Product Description

Get self-paced, from-the-source exam preparation and self-assessment for the skills measured by MCP Exam 70-300—the one exam every MCSD certification candidate must pass.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #630526 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Customer Reviews

Barely Relevant
Having recently taken this test, I will confirm two two things stated by other reviewers without hesitation. First, the Exam Cram book is much more pertinent to the actual exam. Secondly, this book gives you no guidance with regard to the format of the exam. The sample test bears no similarity whatsoever to the case-study structure of the test while the book barely mentions case studies and offers no suggestions as to how to deal with them.

It's fairly pathetic that a third-party publisher, with evidently no inside information re the content and development of the test, can create a better study guide than Microsoft itself. It really makes me wonder about the whole certification game. Does Microsoft really want to develop a pool of informed IT professionals who can more effectively deploy their technologies within client enterpriese? Or do they just want to nickle-and-dime people on books, exam fees, and course tuitions?

A huge portion of the book is dedicated to the "Microsoft Solutions Framework" (not to be confused with the .NET Framework). Personally, I felt the MSF seemed like a reasonable project management methodology, if only because it seems quite flexible. But the exam had abosolutely no questions regarding the details of project phases, roles, milestones, etc. that constitutes the bulk of the book's content.

I'm really glad that I did not devote very much time to various exercises in the book that deal with creating UML diagrams and other project artifacts. Not only was it just too tedious and boring, but there was nothing on the exam that all that excruciating detail would have helped me with.

There were no questions on UML (despite the fact that the book recommends you read two other books on UML). There was one question on ORM.

This book is also full of chapter introductions, summaries, and other useless filler that servers no purpose other than an excuse for making the book look bigger.

If you need to prepare for this exam, don't waste your time and money on this toilet paper. Get the Exam Cram book (also, I looked over an Osborne book that seemed reasonably good) and study MSDM articles on MSF (to a reasonable extent) and things like Security and Authentication, Globalization/Localization, BizTalk, SQL Server, Host Integration Server, layering, etc. Also, be ready to think through case-study problems that are too lacking in specifics to answer without guesswork, and keep your fingers crossed.

Mediocre study aid
Microsoft has a hard earned reputation of producing verbose self-paced training books that only partially cover the exam objectives. True to form, Microsoft has written a mediocre book that will not adequately prepare you for the new exam (70-300).

Unlike the previous book, which was pathetic and laughable, this one is merely mediocre. Gone are the fictional character dialog, bad jokes, full page meeting agendas, and concerns about late employees. This book covers, in depth, MSF. Other exam objectives are basically ignored or given little coverage.

Included is a CDROM with solutions documents in the form of excel spreadsheets, word documents (specifications), and visio charts. Basically, you walk away with word and excel files you can adapt for your own use. Unfortunately, the samples and documents are only a subset of the MSF templates you can download from Microsoft's website.

Still, the book tries to explain the MSF architecture approach, which makes use of UML, specifications, interviews, memos, and group hugs (MSF Team Model). As a result, much of the coverage is how to produce project documents and artifacts.

I would second the recommendations of the exam cram book.

Book doesn't help you pass the exam
This book presents a very luxurious and impractical software development methodology. No software project, no matter how large, could possibly follow their advice with any degree of fidelity. The book is very fluffy, repetitive, and inefficient, and it says almost nothing about .NET. It is basically a feel-good grab bag of techniques. Don't spend [money]on this book.

The book had very little connection to the actual exam. The exam was a set of scenarios with questions afterward. The questions weren't that difficult, but many of the scenarios were too fuzzy, or the questions had fuzzy answers, with a "choose all that apply" format. This was not an objective test. Passing is largely a matter of luck. The predecessor to this exam (70-100) was much more objective.

And of course, Microsoft doesn't tell you your score at the end, only whether you pass, so you don't know how much more studying you have to do for next time. ...