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The MCSD Solution Architectures Training Guide is a fine, well-thought-out, solidly put together book on software construction. It's thorough--detailing everything that can affect the independent programmer from UI considerations to how to tell whether a company is getting ready to downsize. It even has the rare quality of being enjoyable to read.

There's only one problem: it might not help you pass the test.

While it's a very good introduction to the issues surrounding the MCSD: SA test, the book is a large (600-page) mass of information that lacks a critical focus on the hot spots that routinely come up on tests. The information is, by and large, presented all at once without any weighting, as if every fact were as crucial as every other fact--which, from a test-taker's perspective, is demonstrably not true. In other words, it's an extremely good book, but it doesn't tell you what topics are likely to come up on the MCSD.

That's a shame, because otherwise the book is a wonderful primer. A long case study at the beginning of every chapter details a fictitious company's problems, complete with quotes from imaginary interviews with various executives and end users. The rest of each chapter analyzes the case study. You'll learn to understand what end users really want technology-wise, guess what kind of funding may be available for your project just from careful analysis of senior management's guarded comments, talk to the IT guy, and learn what challenges lie ahead.