This book really makes my day!
Its content is organized in such way that really helps us to understand "how things work". It gives basic and detailed information of the Dot.Net platform when building Web Aplications.
Great to whom wants to pass on Microsoft's 70-758 Exam!

This book is exactly what is says a Training Kit. It is one of four books Microsoft recommends, along with the other MSPress books. So for the people who are bashing this book because it's not the only one you'll need please refer to Microsoft's website to get the other recommended material. If you don't like the MSPress titles you can use other books like Wrox or Apress. I used a combination of this book + Apress Pro ASP.NET 2.0 and passed with a 890 score on the first try.

Bottom line

Is this good training material: Yes
Will you need other books to pass the exam: Yes

Using this book and the CD that comes with it, I passed this test in just 3 weeks. If read from front to back, everything you need to pass is here.

Glen Johnson's half of the book was particularly sharp. His experience as a professional trainer were clearly evident; he's extremely easy to follow. Tony Northrup's half was not concise. I learned more from the end of chapter lessons than from his written contribution.

This was my first training kit book. I was preparing for 70-528 egzam using it. Now, after passing it (928 points) I can say, that this book contains some gaps (i.e. templated custom controls). Use another resources (msdn) to pass an exam too.

Apart from any exam-prep, this is an excellent book for learning and using ASP.NET. I have several ASP.NET books and this is the one that more often than not answers my questions. The organization and explanations are very practical and clear. If you are trying to learn ASP.NET then this is an excellent resource.

As far as the exam - I have not yet taken the exam. I have taken some sample tests (not the easy ones that come with this book). I can say that just breezing through this book once will not prepare you to take the test. If you want to pass the test you will need to pretty much memorize this book, and also study other books. I recommend Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference, Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Applications: Advanced Topics, and Microsoft ADO.NET - all good books also by Microsoft Press. You will also need to understand object-oriented .NET programming - using classes, etc. Of course, the more practical experience you can get with ASP.NET the better. If nothing else, start a hobby website or get some other project.

I don't remember a lot of egregious typos and errors, although I have not read 100% of the book nor tried out most of the sample code, etc. I bought this book summer 2007 so maybe I have a revised, cleaned up versions.

There's not a lot of good resources out there for studying for this test, but this one did help get me what I needed to know to pass it.

I have read several ASP.NET books since I have been using .NET technology 2003. I had more deep understanding about ASP.NET from reading this book than any others. Of course, it's not perfect, but you will learn lots of things from the book. A+++

This book presents a good survey of the material covered on the exam. It is for the most part well written. There are some areas where the book seems to rely on a list of steps to take without much explanation. The one area where I was seriously unprepared was mobile controls. The book covers this topic sparingly, but my exam seemed to focus strongly on it.

The book does exactly what it promises - it covers whats going to be on the test! If you read the book from end to end; do the exercises and use the transcender tests - then you will pass with no problems. I have to stress though that you need to read and study the book! The exam covers the correct way to administrate and deploy websites and how to configure your apps for various security and user profile scenarios. It also covers those things that you'll probably never use (i.e. programming against mobile devices) but if you want to pass then you have to study up on it. Also be sure to know how to work with xml and be familiar with the xml namespace classes. Also, know your basic ado.net concepts and how to hook up your data aware controls (i.e. combobox and gridview). All of these were covered in the book. Bottom line, read the book, study it, do the transcender tests and you should pass.

The book does exactly what it promises - it covers whats going to be on the test! If you read the book from end to end; do the exercises and use the transcender tests - then you will pass with no problems. I have to stress though that you need to read and study the book! If you think you're going to pass with coding knowledge you'll fail. I was surprised at how little coding there was on the test. The exam primarily covers the correct way to administrate and deploy websites and how to configure your apps for various security and user profile scenarios. It also covers those things that you'll probably never use (i.e. programming against mobile devices) but if you want to pass then you have to study up on it. Bottom line, read the book, study it, do the transcender tests and you'll pass with no problem.

for a $50 book, I would expect there to be very few or no typos. While definitely not the worst tech book in this regard, there are some definite 'fit and finish' issues that could be resolved by employing a stricter editor. This is particularly important when the book is centered around exam preparation.

