Windows® Architecture I & II MCSD Study Guide
Author: Bruce T. Prendergast
List Price: $89.99
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0764531239
Publisher: Hungry Minds, Inc (15 June, 1998)
Sales Rank: 47,465
Average Customer Rating: 3.02 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 2 out of 5
Good Reference book, just like MSDN
First off...The author obviously can't take criticism. If you'll read the author's comments above he blasted the negative comments posted here. I also don't feel that it's in the the authors best interest to be criticizing his readers for their comments. I'm going to knock off a star for that as I think that is just plain rude.Second...the book is just "ok". Why?
It's just as people stated...it's not a study guide. It's a reference guide. This book contains WAY too much information that is not covered on the exam-matrix for it to qualify as a study guide. This is in no way stating that it's a bad book. MSDN and the online documentation are also great reference guides. Heck, the Encyclopedia Britannica is a great reference guide...however, it's not the ideal choice for focusing on partiicular topics.
This book tries to be the encyclopedia britannica of windows architecture and at the same time it tries to be an exam study guide. Needless to say, it does! n't work.
Also, I did get kind of tired of the author's constant barrage against Microsoft. If the author liked it so well in the "good old days" as he constantly points out, then why did he write a book on the subject? Is he trying to persuade us to code in PERL and work on mainframes?
In any regard, I guess I'm an oxymoronic reviewer because I found the book quite good as an "encyclopedia" sytle book. As an exam-specific study guide, the author is only fooling himself.
And yes, I've passed both WinArch exams.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Good volume, little substance
Good volume but very little substance. The author's description are too esoteric and laced with lots of errors. The editorial team did very little in terms of proofreading and correcting typos.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Terrible book
Although I'm not yet done reading the book, it seems terrible to me. I'm not really sure how much of what is presented in the book (and in which detail) is required for the exams, but I do know that as one who has some COM background, I am having a hard time following the author. As was said in other reviews - the material is visually presented in a very poor way.
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