I found that these books along with the Microsoft Press self study guides are enough to pass the exams with. I highly recommend these for exam preperations. You can't learn VB or project management from them, but they'll prepare to you answer the test questions nad pass the exams.

While I didn't use other books (thus I have no basis for comparison), I did like the relatively condensed format of this book, which is very much to-the-point. It will be of most use to anyone who has good working experience with VB 6 and some exposure to ADO. The book is small enough that I could carry it around with me and read it on the bus or train to/from work. Doing this for one week, plus a weekend, I pretty much had an idea of what things to focus on (my boss told me to write the test with about 2 weeks notice, so it was literally a 'cram' effort). And I was pleased to actually learn a few new (and useful) things which I didn't know before. Like the CallByName() function.

I would emphasize the point about having prior VB experience (1-2+ years) since there are numerous errors in the text, many of which aren't identified on the publisher's or author's websites of errata. I have the fifth edition, which already contains many corrections. The attitude I developed after reading a few chapters was one of skepticism -- choosing to verify some of the claims made by the author from time to time. If you're catching the errors, then great -- it means you know what you're doing. If not, then generally speaking, it isn't a big deal; most errors are subtle or not particularly relevant to your success on the exam. Errors are as minor as stating that Shift-F9 should be used to set the next statement to run, when in reality it's Ctrl-F9, or indicating a Form has a BorderStyle property of vbFixedDouble when in fact it's vbFixedDialog. In more severe cases, the author indicated that Dim v as Variant followed by v = Text1 caused v to become a reference to the Text1 control, while in reality it gets the Text string in the control (since the assignment isn't preceded by Set). He also made erroneous statements such as the "Command Line Arguments" field of the Project Properties dialog allowing the setting of compilation switches (VB6 /r /m, etc.), while it actually lets you set the return value of the Command$() function. But, these weren't things tested on the exam (at least in my case) -- they're just useful tidbits of information. And while my book is marked up by corrections I made along the way, I found that they only re-enforced my knowledge by making me question the accuracy of statements.

The sample questions at the end of each chapter were useful representations of exam-style questions, as was the sample exam at the end of the book. Also, all questions had detailed solutions with explanations of why an answer was correct or not. If you buy the VB6 Core Exam Cram pack (3-pack for Exams 70-100, 70-175, and 70-176, ISBN 1576103935) which includes this book, you'll also get a CD-ROM with a sample exam in electronic format, with questions not seen in the book.

In my case, a few topics showed up on the exam which were deficient/absent in this book, including the use of Visual Source Safe (about 3-4 questions), Visual Component Manager (about 2 questions), and DHTML projects/syntax. The Package and Deployment chapter may also have been a little bit on the weak side considering the number of questions on the exam on this topic.

After reading this book, I am comfortable with using other Coriolis "Exam Cram" books as the sole hardcopy study material. I would definitely not preclude use of the free online material that's out there, particularly some of the braindumps.

Good luck!

However, be warned: the Exam Cram series does have errata. Luckily, Coriolis does manage the problem (as to most I/T book publishers) and publish errata on their website. Always always always download and print the errata and keep it with you or inside the book or ink in corrections in the margins.