Over all, when paired with on-the-job-experience and other tools (like Self Test Software's exam prep materials) the material in this book does a reasonable job preparing one for the exam.

As an aside, forests everywhere would breathe a sigh of relief if MSPress would just provide these training materials in electronic form (as they are on the provided CDs). The only reason I cracked the book was to retrieve the CD.

I must say I havent taken the exam yet, but I disagree with one of the users that stated that the book for the 70536 covers all you need for the exam. It will INTRODUCE you to the themes that will appear in the exam, but in no way it will prepare you 100% for the exam. (The training kit for the 70536 that is)

This book I found a lot easier to follow on my first read, than the 70536. Possibly because it's not trying to include such a vast amount of information in a 1000 page book. I still must say that there are some chapters that I didnt fully like the way they explained things, things that I already have knowledge of how they work, but just didnt like the style in which they described it. It seemed a bit confusing in my oppinion.

Apart from that, everything is quite straight forward. If you have at least 1 year experience with asp.net you should read through the first chapters quite easily.

Although it doesnt provide any tips and tricks as mentioned by other reviewers, I did find information in this book that I havent seen described properly in other asp.net books I read.

I generally enjoyed reading this book, but of course, being realistic... I have to say that the fact I enjoyed it more (compared to the 70536) is quite obvious as we are talking asp.net here and not a load of "quite boring although useful" features on the .NET framework.

This is a good book to help prepare for the exam, I would recommend getting another source of practice tests to go along with it though. The lesson reviews were overly easy. The practice tests on the cd are good, but you will find some errors in them and a few duplicate answers.

Haven't sat the exam - but the other reviews had me worried the book was not enough. Having done some of the mock exams on the included disc I am sure it is not enough - things not even mentioned in the book appear in the mock exam.

The Microsoft web site seems to contain all you need...but if you are going to publish a book why not do it properly instead of this half hearted effort. If there was another book I would be studying from it.

This book is very well organized and contains most of the material needed to pass the exam. It is a great reference book for development as well.

Before writing of this review I have read some rumours about the book. Some people say it does not cover all the details for the exam itself. Again as with 70-536 Training Kit from the same set I have found out that the contrary is true. It is a very good book that concentrates on main aspects of .NET web development. Even a beginner after reading the book is able to use EVERY important functionality. Of course if you are a professional you have to study and develop yourself your .NET web applications at least in order to confirm and assure what you have learned. Again the book is very self-motivating. Probably that is also the main reason why some in-depth details are missing at right places and moments. The book has all you need to master the technology and exam itself.

Before writing of this review I have read some rumours about the book. Some people say it does not cover all the details for the exam itself. Again as with 70-536 Training Kit from the same set I have found out that the contrary is true. It is a very good book that concentrates on main aspects of .NET web development. Even a beginner after reading the book is able to use EVERY important functionality. Of course if you are a professional you have to study and develop yourself your .NET web applications at least in order to confirm and assure what you have learned. Again the book is very self-motivating. Probably that is also the main reason why some in-depth details are missing at right places and moments. Microsoft Press certainly tries to do the best. Where else you can find a book with concluded pdf, exam test program, 90 days trial Visual Studio Professional and 15% voucher discount ? The book has all you need to master the technology and exam itself.

This review is about the unfortunate disparity in abilities of the 2 authors: Glenn Johnson and Tony Northrup.
Johnson is a nice surprise to those who read microsoft training manuals. He anticipates reader's problems and never leaves you frustrated.
Northrup is the opposite. His chapters are irritatingly lacking in necessary examples and thorough explanations. You cannot avoid the notion that he is taking the easy way out. At times I believe I can hear his X-Box 360 running in the background
In chapter 9, lesson 3 on using WebParts, he admonishes the reader that its up to him to spring ahead many pages to some of the labs at the end of the lesson. He doesn't bother to provide enough of an explanation to do you any good. Mr. Johnson, again, provides both immediate examples and labs.
This is typical.
I don't see how you can avoid being frustrated by this. Carefully crafted explanations followed immediately by examples is the norm. Johnson takes of this, Northrup leaves you constantly throwing your hands up.
I am learning quite a bit, however. You can master much of the elements of Net 2.0 using this book. Be prepared to do additional online research of Mr. Northrups chapters, however.

