This series is for sure the most popular training guide for Microsoft's MCAD/MCSD certification exams. Even after the release of a new generation of certification exams there are still folks (like me) who are still taking the 2003 exam for their own reasons. Let's see the most important pros and cons for this book:



Pros:

* Text: the text is well written and easy to understand. Very simple and clear vocabulary. It is not a boring reading.

* Guided Practices, Review Questionsand Exam Questions: there're plenty of exercises on every chapter, including 15 exam-like questions and some other review questions. I like books with exercises. It's a good way for the reader to measure what they've learned.

* PrepLogic software: gives a good idea of the kind of software you'll have to deal with on the real exam.

Cons:

* Code examples: as in most programming books code example tend to leverage for the beginner, sometimes lacking in code design.



All in all, this book is a sure shot if you're going to take the 70-315 exam as well as a good reading for ASP.NET newbies so don't hesitate to buy it.



Exam tips:

* be confident

* know your strengths and weaknesses

* don't rush the exam! there's plenty of time! in my exam there were 43 questions and 150 minutes for me to answer them!



Good luck in your exam!

This series is for sure the most popular training guide for Microsoft's MCAD/MCSD certification exams. Even after the release of a new generation of certification exams there are still folks (like me) who are still taking the 2003 exam for their own reasons. Let's see the most important pros and cons for this book:

Pros:
* Text: the text is well written and easy to understand. Very simple and clear vocabulary. It is not a boring reading.
* Guided Practices, Review Questionsand Exam Questions: there're plenty of exercises on every chapter, including 15 exam-like questions and some other review questions. I like books with exercises. It's a good way for the reader to measure what they've learned.
* PrepLogic software: gives a good idea of the kind of software you'll have to deal with on the real exam.
Cons:
* Code examples: as in most programming books code example tend to leverage for the beginner, sometimes lacking in code design.

All in all, this book is a sure shot if you're going to take the 70-315 exam as well as a good reading for ASP.NET newbies so don't hesitate to buy it.

Exam tips:
* be confident
* know your strengths and weaknesses
* don't rush the exam! there's plenty of time! in my exam there were 43 questions and 150 minutes for me to answer them!

Good luck in your exam!

This series is for sure the most popular training guide for Microsoft's MCAD/MCSD certification exams. Even after the release of a new generation of certification exams there are still folks (like me) who are still taking the 2003 exam for their own reasons. Let's see the most important pros and cons for this book:

Pros:
* Text: the text is well written and easy to understand. Very simple and clear vocabulary. It is not a boring reading.
* Guided Practices, Review Questionsand Exam Questions: there're plenty of exercises on every chapter, including 15 exam-like questions and some other review questions. I like books with exercises. It's a good way for the reader to measure what they've learned.
* PrepLogic software: gives a good idea of the kind of software you'll have to deal with on the real exam.
Cons:
* Code examples: as in most programming books code example tend to leverage for the beginner, sometimes lacking in code design.

All in all, this book is a sure shot if you're going to take the 70-315 exam as well as a good reading for ASP.NET newbies so don't hesitate to buy it.

Exam tips:
* be confident
* know your strengths and weaknesses
* don't rush the exam! there's plenty of time! in my exam there were 43 questions and 150 minutes for me to answer them!

Good luck in your exam!

I'm sure Amit Kalani knows his stuff but there are several issues that I have with this book which make me wish I had bought another one.

Firstly, and this is the most annoying fact, it is hopelessly out of date. I am using Visual Studio 2005 and it is painfully obvious to me that the book was written for an earlier version, which means that following the instructions given is sometimes impossible. This means I miss out on valuable experience that I could have gained through those step by step code examples where the procedures in the book clash with the current reality.

Secondly, there are a number of small niggling typos present throughout which undermine my confidence in the authority of the book as a whole.

Added to this is my suspicion (though I am not sure, given I'm not the expert) that some code examples given contain small mistakes or inconcistencies. Again, this is just a suspicion, as of this moment I have not actually tried to implement those examples where I have noticed such possible errors. Overall though, given the previously outlined gripe I have, my suspicion is very strong.

So you can see, I am not very happy about this book. The fact it is out of date is the major contributing factor to this. I wish I'd checked the publication date before spending my money.

