Studying this book diligently for several months (there's a ton of material to cover for this exam) in conjunction with a transcender practice exam allowed me to pass the exam fairly easily. I found the examples and labs useful and not too boring with a really nice summary at the end of key concepts. I'm a big fan of the "blue book" certification guides over the Microsoft Press ones. The preplogic practice test which comes on cd with the book isn't very good - spend the extra money and get a transcender practice exam instead.

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

Good Book

I bought the electronic (PDF) edition and found it very helpfull.

My Comments is more based on the PDF format.
#1
I liked the idea of downloading the book and having copies on more than 1 device so i can read wherever i am (at home / work / etc).

#2
I liked the idea of downloading the book instantly form Amazon so i did not have to pay delivery and customs - since i am in AFRICA stuff takes weeks to get here.

#3
I think there should be a web site where i can get hold of the contents of the CD if you buy the electronic edition. I would like to have the testing / prep exams as well. The price for the book and the PDF does not differ that mmuch..... (You pay for the information not the paper...) so i think its fair if i get the electronic test exams for the same price.

this product is awesome,but ull need extra help to get cert.
you can get more help in this link
(getcert's POST)

http://www.mcse.ms/message2132798.html

thanks

This book desrevd two stars becaiuse it is specially organized for exam, compared to all other books, therefore trying to cover every topic.
But (but!!!!!!), this book explains so terribly, and you will get so confused, that you will even forget what you knew before.
I bought this book to save my time on preparation. But, the author usually gives very very short explanation about the particular class, and just gives very wordy 2 pages long example: the remaining part to be self-understood. I read one page of the book 5 minutes, and spend remaining 2 hours in MSDN, to find out how the code the author gave works. That is really exhausting!!!! Somebody could wonder, that there are no perfect books, and why am I so angry. The reason is, I think this book and other related books by the author were written in hurry, not concerning about how end users would understand it.

This book desrevd two stars becaiuse it is specially organized for exam, compared to all other books, therefore trying to cover every topic.
But (but!!!!!!), this book explains so terribly, and you will get so confused, that you will even forget what you knew before.
I bought this book to save my time on preparation. But, the author usually gives very very short explanation about the particular class, and just gives very wordy 2 pages long example: the remaining part to be self-understood. I read one page of the book 5 minutes, and spend remaining 2 hours in MSDN, to find out how the code the author gave works. That is really exhausting!!!! Somebody could wonder, that there are no perfect books, and why am I so angry. The reason is, I think this book and other related books by the author were written in hurry, not concerning about how end users would understand it.

DON'T BOTHER WITH MICROCRAP BOOKS!! I studied using the Microsoft Self-Paced Training Books and didn't come close to passing.

Bought this book based on reviews and studied from cover to cover. I PASSED!! This covers all subject matter and little intricacies of test material and test taking. There were small issues with the questions in the book.

Suggestion: Take tests at Microsoft site to determine areas you need to work on, concentrate on studying those areas, go retake the tests, brush up on other areas you are good at to increase knowledge. When you feel good enough, go take the test!!

I don't think the PrepLogic CD is worth anything. They have code errors in their content, applications are difficult to work with, and questions are trying to be too tricky ( not concentrating on content ).

Going to buy the other Kalani books to pass the other certs.

I used this book as my only C# book and passed the test on the first try. This book is comprehensive in coverage and exercises, and it took me several months to get through it, although a more dedicated study program could have reduced the time. This is a very hands-on book, with a lot of walk-through examples and exercises. After reading it while using C# professionally, and doing the review and exam questions until I could answer them correctly, the test was a breeze. I would recommend this book, as it did an excellent job of preparing me for the exam.