I used the book as my principle but not sole source of study material, and I was able to pass the exam today the first time I took it.

The book covers all the * topics * on the exam, but the book alone will not help you to pass.

I credit these factors:
1. Reading the book
2. Doing the lab exercises and case scenarios, especially if it's a topic you're not familiar with.
3. Taking the practice exams on the CD - then clicking the More Info links - you do need to read the info on the MSDN site.
4. Having experience with ASP.NET - I don't see how you can pass without work experience, unless you make lucky guesses

Also, if you come across a question that totally stumps you, just try to reason through it, don't make a blind guess.

I will agree with the other reviewer who said that this book alone is NOT enough to pass the test.

After deciding to take the exam, I searched high and low for books and this was the only 70-528 prep book I could find. I got this book and spent months going over it and taking the practice exams. I could easily pass the practice exam questions before I went in and felt like I had a good grasp of the material. Another reviewer said that they passed the exam despite the fact that they failed the practice exam, and I honestly do not know how they could have passed. Based on co-worker's comparison of the this book and the practice exams for test 70-536, I decided to go in and take the test.

Let me tell you, the book does NOT go into enough detail in either the examples/text/lessons OR the practice exam. I managed to barely pass the exam by the skin of my teeth.. mostly using this book as a basis and all my on the job experience as a supplement. Unless you are a hands on developer with a fair amount of job experience to back you, just using this book to prepare is NOT going to be enough.

Do yourself a favor and have a very thorough grasp on the material or be prepared to throw the money away.

I passed my exam today and immediately wanted to share it. This is a good book for certification purpose only. Not a knowledge builder. I bought this book as there was the famous Microsoft Press label on the cover page. I spent one month reading thru book and completely omitting Case Scenarios and practiced few lab excercises. The main attraction is the stimulated exam which is very close to the exam but should be accompanied with other exam stimulation available in market..(I used all demo versions did not want to spend too much money). Also, just 7 days ago I read from the book reviews, that MSDN links should be read as well and that's what I did.. the true knowledge is stored there. Please Please read the MSDN links for every question in the stimulated exam and I bet anyone will pass without going thru painful lab excercise. Good luck to all you guys.

This is one of the best books I have used. It is very easy to read and understand. Anyone with average intelligence should be able to ready and get a very good knowledge on ASP .NET.

I don't think one can pass an exam just cramming some materials; you need to use your experience. An excellent book even for a beginner who has C# or VB.NET knowledge.

I agree this is not the book for an advanced developer.

I'm only up to chapter 4, but I've already learned more about ASP.NET from this book than I ever did from MSDN tutorials. It's well-written, and has reasonably good code with plenty of room for improvement by a practical programmer who is looking to practice his design skills.

It's cheaper than taking a class (and goes into MUCH more detail than any programming class I've ever been in), more thorough than either MSDN tutorials or webcasts, and seems comprehensive enough... I suspect that a reasonably intelligent entry/mid-level person with .Net skills could read this, go through every example, and come out very well informed. Maybe not ready for senior-level work, but a better programmer for making the effort, whether they take the test or not.

I did pass the exam in the first attempt after one month of preparation.
This is a good reference book to start preparing for the exam.

But it is not good enough to pass the exam. You will need to do lot of
reading online. Take the practice tests provided on the CD. Go through /
read / understand the MSDN links provided on the CD under the learning
plan tab (which is displayed after you take the test).

After all these things what is most important is your experience in this
field and that if you can think the Microsoft Way?

Long story short - Can I just read this book and pass the exam - NO!

I did pass the exam in the first attempt after one month of preparation.
This is a good reference book to start preparing for the exam.

But it is not good enough to pass the exam. You will need to do lot of
reading online. Take the practice tests provided on the CD. Go through /
read / understand the MSDN links provided on the CD under the learning
plan tab (which is displayed after you take the test).

After all these things what is most important is your experience in this
field and that if you can think the Microsoft Way?

Long story short - Can I just read this book and pass the exam - NO!

I was impressed with the amount of information that was provided in this book. I took the sample tests, and found that they were not nearly as hard as the actual test. I spent 20 minutes on the first question, but I got it right.