I used just this book to pass the test with a score of 900. My only disppointment with the book is the exam that comes on the CD. The quality of the questions are not very good; although, I think it is only there to entice you to buy the full set of test that they market on the publisher's website. Other than, though, the book does a great job of covering all the relevant topics on the exam and I found the large amount of exercises extremely useful at driving home the material.

I studied this book for 3 weeks intensely. I took the 70-315 after taking some transcender exams. I got a 622, failing. I think I was not prepared enough. I took the practice at the end of the book before taking the exam and got a 62%!

I recommend this book to anyone studying for the 70-315. I also suggest exams such as transcender, measure up to get an idea of what the exams are likel

Where Kalani explains a topic thoroughly, this book is helpful. But he has been badly let down by his editor. Notwithstanding the high praise of others, I found this book and its companion for Windows (70-316) very poor, and I would advise against it.

There are a number of problems. For a start, the index is so superficial as to be almost worthless. Time and again, I tried to look something up in the index, only to discover that even major topics were not listed! This is inexcusable in a text book. How are you supposed to reference the bits that you've forgotten or need to cover again? You can't just flip through it -- it's over a thousand pages long!

In addition, the book is littered with errors! Time and time again in his examples, Kalani forgets to tell the reader to insert a vital piece of code that refers to a principle he hasn't covered yet. The reader cannot be expected to know this, and when he tries to run the example, it doesn't work and he is left in the dark.

Similarly, Kalani frequently omits vital steps in examples. Following Kalani's instructions, the reader finds he is presented with something quite different from what the book says will happen. Unless the reader can figure out the next step for himself (in which case, why is he reading a text book?), he cannot proceed with the example.

At best, situations like this are infuriating, especially when Kalani then uses the non-workable example in further examples, which of course themselves will not work.

Indeed, such errors are so common, it's hard to believe that the editor even bothered testing Kalani's examples.

Kalani's explanations are also frequently superficial. Again and again, his examples direct the reader to do something that hasn't yet been covered, but Kalani makes no attempt attempt to explain that step's significance and relevance to the code. Presented with a line of incomprehensible code, the reader can only guess and speculate, which inevitably leads to confusion, and makes an already complex subject even more difficult -- hardly the purpose of a text book!

Perhaps people who already have a fairly sound knowledge of Visual Studio and C# will find this book and its companions helpful. But the books' errors, and the poverty of their indexes, are so serious that I would strongly caution anyone who isn't already confident.

Where Kalani explains a topic thoroughly, this book is helpful. But he has been badly let down by his editor. Notwithstanding the high praise of others, I found this book and its companion for Windows (70-316) very poor, and I would advise against it.

There are a number of problems. For a start, the index is so superficial as to be almost worthless. Time and again, I tried to look something up in the index, only to discover that even major topics were not listed! This is inexcusable in a text book. How are you supposed to reference the bits that you've forgotten or need to cover again? You can't just flip through it -- it's over a thousand pages long!

In addition, the book is littered with errors! Time and time again in his examples, Kalani forgets to tell the reader to insert a vital piece of code that refers to a principle he hasn't covered yet. The reader cannot be expected to know this, and when he tries to run the example, it doesn't work and he is left in the dark.

Similarly, Kalani frequently omits vital steps in examples. Following Kalani's instructions, the reader finds he is presented with something quite different from what the book says will happen. Unless the reader can figure out the next step for himself (in which case, why is he reading a text book?), he cannot proceed with the example.

At best, situations like this are infuriating, especially when Kalani then uses the non-workable example in further examples, which of course themselves will not work.

Indeed, such errors are so common, it's hard to believe that the editor even bothered testing Kalani's examples.

Kalani's explanations are also frequently superficial. Again and again, his examples direct the reader to do something that hasn't yet been covered, but Kalani makes no attempt attempt to explain that step's significance and relevance to the code. Presented with a line of incomprehensible code, the reader can only guess and speculate, which inevitably leads to confusion, and makes an already complex subject even more difficult -- hardly the purpose of a text book!

Perhaps people who already have a fairly sound knowledge of Visual Studio and C# will find this book and its companions helpful. But the books' errors, and the poverty of their indexes, are so serious that I would strongly caution anyone who isn't already confident.

With only this book in the first time I passed the exam 70-315 in the last week. This book has excellent material, if you follow all the advices from Amit you can learn easily the material of this book and pass the exam.

With only this book in the first time I passed the exam 70-315 in the last week. This book has excellent material, if you follow all the advices from Amit you can learn easily the material of this book and pass the exam.