My name is Davin Eastley. I am 13 years old. I live in Tasmania, Australia. This book is excellent. I am preparing for the MCAD certification myself and I must commend this book!! I have read every word up to page 250 so far and it is excellent. Amit Kalani is a great author. I am planning to read the book twice. First time through without doing the exercises but the second time through I am going to start using the examples in the book. I also like the PrepLogic practise exam software that came with this book as it is gives you a good revision of how you're going so far and points out the less familiar parts. I can be contacted at davineastley@gmail.com; feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. I believe this book is the best exam prep guide I have ever read. I bought the Web Development book ny Amit Kalani at the same time of purchase (in the same series). I have had 5 years experience in IT and about 5 months in programming and am studying hard towards the MCAD certification. I am planning on purchasing the XML WEb Services in C# book by the same author shortly. This book is great! I highly recommend it.

Regards,
Davin Eastley

--------
www.davineastley.tk
Forums Home

I was part of a study group that used this book. We all took the exam and all had roughly the same opinion afterward. The book has many, many exercises that can be completed in cookbook fashion. It leaves the reader wanting in terms of content though. It does not provide nearly enough explanation of the subject matter to do well in the exam. If you would like to do more than barely pass, I would suggest using this book as a companion, but not your only resource.

I was part of a study group that used this book. We all took the exam and all had roughly the same opinion afterward. The book has many, many exercises that can be completed in cookbook fashion. It leaves the reader wanting in terms of content though. It does not provide nearly enough explanation of the subject matter to do well in the exam. If you would like to do more than barely pass, I would suggest using this book as a companion, but not your only resource.

This book is simply the best among the currently available MCAD/MCSD books. I didn't have any experience in .NET before I decided to do the certifications. I used this book and transcender practice tests and practice tests from www.wswexams.com and passed the exam (880 marks) in the first attempt. I read entire book and did all the exercise in 4 months. I'll keep this book for my future reference.

Without a question, this book is more than enough to get through the exam (assuming you already know C# and have experience in Java or C++). I have a very good knowledge in C++ and Java. Not only it prepares you for the certification but also it will let you know the detils of C# in VS.NET. Today, I bough 70-315 book from the same author and planning to buy transcender tests too.

This is a big book. A very big book... but actually it doesn't seem quite so daunting whilst working through it. Although this book weighs in at 1083 pages (not including the glossary, index and appendix) it just seems like the pages fly by. I think this is because usually only about half of the page has content and the other half is reserved for exam tips, figures and what-not.

This book is chalk full of sample questions, step by steps (which literally involve every step for creating a project), review breaks, exercises and guided practice exercises; which is pretty much a step by step, but instead they present a scenario that you should try to figure it out before turning to the next page for a possible solution. Also, this book comes with a CD that has sample questions, which I found to be pretty handy. In addition, there is a sample test in the back of the book. In other words, there is an insane amount of content in this book.

One aspect of this book I really enjoyed, is that the step by step exercises are actually pretty interesting. It's not your typical "Hello World" or "Find the factorials" type of stuff, instead, you get to create interesting projects such as a fully functional text editor that allows a little bit of text formatting (like checking the color of the selected text, or changing it), saving and all that jazz.

Not only do I highly recommend this book for aspiring MCAD students, I recommend it for any C# developer that wants to hone his/her skills in developing windows applications. With the amount of knowledge I gained from this book, even a $50 price tag seems like a bargain (of coarse I got it much cheaper right here on Amazon)... it's that good.

I am self taught in Access VBA - so object oriented programming, C#, and even visual studio are all totally new to me. This book was able to take me from being totally stupid and get me to the point where I did very well on the exam. It is a thick book - and I did take take the time to do ALL of the exercises. I also reviewed it about 4 times (remember, this is totally new to me). I also used the Transcender practice exams. They were definitely worth the money as they were an accurate gauge of my ability to pass the exam - and the questions were similar to ones on the actual exam. The reason for the missing star is that this book does a poor job of explaining to a newbie how to handle events and how to use delegates in event handling - it assumes that you actually know something about this topic. I had to read Jesse Liberty's book - just the chapters on event handling - in order to understand this topic.