I am glad that I supplimented my studies with another book entitled, "Professional ASP.Net 2.0," which is published by Wrox.

Between these two resources, and the sample tests, I was able to pass the test with 90% of the answers correct.

This book was very thorough which is what I expected for a certification book. However, I also found it very easy to understand with nice easy to follow labs.

Although I didn't read whole this book yet I can surely say that the way this book is written is really good and I hope it will lead me to MCTS Web Apps. Of course there are some typos but I think that this book gives a good overall understanding of the concepts involved on exam objectives.

Previously I bought a 70-536 Training Kit form MS Press, I red it and although it was my only book when I was preparing to 70-536 exam I passed it for the first attempt. That's why I think if the 70-528 TK is written in the same way as 70-536 TK is (IMHO it is even a little better edition) and the previous book led me to MCP this one will also do this

From the other site preparation tests included in this book should be a "little more" close to this from the real exam. The best way is to take other tests let say from the Transcender or MeasureUp. This was the major reason for me to give it 4 stars.

I was impressed with the amount of information that was provided in this book. I took the sample tests, and found that they were not nearly as hard as the actual test. I spent 20 minutes on the first question, but I got it right.

I am glad that I supplimented my studies with another book entitled, "Professional ASP.Net 2.0," which is published by Wrox.

Between these two resources, and the sample tests, I was able to pass the test with 90% of the answers correct.

This book was very thorough which is what I expected for a certification book. However, I also found it very easy to understand with nice easy to follow labs.

I think the book covered the content well with plenty of code samples. The text is easy to read. I didn't do the labs and just reviewed the text in detail. I noticed some errors, typos, and editing problems, but it seemed to be fewer than other study guides I have used.

The review questions at the end of each section were excessively easy and did not provide good preparation for the actual exam.

The simulated exam was quite difficult and I failed it with 67% (out of 80% needed to pass). I decided to take the actual exam anyways. It was substantially more difficult than the simulated exam. The actual exam went into some extreme detail on many of the esoteric subjects, and I found myself guessing on many questions. I thought surely I would fail, but it passed me.

So, I recommend this book as a study guide. It's best to combine this guide with some serious on-the-jobs experience. Otherwise, I think it will be difficult to pass the exam.

This is the only book available in the market for 70-528 Exam Preparation. This book gives a good coverage of exam objectives. It also comes with 300 practice questions, MSDN links. There are some obvious errors in the practice questions as well as in the book. The other online preparation materials like Transcender and Measureup also aren't perfect either. If you do a solid preparation of going over the material, MSDN Links and supplement with practice tests like Transcender and Measureup, you can do well in the exam. I passed this exam also in my first attempt. I think it is a very good book for exam preparation.

This book help me to grade on 70-536 exam. It's some errors on code, but achieves the purposes.

I've struggled to form an opinion on this book, but reading the other reviews has made things clearer for me. I feel that the reviewer who gave it two stars was being overly harsh... although I do agree with some of his/her points.

The book is of no real use to anyone not writing the exam - it does not focus on giving you the kind of knowledge you need to write "real world" web applications, but rather on covering the exam objectives, as laid down by Microsoft. It does a pretty good job of covering those objectives though. I have not written the exam yet (and that of course is the real test of the book's worth), but I thought some of the sections were a bit superficial. This annoyed me at first, but realistically speaking the book would need to be 5000+ pages long to cover these many objectives with any sort of depth. You could write a 1000 page book on ADO.net and still have to leave information out, for example.

The book gives you a pretty good overall understanding of the concepts involved in each exam objective, and the labs are great at reinforcing those concepts. The authors have done a good job, but I would have liked more depth on some of the chapters. I believe it's necessary to supplement this book by using Google to get indepth knowledge of some of the topics... but then anyone who actually wants to master his/her subject matter would be doing this anyway. One book, no matter how good, can never deliver mastery of something as "big" as ASP.net.