With only this book in the first time I passed the exam 70-315 in the last week. This book has excellent material, if you follow all the advices from Amit you can learn easily the material of this book and pass the exam.

Recently, I got certified along with all my team members and we all used Kalani's book. Personally, I think the book is very very informative and very well organised. Lots of coverage (not to the depth I would like but enough to pass the exam). Even now, when I have doubts I first reach out for Kalani's book and if I need more I refer the SDK docs.

I've been using this book for the last month as my only study resource and I just passed the MCAD 70-315 exam this morning with a 924. Amit Kalani outlines detailed information about each key point on the 70-315 exam and also provides good test preparation tips. The one piece of advice I can give is to go through each of the Step-By-Step exercises.

I'm getting ready to start studying for the 70-320 exam and have already purchased Kalani's book.

Good stuff!

great certification tool!!!
but u will need also transcenders for exam preparation. contact me on my gmail account (certstuff). i will send u a list of transcenders i can sell u, 10$ each one. thnks

I started using this book with some experience in C# and .NET. I found it easy to read at my own pace - skipping what I understood and getting a clear understanding of what I didn't know. The over arching structure worked well for my learning style.

I like the integration of the coding exercises - though I found the repetition of the code irritating at times. I ended up skimming through the exercises and shortening/combining them to get the gist. The exploring I did beyond what they recommended in the exercises was very helpful.

I used this book to prepare for the 70-315 exam, which I passed with very good marks. In my case it was very extremely useful to cover areas of ASP.NET that I haven't used in my everyday work. In my opinion, either if you have hand-on experience on ASP.NET development, or if you just want to learn, this is a great book. The author is not only knowledgeable on the technical areas, but is also a good teacher.
Specifically for those who want to take the 70-315, you still would like to take some exam simulations. In my experience, the PrepLogic sim demo, provided with the book, was not as useful tool to prepare for the exam as the Transcender sim.

I bought this book in Nov 2005 with the intention of preparing for the 70-315 exam. I just took the exam last week and passed with an 829 out of 1000 (700 is the minimum to pass). However, this book was not the only exam preparation resource I used.

Overall, I would say that this is an excellent book to use for learning C# and ASP.NET. However, I don't think it adequately prepares you for the exam. One of the reasons I think this is the case is because the book was written in 2002, and the exam has changed a lot since then. The exam is more about excessively wordy and confusing questions on trivial aspects, where this book is more about teaching you how to use the tools in real life. I was surprised to find out that none of the questions on the exam were like the sample exam questions in the book.

I also wonder if this book was edited at all. There are tons of mistakes in it, and the language barrier is apparent. The wording in the book is baffling at times. You'll have to re-read a section several times just to understand the meandering circle-talk. The author has a tendency to reuse technology phrases over and over until you don't understand what he's talking about.

This book is very thorough, though. You will learn a good deal about many aspects of C# and ASP.NET that you wouldn't have touched on by just using the tools.

It's difficult for me to rate this book with a simple 1-5 stars. If you are only concerned with preparing for the exam, I would rate this book a 3 out of 5. If you actually want to learn how to apply the concepts outlined in the exam, I'd rate this book a 4 out of 5, mainly because of the language/mistakes that slipped through editing.

That being said, I've already purchased Amit and Priti's 70-320 MCAD exam guide and look forward to preparing for my next exam on the road to MCAD certification.

While the information provided in this book seems to be quite good, I gave up on it somewhere in the middle of chapter 2. At the pace of this book, it would really take forever to learn, and I was just bored. The book moved slowly, providing new information in small increments with exercises for each. That could be a good way for many to learn, but I felt it could have provided the information faster, and consolidated the exercises. As it was, I lost patience, and never read most of it.

Prior to reading this book, I had no experience nor knowledge about C# and ASP.NET. The book is great if you want to learn about ASP.NET and have credentials for that at the end of your studies.

I read the book cover to cover for about 2 months (it;s an 1100 pages book !), did the exercises and tests, and that was plenty enough to pass the exam. I scored 753. I think the book provides even more knowledge than the exam actually requires you to know.

It was also a great resource to prepare technical interview questions!

I am thinking to buy the book that covers Web Services and Web Components from the same author.

In conclusions, I think this is a great book and it will get you ready for the exam and teach you ASP.NET in depth and very clearly.