Overall, it's an excellent book that is well written. The practice exercises are educational and when I finished studying the book, I had the skill to actually create my own .net pages. I would also recommend that you actually type in all of the practice excercises (vs. using the code on the included CD) as a way to better learn the material. The other recommenation is to go to the book's website and download the errata.pdf. Some of the practice samples have updated code.

I would definately recommend buying this books. I ordered and it came in 2 days. 5 out of 5.

This book is simply the best among the currently available MCAD/MCSD books. Not only it prepares you for the certification but also it will let you know the detils of C# in VS.NET. So you can actually use it to learn C#(assuming you already know Java). I specially found the "step by step"s very helpful.

As an aficianado of technical literature and someone who has been studying this book for months, I have to say it is everything one could hope for in order to learn .Net. The step by step approach, along with solid theory and examples, makes the material worth its weight in gold - even if you have no interest in the exam. Finishing a book of this size tests your commitment and endurance, but it's well worth the adventure. A tour de force survey of a fascinating technology.

This book includes thousands of usefull examples that I use in my real life. The book is easy to understand and really helpfull.

Compared with any other book it is the best for the 70-316 exam.

It includes 15 chapters with 15 question each one (225 questions) and 75 extra questions.

This is exactly the book that I was looking for.

I passed the exam in the first chance with a score of 980/1000 !!.

Obviosly I used trascender and the MSDN, but 70 % of the studies were based on the book.

Amit Kalani is an extremely good writter. Congratulations for the book !!.

I found this book really good, especially when I did not have a whole lot of experience with windows forms in .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. You will want to read up on security separately as the book doesn't cover enough on the topic. 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 bought this book 3 months before the exam. Studying 5-6 hours 2 days a week for aboout 10 weeks really helped me to pass the exam for the very first attempt.

Presentation of StepByStep examples was very useful.
Everything on the exam is thoroughly covered in the book.

I passed the exam, using just this book.

If you're studying for the MCSD or MCAD then you've got to get the QUE certification books. This book is also an excellent resource for learning Windows.Net even if you aren't taking the certifications.

I read the 70-315 book first, as ASP.NET is my area of expertise. Depending on how you like to study, it might be a good idea to read both the 70-315 and the 70-316 before taking both exams. This way you can glean the differences between ASP.NET internet and Windows.NET considerations.

I like to concentrate on the differences between Windows.Net and ASP.NET. On Windows, drawing and printing are more important, the runtime runs on the client, and session is not the issue it is on the internet.

This volume has all the features of the Que Training Guide series. Amit is an excellent author. The material is presented in a step by step format.

I can't stress this enough: do the step by steps and exercises. When you come out the other side of this book, you'll be very good at Windows.Net.

Highly recommended.

I've been using this book to study with and so far I have been very impressed. The examples are good and the numerous exercises are very helpful. The author also does a good job of giving you lots of information in a concise and well written matter. The problems and exercises often expose deeper details, tricks, and things that have been very useful increasing my knowledge of WindowsForms. It does assume a working knowledge of C# but it would be quite difficult to attempt the exam without it, in my humble opinion. This one is a must for all developers looking to take the exam.

I chose this book based on other reviews posted here as well as a preliminary scan at Borders. After I completed this book, I scanned a few others including the one from MS Press, and none could come close to the quality of this text. Can you pass the exam with this text alone? Well, that all depends on how much C#, and programming experience you have comming in to this. On the otherhand, I don't think Kalani claims his book as the end all of preparation and training for this exam. What he does guarrantee, and I concur, is that you will gain a solid foundation of the concepts, and he will point you to the additional MSDN resources that you may want to explore further. And of course, you should do most of the exercises, as you will no doubt want to modify them to explore the details and nuances of the APIs.

With a strong ASP.NET background but weak Windows Forms background, I read this book, merely reading though the labs and not studying in any other way, and passed the test readily. If you are new to .NET, it's better to start with the appropriate chapters of "Programming .NET" by Prosise. But with the basics of .NET under your belt, Kalani's book is great. I would say 95% of what was on my test was well covered by this book.

