To give you an idea of my perspective, by the time I got the book I had already passed exams on MS Access, VB5, and WinArch I in that order. The book would only serve me to complete WinArch II. I devoted about 12, 14, and 18 hours of study prior to taking MS Access, VB5, and WAI respectively.

My study methods previous to obtaining the book consisted of taking transcender exams over and over again. I would look up and study those topics on which I was ignorant or uncertain in MSDN, the MS product's help, or VB Books on Line.

The WinArch I exam was more difficult using this method study since all the information was on MSDN. Sometimes the references cited in the transcender exams were 70+ page chapters of books in MSDN. The search time using MSDN made my study time take a great deal longer. I was certainly learning a lot about OLE theory from a C programmer's perspective but admittedly, my focus was to pass the exam and MSDN was not the quickest path to that end. I would rather spend my time reading other texts written by black belt VB/C++ programmers instead of MSDN about the practical application of OLE and many of the other Windows technologies.

That is why I found Mr. Prendergast's book an excellent resource. I could learn about many of the Windows technologies from someone who wasn't giving me a combination of MS marketing and programming design notes. The text was quick and concise from a perspective that was easier to read then MSDN. Often times when I was looking up a topic in the index, I would be thumbing through the text to get to the page I was looking for and I would find 4 other topics explained which I had been searching for on MSDN. There were questions I had wondered about Windows many times over the past year, which were answered in this book with a bold face topic heading.

I noticed that many individuals criticized Mr. Prendergast's critical nature of MS. Admittedly, I was a little surprised that he was as open in his opinions about MS in a book that was the MS recommended study guide. I don't really care for this pile on mentality which has cause so many to take their pot shots at MS but I didn't really think Mr. Prendergast's comments were reflective in that nature. I thought the criticisms he made were founded and quite tempered especially compared the hatred that seems to spew from so many about MS. I found some of his anecdotal asides as being somewhat refreshing too.

As an aside, I thought that the trascender exams for both WinArchs were not as similar to the real exam as were the VB and MS Access trascender exams.

I did pass WinArch II and am now an MCSD. The book still remains an excellent tool around the office for looking up answers about generalized MS Window's questions.