PS: I don't think you need to buy other preparations practice exam from third parties vendors, the questions and practice tests are good enough.

I cleared 70-315 today and I used this book as the primary source for preparation. This book prepares you well for *almost* every exam objective. The organization of the book, examples, excercises and review questions are very helpful in reinforcing the concepts. You may however need supplementary source to clear the exam. The practice exams in the exam cram book for 70-315 were good. They had a few questions on ADO.NET, XML and security which were not covered in this one or the exam cram. I used MSDN/www.codeclinic.com to supplement this book (esp. for ADO.NET, Security and XML). Practice tests from Transcender were helpful too. If you're planning to take 70-315, this is THE book to get started. Get hold of the errata @ http://www.techcontent.com/TG70315Errata.htm to save some time.

I wonder who really wrote that reviews, readers or sellers?
Both the exam cram, and this book are very impractical!!! Now I am so angry on the author, because I spent lot of time and money on this book. Ok, money is may be all right, not that great deal, but the explanations in these books are soooooo impractical. For example, the topic "HttpServerUtility object": I think he just a little bit changed in his own way the MSDN formulation, and just listed the properties of this class. What a hell???? How should I understand how it will help me in the real life situation???? Almost all other chapters are like that!!! I think it is impossible to pass MCAD without a real life practical comprehension of that topics. And also, this training guide is sooooo watered. Only first paragraph explains particular topic very briefly, and then the remaining 3-4 pages are dedicated to an example, approximately in this way:
To create this ASP.NET application follow the step by step'
1) Turn on the PC
2) You will see a desktop
3) Then take a CD
4) Install VS.NET
5) Then push the START button
6) Select programs menu.......
Ooooooo my god

I read this book cover to cover even though with my experience I really didnt need to. Turns out there are some nuances this book covers which I was not aware of. Then I took the Transcender tests and passed the 70-315 exam comfortably. Make sure you do all the exercises and the practice tests in the book.

A MUST!!!
This is the second time I have used a Kalani/Que book to study for my certification test and passed. Microsoft books just don't cut it.It helped shore up areas I wasn't quite sure about or features I just don't use in day to day work.
If you want to get certified or just need a good learning tool, this must be in your collection.
On to 70-320... ( have Kalani's book for that too!! )

I just finished my last MCAD test this morning and swore I would come back and write reviews on all the books I used when I was done.

I took this exam (70-315) first. Thanks to this book I passed the exam first try. I read this book cover to cover in about 2 weeks, took 2 transcender practice exams and passed the test with an 830.

This book was dead on, easy to read, easy to use, and obviously very effective in studying for the exam.

Since I took the test 2 other programmers in my shop have also used this book to pass the exam. We are all Amit Kalani fans now. I just wish he had written the one for 70-229.

i bought this book because it recieved so many great reviews, but i think it's overrated - it's not like i was dissapointed with the book, i actually enjoy reading it and it's a great refference, but this book doesn't seem to be catered for any specific crowd.

i didn't take the test and i didn't even finnish the book (although iv'e read most of it, and i only started 4 days ago) but i do feel that it's a bit too basic - and even for me - and i'm someone who is new to programming and especially C# and .net, but i felt that a good part of the book was extra and excessive but still amazingly interesting.

i am an author myself and i know the challenge of trying to write a book which is informative enough to the advanced reader but is still easy to follow for the beginner and i understand that this book tried to make that balance and did a pretty good job at it - but are there really any "beginners" that are taking this exam? why are there almost 50 pages dedicated to simple database structure? wouldn't most advanced or mid-level programmers have already come accross these principles?; why does he repeat the steps for every single lesson again and again? it makes me feel a bit retarded - look in all the step-by-step excersizes and see what i mean, he comes short of telling you to apply pressure to the mouse button!

but i'm still giving this book 4 stars - because i like it and i find it easy to read and follow and i actually ENJOY reading it (although i feel stupid at times - knowing that i'm reading baby-step basics)

but i would definitely buy the author's other books and recommend this book to others - only - i would use this as a study source and not just as a 'primer' or test prep. - i'm someobdy who didn't know C# until 3 weeks ago - and now i'm 75% through this book!

buy this book - but don't expect too much (not that i have read anything better)

This book makes .NET easy, this is a great "how to" guide and "how to" properly. I found this more informative than the Microsoft .NET training guide with the "tool" on it.