Kalani makes it all seem straightforward -- which is a nice change from some other authors who would have you believe that all this new stuff is tricky. His examples are really awesome: simple enough to follow quickly, yet teach the new point decisively. I do not think a seasoned programmer can learn this stuff in a faster or clearer way. The screen shots are nice and small, so that you aren't flipping through page after page of them.

The "Apply Your Knowledge" sections at the end of each chapter are very good at stamping what you just read into your brain a little better, and to highlight some important facts that were understated or even left out of the chapter proper. (For this last reason, these sections are required reading.) The "Exam Questions" in these sections are easier than most real test questions, but that is good because their purpose is not to frustrate you but to help you lock in your knowledge. (However, I didn't even try the practice tests at the end of the book or on the CD's.)

There are maybe 100 or 200 grammatical errors, almost always dropping a word such as "the" or "a". But this is not a big deal in a book of this size, and it does not cause the reader any grief.

Even after the test, I'm glad I have this book because the excellent samples will be very handy for reference at work.

Now the one and only area where the book is weak relative to the test is on security and authentication, the last chapter. Although it is clear and very well written (other authors can make this stuff seem like Greek) there are things missing -- such as a discussion of the GenericIdentity class -- which are covered by the exam.

So I recommend getting this book (I do not think you will find a better book for passing the exam), but further augment your knowledge of security and authentication with the Microsoft documentation.

I just passed the exam, using just this book and the trancender exams. There were a few things on the exam that I can think of that were not in the book or the trancenders (like 3 questions out of 58), but overall I think this is an excellent book. I used the book to prepare myself for the Trancenders, and the trancenders to make sure I was ready for the test. The reason that I am giving this book 5 stars is that I passed all of the tests for the previous version of the MCSD (VB6, etc..) and none of the books that I used for those exams prepared me as well as this one did. Everything on the exam is thoroughly covered in the book, and if you take the time to go through all of the chapters and do all of the excercises, I would say that this book is really all you need.

I recently passed the exam on first try. I used this book as well as the exam cram 2 by Que. The sample practice tests are the best although I also used the Transcender 3-day. The book covers almost everything in clarity except a few minor things on security and XML classes. But the Transcenders took care of that.

I kinda like this book very much. Amit and Preethi did an excellent job by explaining each chapter in detail. This may be good for understanding the concepts in details; but some chapters are more in detail than focusing for the exam point of view. But my over all experience with this book is good. This has more code examples then any other MCAD books I seen in book stores. I actually used this book to prepare for my VB.net exam (70-310) and I passed in my first attempt.

This is an average tutorial book. While this book is very comprehensive, and all of the appropriate topics are covered, the text is dull, at times overly meticulous, and uninspiring.

There are many step-by-step exercises, 10-30 per chapter, with each using a simplest-case scenario for learning a component or procedure. This methodology has its pros and cons; it's great for reference or if you want to learn a particular thing, and it's good for route memorization by performing the same acts repeatedly (for example, creating a new project, or changing the start-up object), but after a while it becomes tedious and, well, repetitive.

There are too few "big picture" examples or case studies. The use of these would have made the entire learning process far more efficient. For example, starting with the goal of creating a data analysis application and learning how to make buttons in parallel with ADO is both more interesting and time-saving. But, this is not the approach of this book.

The book appears to be written for a C (or other structural-based) programmer who is not familiar with concepts such as objects, event delegation, exception handling, SQL, or Visual Studio. There are few, if any, references to anything being "like Java" or "like C++" or "(un)like MFC", nor are there appropriate warnings that say "skip this if you already have a basic understanding of " -- you are left to skim for yourself. This makes the book more helpful for the novice programmer, but tedious for the more experienced.

That said, if you read this book and do the exercies then you will certainly learn the material. I would recommend reading a few of the pages, from multiple chapters if possible, before purchasing this book.

