything significant, right off hand), but the 2nd edition definitely alleviates at least most of the scores of pages of errors found in the first edition. Don't get the cheaper old edition: it's worth it to pay for the updated version, if only to avoid having to go through the 50+ pages of errata with the first edition.

This book does not cover everything in the same depth as the test, so if this is your only study tool, don't expect to feel completely comfortable when taking the exam or expect to "ace" it. As other posters have stated, you will need to do some of your own research if getting every question right is your goal. However, using ONLY this book as a study tool you CAN pass. Passing was my goal, and to that effect, this book accomplished its purpose effectively.

The tests provided on the CD did not seem much easier than the questions on the exam. Others may have had a different experience, but that was mine. I did notice that I "memorized" the answers rather quickly, and am glad I saved the tests on the CD until after I had already worked through the book, and could still use them to help polish my knowledge.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book but not enough, December 23, 2008

By 

Dennis Rongo "The Menace" (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework Application Development Foundation, Second edition (Hardcover)

I read this book from front-to-back and performed a lot of the exercises. For the most part, I've found errors in the answer keys within the end of chapter questionnaires and some of the coding examples given. While an error is acceptable to a certain degree, it is somehow unforgivable when it comes to studying for an exam since you need the absolute answer for everything. A book can potentially lose its credibility once a reader finds inconsistencies within its context. It's a battle but experience can play a big role in determining the best solution, even in the exam.

I may also add that the sample questions given in the book and CD are way easier than that of the real exam. It doesn't even compare. I passed it but I had to find some other way means of reading up some details/references that the book lacks. Reading this book is only half the battle. I honestly can say that this is a good starting point since it covers the basic and fundamentals of various subjects. Since the exam covers much more in-depth for each subjects, you'll find yourself looking somewhere else in addition to what you've learned from this book. I end up going to MSDN a lot just to look up a topic and find out more about it.

To sum it up, get this book as a starting point to get you on the right track then research the topics and learn the little details on your own.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you can find something better, more power to you., June 28, 2009

By 

Austin C# "austinvb" (Cedar Park, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework Application Development Foundation, Second edition (Hardcover)

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework Application Development Foundation, Second edition
I basically used this book as my only printed resourse for taking the Application Development Foundation (70-536) test. There are NO other alternative books that I know of.

This second edition of the book still has some errors in it. I attempted to read the first edition and found the number of erros appalling and distracting. I considered finding the errors on the second edition part of my training for the test. I also looked up topics that the book didn't cover on MSDN. The tests at the end of the chapters are in no way similar to the actual questions on the test but they still help in testing and consolidating your knowledge and undertanding of the topics.

As the time to take the test approached, I bought the pratice test from Transcender and found the questions it contained to be very similar to the questions on the actual test. I actually passed the test with a very high score. Getting a Transcender practice test actually gives you a better perspective of the types of questions you will encounter on the test and helps you fill in any gaps the book may have.

Good luck on the test.