I followed this book for my preparation. I've been programming in C# for 2.5 years now and so found this book and my experience enough to ace the exam!
I've had recommendations for the other books (MS and other publishers), but I think QUE has a winner here in this author.

by now you've probably already read the other glowing reviews of this book. i have to add my agreement to the chorus. with the exception of a few spots, it is extremely well written and provides a great roadmap for preparing for the exam. after 10 years of no programming, i dove back in 18 months ago with a variety of other books. after a year or so of learning from those books, i decided to persue certification. kalani's book was highly rated, so i tried it.

it did not disappoint. this book took my programming skills from 'beginner' to 'intermediate' all by itself. its the only tool i used to prepare for the exam, and passed it today in my first attempt.

the one area that could be better written is around event handlers. i had to read it about a dozen times to grasp the content. but i did get it.

i'm now looking at kalani's other books for my next exams. he is a great guide to help you prepare for the exam, and it will surely be a trusted reference for the years to come.

I read this book cover to cover, and found it to be very easy to follow and very comprehensive. I found that the review questions and the practice test were not at all like the questions on the actual exam and was very glad that I purchased a Measure Up practice exam to help me in my final stages of preparation for the actual exam. To make this short and to the point: I passed the 70-315 exam on the first try but would not have, using this book alone. This book contains all of the information needed to pass the exam, but places emphasis on the wrong parts. The Measure Up exam helped me focus on specific material and gave me a much better idea of what the actual exam questions would be like.

Just a few hours ago, I passed the 70-315 exam with a score == 772 (minimum to pass is 700).
I think it's not too bad for a guy who's never worked as a programmer and has just an Associate degree in Computer Information Systems (although, with GPA == 4.0 from DeVry University).

This book was my primary source for preparation to the exam.
In addition to it, I would recommend you to buy 179 practice questions for 70-315 from measureup.com (Microsoft recommends this, and believe me, it helped a lot).

Also, to brush up (or, learn) your C#, get "C#. The Complete Reference" by Herb Schildt.

Of course, there is no such thing as a PERFECT book, so you'll need to read a bit from MSDN.

Anyway, THIS book is probably the best you can find.

This book is great for learning asp.net and c#. It is well orginized and well written. Tons of step by step examples.
Highly recommend.

This is a great book, I was able to pass my exam this stadurday reading this book and some material on MSDN site. Of course you need some practice too. This is other book that I sold

After using this book to pass 70-315 on the first try, I used another Que book to pass 70-320. Very satisfied with the results. Questions in the chapters are good for review, but you need to make sure you cover all the material. You never know which direction the exam is going to be skewed, and you need good general knowledge. I also highly recommend Transcenders for final review.

This book is an excellent book. I previously bought a MS Press book. It was a joke. This is the book you need to pass the exam. I am not sure how this folks figured out but some questions in test were directly from the book. Besides good prepartory book for exam it covers material that one can use during job. It is a good reference material also.

I used this book to prepare for the exam, and found it to be extremely clear, thorough, and accurate. It is is one of the best technical books I have seen. Now I'm looking for other books by Amit Kalani.

This books covers everything you need to know to get a really good start in the ASP.NET, C# and Visual Studio.NET environments.

You won't be a guru when you finish but you will know how to create complex ASP.NET web pages and sites.

There is no fluff in this book, NONE. If you just scan it, you won't get the results you want. This is a hands on, do-it-yourself book. Which is one of the best ways to learn new material. I manually typed in most of the examples and learned everything I was hoping to learn. The examples are short and to the point and often have real-world benefits and tips.

The book is well written and extremely well edited. The editor, Ed Tittel, is a master editor because all the examples worked and they drive home, with just a few lines of code, the point the author is trying to make. Any errors in this book are nominal.

This book advanced my own abilities from struggling to grasp .NET to an advanced/intermediate .NET developer and has set me on the path to go as far as I want.

It took about 3 weeks to get thought the entire book, cover-to-cover, or about 150 hours.

This is a pretty good book. Only problem is that its very Big & heavy. But i completed the book in 1 month and went through

Actualtest.com papers.

I passed the 2 hour exam in 45 mins without doing a review.

So for me it was great.

This book does as good a job of preparing you for the 070-315 exam as any text can. It is entirely possible to use this as the only study tool and still pass the exam. However, I would recommend using a separate test simulator to ensure success.

