I cannot explain the degree to which this book frustrated me, but after a bit of thought I've given it a rating of 3. That reflects the fact that I did pass the exam using this as my primary reference. But in my opinion it is a pity that as far as I know it is the only book specifically geared towards the exam, because I just couldn't get enthused about it.



Ok, to be fair to the authors there are certain givens when studying for an exam. I never did expect a book that prepares for an exam to be a "quick fix" for one's own lack of knowledge. A fair degree of .NET experience is an assumption before attempting it. But what bewildered me was that in places it seemed to make relatively simple concepts seem confusing, which is the last thing one would expect. And often the specific detail likely to be encountered in an exam seemed to be almost obscured rather than emphasised.



If it wasn't for the fact that it does, I suppose, expose one to the requirements of the exam I wouldn't even contemplate bothering with the book. Something like the WROX C# 2008 book would win hands-down for actual content, though it does not necessarily cover the 70-536 criteria fully (but is a far superior and more in depth examination of most of the topics you'd need).



A plus is that the sample test questions (unlike the ones at the end of each lesson) did seem to me to be reasonably similar in difficulty to those in the actual exam. I personally used them near the end as a way to identify weaknesses, and to some extent cram.



I believe that the second edition has corrected the unbelievable morass of errata, but to me there was a bit more wrong with this book than that. It just isn't well written.



To summarize, I found it difficult to rate this book. It's the book I reluctantly admit helped me pass the exam in the absence of anything else similar.