MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0—Application Development Foundation: Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 Application Development Foundation (Pro-Developer)

I've been developing .Net applications since version 1.0 and wanted to use this book to polish what I know and fill in any gaps. Unfortunately this book has proved to be almost of no use whatsoever.

The first hard lesson to learn is that the book MUST be read alongside the substantial list of corrections available on the Microsoft website. If you don't heed this warning you quickly form the opinion that not only has the book not been proof read by a third person but that it's not even be proof read by the authors.

The second major problem is that the combination of authors working on the book has led to an inconsistent style and tone. In one section you might be hand held through an exercise as if you don't know what the keyboard is and a mere handful of pages later you are treated as if you are a developer working on the Framework at Microsoft!

On the whole I found this book is deeply unsatisfying and as pointed out by another reviewer possibly only worth the contents page as a guide to what the exam might contain as the book itself and the questions on the CD ROM have too many errors to be used as a credible study tool.

Most errors I've seen in a technical book (0/0 people found this helpful)

This book has an unbelievable amount of errors, Microsoft's website has to give 4 separate errata web pages for the 214 errors they admit to in this book - and I still found more mistakes that weren't in the errata - and there are even mistakes in the corrections.

Avoid this book, you would be far better off using the msdn library to research the exam topics.

Good Table of Contents (0/0 people found this helpful)

Only useful for the table of contents as a guide of what to revise. The book will give you a decent overview, but it has quite afew mistakes and makes some areas unnecessarily complicated. I would suggest buying a different book and make sure it covers the contents of this book.

It seems to me there is a conflict of interest in this book it written buy Microsoft so its not necessarily within their interest for you to pass first time. The questions on the CD are alot different to the exam. I would suggest looking at Brain Dump, Test King, Trancenders et al, if you sole aim is to pass.

Good Source for the exam (1/1 people found this helpful)

This Book is good source for the exam and does its job.
I needed to supplement it with MSDN library to pass the exam.
This book is not a reference Book for professionals.

Riddled with errors (3/3 people found this helpful)

This book seems to be split into good chapters, with a logical progression through to the end.

However, I don't think that I have ever experienced a technical book with so many errors. I'm not talking factual errors, I'm talking about simple copy and paste errors. If you consider that this book is a combined work of 3 people, also adding to that the technical editor - this is 4 people that should have proof read the book. Unacceptable. To start a section titled 'Creating an installer', with the text 'You can configure application domains to create....' and then continue with a 6 line paragraph that has been copied verbatim from the previous chapter is absolutely shocking, and should never have got past any form of review.

For reference, the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles for the corrections for this book are KB923018 and KB935218.

If you are looking for a book for this exam, I would suggest looking at Amit Kalani's offering - as in my previous experience, his books have been excellent quality.

with Bill Ryan of GrandMasters Tony Northrup and Wildermuth

Reader Reviews:

Riddled with errors and inconsistent (0/0 people found this helpful)

Most errors I've seen in a technical book (0/0 people found this helpful)

Good Table of Contents (0/0 people found this helpful)

Good Source for the exam (1/1 people found this helpful)

Riddled with errors (3/3 people found this helpful)

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