The practice tests are definitely the weakest point of this book. They, and the other parts of the "Apply Your Knowledge" section, do a good job of reinforcing the material; but are nothing like the actual exam questions and tend to be much simpler.

I started studying for the VB.Net version of this exam and then decided to do the C# version instead. It was at that point that I realized that the books covered the same material. In fact, the exams have almost no language specific questions at all. The only difference appears to be that the examples are given in either C# or VB.Net. I liked this book better than the QUE book for the 070-305 exam. I believe that I could have used this book to prepare for either version of the exam and I recommend it over the VB.Net study guide by Gunderloy.

I found this book really good, especially when I did not have a whole lot of experience with ASP.Net. The book covered most of the required topics in enough detail and the practical exercises helped with understanding of topics that I had less knowledge of. However, the practice exam included is nowhere near hard enough as a representation of what to expect. I used this book, the included practice exam, along with the Transcender exam and found these were enough to pass the exam first go.

I passed my exam on the first try, which was my the reason for getting the book. The book covered a lot of stuff that you don't really come across in day to day development that you need to know for the exam. There were a few things on the exam not covered in the book, but overall the book did a good job of covering the material.

My biggest complaint is that there were some mistakes in some of the examples, in particular there were a couple of places where a code snippet had a capital letter where it should have been lowercase.

I bought this book a while ago, read it over the next few months, stopped, continued, did the prep exams on the book, did the prep exam on the cd. I didn't feel to confident but managed to pass nonetheless.

The thing about it is though the book contains a lot of stuff that you won't necessarily find on the actual exam. That's why for my next exam(webservices one), I bought a Exam Cram book. I should mention that I use ASP.NET and Web Services almost everyday at work. I got most of the dev type questions right with full confidence but missed quite a few on configuration type ones. I just remember reading lots and lots about accessibility and internationalization stuff but only found 1 or 2 q's on those. Instead I found majority of q's on actual usage of Data controls and found some on C# itself. Quite surprised but better for me. I just can't believe I made sure to remember but it didn't show up on the exam :)

Buy Exam Cram books if you are a .NET developer.

This book is excellent as a study guide. I read the book, made notes as I went, and did all the exercises. The exam in the back of the book is okay, but easier than the real test.

The CD included is terrible - don't even bother installing it. This is the only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars.

You will likely need an exam simulator for you to pass - I used SelfTest Software and it worked for me (923 on exam).

This book is an excellent resource for MCAD and MCSD.NET exams. I passed my MCAD.NET and MCSD.NET exams. This book provided helpful detail on the exam topics.

If you live in North America, then in order to be competitive in the job market for .NET web positions you need two things:
1) certifications
2) actual hands-on knowledge and skills

Kalani takes the 70-315 cert "objectives" (as published by Microsoft) and develops an elaborate and comprehensive study plan around these objectives. Deep explanations of each topic is followed by one or more hands-on exercises which provide hands-on practice to, both, build an understanding of the topics and reinforce the concepts. Just reading or looking at code is not enough. You need to try each concept and write some code. You can't learn to fly a plane by just reading how to do it.

As you learn each of the objectives that are expected to be on the cert exam, you are also learning how to do it so, once you pass that cert and show up on the job somewhere, you will not only have cert exam passing skills, you will also have the C# ASP.NET development skills that the cert exam is supposed to be testing.

You need to have both.

Using this book alone is enough to learn how to program with ASP.NET. However, it is not enough to pass the exam (unless you are very good at passing exams). Kalani does not cover everything on the cert, nor are the questions at the back of each chapter (and the end of the book) a representative sample of the questions you'll face on the day of the cert exam. You need use one of the better cert preparation practice exam products such as TestKing or Transcender. (The sample PrepLogic exam in the back of Kalani is OK for reviewing the concepts but it is not as good as TestKing or Transcender which are updated regularly and have variations of some of the latest questions on them.) I would say that TESTKING + KALANI would be a good combination to get you a passing score on the cert.

One other thing, even though neither the 70-315 nor the 70-305 certs are very focused on the details of the VB.NET/C#.NET language, if you are not familiar with the VB.NET/C# language then you should first bring yourself up to speed on the C# dialect of the language before preparing for the web (ASP.NET) cert. The Kalani books makes no attempt to teach the C# dialect of VB.NET/C#.

Kalani is a better choice than the Microsoft self-study "redbook." The objective of the MS redbooks seems to be to teach you the concepts that are tested on the cert, but not to prepare you for the specific questions that will appear.

