Customer Reviews

MCDBA Administering SQL Server 2000 Study Guide (Exam 70-228)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I used this book as a training/study guide, and passed exam 70-228. The topics are discussed logically and in a fair amount of detail. Real world situations are provided, procedure demonsrations providing actual screen shots, exam watch tips, and certification objectives. The two-minute drills at the end of each chapter are a good review, a help reinforce the material to memory.

The CD contains practice exams with full explanations which are useful for exam preparation. There are also review sessions, which are just the 'two-minute' drills from the book provided in a 'flash-card' format. The full text is also on the CD for easy electronic searching.

I would suggest the following for passing exam 70-228 (I am an MCSE, and 1 test away from MCDBA):
1.) Use this book to train and learn the content. Also Microsoft MOC or other MCT Training.
2.) Use ExamCram notes, "Cramsession.com", or "ExamNotes.net" study guides to review and commit the needed details to memory.
3.) Use "Transcender", the included "ExamSim" on the CD, or any other practice exams to learn the material and familiarize with MS exam format.

Unfortunately the Syngress book for exam 70-229 SQL 2000 Design is not yet released, so I had to buy the Sybex MCSE SQL 2000 Design Study Guide.

I have read and reviewed over 25 MS certification books, and this is among the worst I've ever seen. This book was obviously rushed into print, as the spelling and grammar errors are the worst I've ever seen in any published material. There are many cases where they give example SQL text that doesn't even run b/c of inaccuracies. Many of the exam questions specify incorrect answers and/or tell you one answer is correct, then the answer explanation will explain why another answer is the correct choice.

The book is week on substance, as many of its pages are filled with screen shots rather than enlightening content. The test questions are not similar to the type of questions found on the actual exam.

If anyone actually reviewed this book before it went into production, they should be fired immediately, as it's hard to read more than a couple pages without finding errors, many of which make it difficult to determine what the author is trying to say.

If you want to learn SQL server and desire to pass the exam, spend your time with other material.

I chose this book because of a few good reviews on this site, coupled with my success using other certification guides from Osborne. Up until now, I would have continued purchasing Osborne books. However, this book is VERY poorly written. There are blatant grammatical errors, and many of the sentences are so poorly written that, at times, my friend (who is an MCDBA) could not understand some of the concepts that the author was attempting to illustrate. If you are looking for good books to study for 070-228, you should definitely look elsewhere!

I used this book to prepare for the SQL 2000 test (70-228) and it seemed like it was a very informative book. That is until you actually begin to use what you get from the book against whats in the test. The book doesn't cover quite a bit of material that is on the test, and gives you very minimal information about other things. It does cover replication quite well, and it has good information on setting up jobs/alerts/DTS/etc... It's a big book, but the vast majority of it is "filler" that uses overly complicated descriptions and LOTS of screenshots to walk you through tasks. Also, the included CD is useless. It has an a copy of the book on CD, and ONE sample test with just 45 questions (many of them from inside the book). I just passed the test with a 950, but thats only after I used several other resources to fill in the many gaps. Overall 2 1/2 stars.

As a rule, I try not to write overly negative reviews. In this case I must make an exception; these books are ... and the certification process is often important to one's career. The slipshod manner in which this book was put together borders on irresponsible. Even if you ignore the fact that the grammar and spelling is atrocious in places (spell-check is so easy), much of the information therein is misleading. The chapter self-test questions often directly contradict information within the chapter. The questions are also poorly worded, without any real justification for the answers. Finally, there are a number of blatantly incorrect statements that the author makes. It is a wonder that the author managed to pass the exam! Despite the glowing praise showered upon this book by the other reviewers, I am not the only person with this opinion. Check out the customer reviews for "MCDBA SQL Server 2000 All in One" on this site and MCDBA newsgroup postings regarding Osborne books. You will find that this seems to be a trend with the company. Microsoft Certification is an ... and time-consuming endeavor- don't waste either on this book.

If you are new to SQL server and want to know the basics of the application then this books if your you. If you want to pass the exam however then I suggest you look else where. The material is too simplistic and there are too much typo errors. I read the book twice before turning to other materials like the Transcenders and Self Test software and I must say had it not been for the other materials that I used I would have failed the exam.

When using a Study/Exam Guide to prep for a certification exam, I expect the exam portion of the guide to be a key point. The CertTrainer ExamSim included with this book is a joke. I like to begin my preparation by taking the practice exam before I read the text to see where I need to concentrate. After 90 minutes or so, I reached the end of the exam, pressed Back to check my previous answer, only to find my answer had changed. Upon checking other answers, they ALL had changed to A&B! I retook the exam, and when I went into review mode, none of my anwsers showed up at all, and neither did any text to explain what the correct answer should be. It just started the exam process over.

I have to wonder if anyone at the publisher actually tries to read/use any of the books they publish. With the technical nature of these books, it is imperative that they be acurate and usable.

This is the second 70-228 book I've shelled out a substantial amount of money for (the 1st one being the "All-In-One" abomination), and I'm starting to get gun shy.

These books don't come cheap in either cost or the time it takes to read and study them, and the publishers have an obligation to make them credible. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of choices out there, and finding the good ones is getting harder and harder.

I just hope the publishers realize that as we become certified professionals, our recomendations are taken seriously.

Well, I can not say the exam topics was 100% covered but, it is not wrong to say this book along with a few years of SQL server experience could be enough to pass the exam.

The book is well prepared and language is easy to understand. However, some topics, like Index usage or query optimization is not covered well enough.

And the practice tests are quite bad as in other Osborne/Syngress books. The ones in the exam are relatively better, however, you only have a single question set in the CD and its just put in the CD to give CD with the book. The test is poorly prepared and most of the time even answers are wrong. (i.e. It says the correct answer is A, then explains why the answer in B is correct). Anyhow I suppose this is not related with Joyjit but a general problem with the publisher.

Beyond all this, considering the number of alternatives, I simply suggest you to order this book if you are to 228.

This book is terrible. Period. The writing is dry, probably only 25% of the material is applicable to the exam itself, and the book is filled with inaccuracies. I sincerely doubt the author even took the 70-228 exam before writing this book, ... A complete waste of money, avoid this book like the plague.

There are better books to buy.
This book is too simplisitic to be of much help with the exam. It needs editting, index is useless, there are lots of blatant errors, etc. A year or two ago maybe there weren't many alternatives, but now I'd recommend the Microsoft "Training Kit" book as much better, or additionally "Inside Sql Server 2000" for reference. For example test questions, the Microsoft "Readiness Review" is more realistic (albeit very brief), or spend the $$ for Transcender, etc.