There are some typos and mistakes, but not enough to be a problem if you are paying attention. My biggest gripe with the book (and the major reason for only 4 stars) is not actually with the book itself, but rather the test questions on the CD. Surely it can't be that hard for a Microsoft Press book to have questions that are actually close to the Microsoft exam questions in terms of complexity? If you are going to use the existence of the test-software as a "drawcard" for potential buyers, then make the questions as real as possible please. The last exam I wrote (many years ago) was C++ Distributed Applications, but the exam questions were a lot more complicated than the practise questions on this CD.

Book has quite a few typos, mistakes and suffers an almost complete lack of depth.
Besides providing a test related table of contents not much value (information) added anywhere. Supplied electronic tests faulty and fitted with very few questions (quite a few of them would actaully belong to 70-536 instead).
On the one hand nicely described trivia infos like difference between active and passiv FTP connections (nice to know in that depth even if fully useless) on the other hand lack of depth on any ASP related control (lots of space wasted on trivia that could have otherwise been used to actually provide valuable information). Trivia source code supplied en masse but ASP related (specific) missing :-((.

Resumé:
Anybody could have compiled a table of contents and supplied help related superficial information and would more or less have produced similiar quality (no better no worse).

Comparison to Previous Test (70-536)
- even greater lack of depth
- electronic test questions supplied (~100 not really sufficient, 70-536 had over 300)

MHO: In no way is this book designed to get anybody through the test.

As a .NET developer, I got this book to take the test.
I will not recommend this specific book to absolute beginners or to experts, but it can be good guide for novice developers with around a year or less of experiences.
Typos and inconsistencies are often noticeable, and if you are not experienced enough, you may get confused very easily. I personally did not like chapter 4, ADO related, since it was longest, yet basic overview. However, other chapters were good enough.

This is a good book to use for preparing for the specific exam it covers. I read it for that purpose and passed the exam on the first try. The writing is clear and the examples and practices are relevant. The typos, errors and omissions are noticeable but tolerable (somewhat expected for the first printing of this type of book). I enjoyed the writing style and especially the first few chapters that covered conceptual topics. The later chapters are a little dry--I would guess that even the author was bored by the last chapter recounting the endless minutiae of deployment and monitoring.

If you're not planning on taking this exam--get a different book. There are no tips and tricks, no in-depth coverage of how to accomplish real-world tasks, no hand-holding for novices, and a whole lot of extra chapters covering what is likely miscellany to most developers. The book is exactly what it purports to be: a training kit for the purpose of passing this particular exam.

I am a junior level programmer for a large internet company. I've been disappointed with most programming books I've found. They are more reference than learning, tutorial based. This book however is a solid learning tool. I'm about half way through it and I'm very happy with it. The lessons in the book are great. You must know some c# already though. On the negative side a few times the book strays away from lesson based learning. For me following the step by step lessons in the books have been the best way to learn .net 2.0.

This book is the training kit for the 70-526 exam. All of the reviews below are for the training kit for the 70-536 book.

I read this book twice. And I used the MS Press Training Kit Exam Prep application. I studied all 304 questions. I passed the test. So the study guide works. And this was the hardest exam I've taken (I've taken six).

I didn't rate it 5 stars, because many of the examples were obvious, and the book had a few errors and typos. A handful of the exam questions were wrong, or had duplicate answers both of which were correct (pick one of the duplicates; no it's the other duplicate with the same answer). But generally, it provided enough information to pass the test.

This test is hard. Don't underestimate it.

Well I just took the exam today and passed (I didn't do exceptionally well but I have the certificate!). My only source was this book. By me passing I guess you can say it did the job for the task at hand. About 11 out of 16 of the chapters in the book are very easy to understand and very helpful and straightforward (minus the typos). However, some of the others, particularly those dealing with diagnostic and management configuration could use some work. My biggest issue with the book is not with how it is written, but the content. There were about 5 questions which I had no clue about and do not remember their content being directly mentioned (if at all) in the book. I am not pointing fingers at anyone, but there is a problem there with either the book's content or the access the authors had of what would be covered on the exam. All in all, I give it a 3 out 5 since I did pass. Although, I did study this book everyday, heavily, for three straight weeks. As for the practice questions, I thought they were ok as well. They helped me learn some things not covered in the book (oddly enough) and were useful to point out important points on specific topics. This isn't the greatest book in the world, but if you know it really well and do al of the examples and labs, you will probably pass.