As a .NET instructor, I used this book as my textbook for the ASP.NET I taught at a local college. I will tell you the same thing I told my students. The chapters in Kalani are long (some over 100 pages), but if you make the effort to do most or all of the exercises and practice the questions in the back of each chapter, you will learn the topic. If you supplement that with a TestKing or Transcender, you will have everything you need to pass the exam.

This is a good book for learning ASP.NET fundementals. As you read the book, you can realize that the author is a professional. I have just passed 70-315 exam. But if you are a beginner to ASP.NET concepts as I was, you might need additional resources to pass the exam. In addition to this book, I recommend selftestsoftware practise exams which I found it very usefull to give an idea about the real exam questions.

The reason I am giving 4 stars to this book is because the author made a fatal error at the MCAD requirements section.
Here is the quote from the book :

"The one you can count as an elective is the exam from the opposite technology and language from the exam that you counted as a core exam. For example if you take C# Web Applications exam (70-315) as a core exam, you can take the Visual Basic.NET Windows based Applications exam."

And here is the quote from the Microsofts official site regarding MCAD requirements:

"If you use Exam 70-305 or 70-315 to satisfy the core exam requirement, you may use either Exam 70-306 or 70-316 as an elective.
If you use Exam 70-306 or 70-316 to satisfy the core examrequirement, you may use either Exam 70-305 or 70-315 as an elective."

This kind of error to me is unacceptable and raises doubts about the authors credibility. Other than that, still chances are good to pass the exam by only reading this book.
Good Luck to exam takers

I used this book over a 3 month period for learning the material for the 70-315 exam. I do not have an extensive development background (mainly management) and I'm reasonably new to .NET (from a day-day development pov. After completing every exercise and exam question I then took a couple of weeks off (contemplation time) and worked through the ExamCram2 book as a summary (only reading and exam questions). I passed the exam (824). The main gripe I have is that the PrepLogic test provided on the CD in the book was more difficult than the real exam (I only scored 63% for that one). Overall I scored higher on the actual exam than I did on any of the sample questions provided in the book.

If I were doing it again I would buy the book and one software simulation package. I did manage to try a SelfTest Software package, but became infuriated by the number of 'made-up' options within the answers, ie. "The answer is A as all other options are invalid properties of xyz."

I started using this book as the basis for my study for the exam. I never completed the book because it became such a waste of my time to try to figure out why the application didn't run. Many of the exercises appear to have been copied from the 70-316 book, but never adapted for the ASP.NET environment. Fifteen pages of errata, and that didn't cover half of the bugs and errors. Stay away from this book! Use MSDN - it is far more reliable!

I liked the book very much; it's well written, clear and concise. Kalani is undoubtedly an excellent author. But I bought it with the intention of using it as my only resource for preparing for the 70-315 exam and it turns to be that this book alone is definitely not a good preparation for the exam. Its exercises are far easier than the real exam questions and it doesn't cover all the exam details...for example it never mentioned that you must use OleDbClient classes instead of the SqlClient classes for SQL SERVER 6.5 (and believe me that it's important).
Luckily I managed to get a TestKing preparation exam (but unluckily I didn't complete the exam since I thought that TestKing's exam was unnecessary difficult), and to my surprise the exam's question where very similar to the TestKing practice!

To summarize, it's a very good book, but you'll need extra practice exams to pass your exam.
PD: I passed the exam.

After reading several reviews on this book, I finaly zeroed upon this one. It is one decision that I will never regret for. Being totally new to the .NET world, Kalani brought me quickly up to the speed. The best part of this book is the organization of content. The exercises at the end of each chapter are very good and did test your understanding of the chapter. The reason why I gave only 4 stars is that some of the topics that I got in the actual exam does not even have a reference in the book. Having said that, I still would recommend this book to go for 70-315.

This Book covers many aspect from an exam(70-315) point of view as well as for knowledge purpose. I read this book as well as Microsoft Press Book.
One thing to note....
The CD accompanied with this book does not give you clear picture about exam questions. It just asks you simple questions, no syntax questions or questions based on few lines of code. Compared to this,the CD accompnied with Microsoft press is really good. I would suggest reading this book and using Microsoft press CD for getting more confidence for exam. Also, you need to read more articles from MSDN on database chapters(Dataset and Constraints) apart from this book if you are targetting exam. Otherwise this book is just great.