Anyone looking for a single book to give them everything they need to know to pass the exam is simply asking for too much. That said, this is the best self-paced training and study book available. The presentation and breadth of the material covered is excellent. Use this in addition to the material available at MSDN and some decent practice exam software and you should be in good shape. One caveat: don't waste your time with the Prep Logic exam on the accompanying CD -- it's terrible.

For beginners to .NET programming this book is great. It teaches you the various aspects of developing Windows based applications in a very short period of time.The numerous exercises in each chapter start off with simple programs to more complex programs gradually. This book does not teach you C# though. You can learn the basics from numerous online sites.It covers 90% of the requirements for the 70-316 exam and thats why I'm giving it 4 stars. For those who want a jump start into .NET programming, this book is awesome. Those of you taking the exam - in addition to this book, try to get hold of some test materials like the trancenders etc. I've already completed this exam and I'm going for 70-315. The entire series of his books for MCAD is really good. Good Luck to those taking the exam.

I just passed the 70-316 today by self-study using this book, ONLY this book and no other books or online exam.
Before using this book, I used to try some sample code, just a very begginner level.
It is a excellent book for those who know C# syntax and something about VS.NET. It help you to learn VS.Net step by step in very organized way. EXCELLENT!!!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. This is a great book for passing the 70-316 exam (I did with this as my only book.) and for learning C#, if you already have experience with a language like Java or C.

At first I was not sure about the book because it looked weak on in-depth-ness of examples. However, I found that it took me about 180 hours of study time to get through this book and the examples were great.

There are a few mistakes in this book (maybe four I can think of), but they are minor. As usual, Que Publishing and Mr. Kalani did a great job.

I am definitely going to use the same series for the 70-315 and 70-320 exams.

I'm half-way through this book, and I'm very impressed. The excercises and their variety and applicability have been great. The side notes and practice exam questions are helpful too. Yes, this book is not for newcomers to C#. Read a beginner book first, then use this book as exam prep. The back cover of the book, which you can view on amazon website says the book is intended for those with working knowledge of C#. Unfortunately, programmer123 didn't bother to look at this and gave an unfair rating of only three stars. Not fair. This book deserves at least four stars.

This book is very efficint. It dosn't cover the basic elemnts of the c# language. And some of the chapters are not part of the 70-316 exam. The biggest prablom of this book that it donsn't cover well enough the security issue. But all other subjects excellent.

This is an excellent book however it falls short of adequately preparing you for the exam. The books structure is logical and well thought out. The problem is the practice exam in the back of this book is well below the standard required to pass the exam.
Also I think Amit is doing himself a disservice by including the PrepLogic exam with his book. It is full of inaccuracies and once again fails to reach the standard of the actual exam. For example the exam claims that the file produced when you enable tracing is a Trace.asx file??

I read this book inside and out and barely passed the test. Only about half of the questions on the test were covered on the book. Thank goodness I did some other studying, do not rely solely on this book or you will fail!

I have been using this book to prepare for my second .NET exam (70-316). I used the Microsoft training kit for the 70-315 exam and found it to be full of errors and quite lacking in exam coverage.

This book, on the other hand covers all of the requirements of the exam. It even lists at the beginning of the chapter each requirement covered in the chapter.

This is a big book with lots of information, review, and exam style questions. It takes a lot of work to get through, but if you do all the step by steps and exercises as well as the review and exam questions, you will be well prepared for the exam.

I feel that this book covers slightly more than the exam requires in terms of both breadth and depth.

This is a good Exam cram book. However it's not for beginners. It assumes knowledge of C#. For example in Chapter1 itself it talks about delegates with only few lines of code explaining it. However great book to pass the exam, provided if you have other C# books by Oberg's or Jesse Liberty's.

I have read few other books for 70-316 exam preparation but I like this one the best. This book does not waste pages in listing and explaining the VB.NET code. This book is all about C# only, which is good because that is what the 70-316 exam requires you to know.

The most interesting fact is that this book is much fatter than other exam preparation books and surprisingly the cheapest one. Thanks to this book, it was pretty [inexpensive] and easy for me to pass this exam when compared to my old MCSD exams.