Customer Reviews

MCSD Visual Basic 5 Exam Guide (Covers Exam #70-165)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I passed the VB5 certification exam today with the help of Howard's exam guide and the Transcender practice tests. The reason I took the VB5 exam instead of the current VB6 is because of the time I spent in late 1998 and into 1999 learning VB5 (also, VB5 can be used as an elective in the new MCSD track). This Exam Guide presents in a concise, comprehensive way all of the details needed for certification. Granted, there are a lot of pages to read, but the material is well organized and the layout is reader-friendly. The After-Chapter questions are helpful to determine if you really understood the material. The Mastery Test at the end gives a good overall review of the kinds of questions you can expect to see (although some are really into the excruciating details that may not be needed). I intend to use the Exam Guide as a reference book since it contains information and coding examples that may be hard to find elsewhere. It's worth your time and effort to read this book if you are serious about certification. You can bet I'll be buying Howard's "MCSD Training Guide for VB6" later this year.

With over 1300 pages, a cd-rom full of sample test questions and lab exercises, if this book doesn't cover the material for exam 70-165 then I'm not sure what else does. There are the usual "rush-to-publisher" edit errors, but not as many as I've seen in other MCSD study guides. I'm half way through it and quite satisfied with it so far.

In all the books I bought to study this book was the best.
I hope in a few months when I become certified this will pay off. I advise people to buy this book. This book is absolutly terrific!! It provides great material unlike other books Evreybody who wants to pass us this book

I have never done programming before. This book helped me understand VB and I have passed the exam with a score of 85%. This book covers in great detail and you get a sense of mastery.Though I must admit that it is a huge book but once you have finished reading the book you can be sure that you have covered all the topics required for the exam.I used transcender also to prepare for the exam

I recently appeared for the MCP exam in Visual Basic 5.0. I had bought this book to prepare for the exam and I would like to say that it is a comprehensive guide, the author has a very methodical way of explaining each concept, and the liberal use of code examples, tips and notes not only helped me clear the exam but also improved my skills in Visual Basic programming. I recommend this book for anyone who wishes to take the exam.

I studied with this book for six weeks and passed the exam my first try. I have a couple of years of VB experience, though, and while the book certainly gave me targeted items to learn, a more general overall knowledge is what helped me understand what I was reading and allowed me to catch the mistakes that still exist in the book. The author has a smooth writing style that makes the book an enjoyable read.

I would recommend this book and have passed it on to some coworkers for their certification studies. Just be sure to get the errata, and know that an ActiveX document HAS TO run in a container, no matter what the chapter in the book says. But that's the kind of thing you would only know if you looked through the manuals and worked with the product. Definitely use VB while you're studying; don't expect one book to get you through.

Best of luck!

I haven't taken the test yet, but I am frustrated to the max with this book. I've read it cover to cover, and I'm on my second pass through.

Here are some of the problems:

1) Too wordy, repetitious, and verbose.

This book appears to be a more of a "write-by-the numbers" test-guide type book, rather than one that attacks the subject from a conceptual viewpoint.

This leads to overly verbose and repetitive sentences, paragraphs, and sections, which often leave you more baffled at the end than you were at the beginning.

A simple picture or graph explaining the nature and purpose of a control, for example, would do far more to enhance the reader's understanding than 1000 words of puffy over-explanation.

2) Herky-jerky textual flow.

The book will often introduce a subject or concept, only to suddenly introduce another topic before resolving the first one. Later on, you hope, they will get back to it, but it is distracting to a fault. This maddening habit appears to be the result of writing-by-the-numbers committee-type approach instead of one person writing naturally and logically.

3) Unxeplained concepts.

You will often find yourself plunged into the minutae of VB feature or control, without ever knowing WHAT exactly the control does, or WHY the functiality was implemented into VB in the first place. Of course, you can figure it out, but only after wading through about 10 grueling pages of tortured, plodding syntax.

4) Contradictory passages.

On at least on occasion, a statement about the advisability of a certain error-processing technique was directly contradicted on the next page. How could the be if the book was written by a single author? It leads one to suspect that in fact the book was written by a number of people, perhaps a project group, rather than a single author as the book claims.

5) Test Engine is poor.

The test engine, despite the many options for taking it, essentially is just the same bunch of questions regurgitated in a few different ways. In addition, some of the questions are downright unreadable, due to the small size of the font. Also, the viewing area for questions is much too small, esp when analyzing code. There is no way to return to a previous question. A number of the answers are simply incorrect. There is absolutely NO "learn" option. When it is graded, the "explanation" of the answers is a one or two-digit number corresponding to the chapter in which the material was covered. This snooty and inconsiderate manner of "explaining" the questions is particularly galling in light of the fact that I've been taking the tests on a chapter by chapter basis.

My biggest concern is that for all its verbosity, the book is not covering areas that it should. I've already seen some questions on a vb exam website that I'm almost certain aren't covered in this book.

For all of its faults, however, you will learn a lot of VB if you study this book. There is no question that it covers a lot of ground, albeit in a pretty rude way. Also, the labs are quite nicely done, adopting a unique, kind of "fill in the blanks" approach. It almost looks like they did the labs first, and wrote the book backwards from that, but couldn't quite figure out how to do it.

In summary, this book is simply not worth the price of admission. Spend your money elsewhere.

The book was a invaluable source for helping me pass the exam. It easily would have rated 5 stars if the included CD wasn't so full of glaring errors. Many of the included test questions gave the WRONG answers! The book was very well organized and gave the straight facts - no extra garbage, just solid information.

Everything you need to pass the VB 5 exam is in this book.

I bought the book and passed the exam with a good score. The practice questions and exercises are very good. THe book starts at a very good level and does not get boring. It has some errors but you can find out if you have been working on VB.

The book for VB5.0 Certification Exam!