Customer Reviews

MCDST: Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician Study Guide: Exams 70 - 271 and 70 - 272

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

 

 

I just passed the 271 with an 899 and the 272 with a 916. This book was my only study resource, but I have been working with the XP OS on-the-job for four years.

The difficulty of the test comes from Microsoft's method of testing. Even though I did very well, I only had "warm fuzzies" with half of the questions as I was taking the test, because they really run your brain through the wringer. So, you must understand why all of the other choices are clearly wrong and only one is right, and this entails knowing the material thoroughly.

The only problems I had with the book are is the horrible amount of typos and strange program behavior with the practice tests, and the lack of anything other than multiple-choice questions.

Other than that, get hands-on training, read this book over and over, and be careful with the wording of questions on the actual exams.

Really I wish I could give this 2 and 1/2 stars since it really only covers one of the exams well. I found that this book covers the content in 70-272 wonderfully and most of what is included in this text was really relevant and helpful in that exam.

The same can not be said for the content covered for 70-271. I found that a lot of what was in the exam was not mentioned in the book, specifically security template inf files (which there were a few questions). The book focuses a lot on the knowledge of the boot process and I can say I don't remember seeing one question about troubleshooting that in the exam. I understand that all questions may not be the same for every session but I remember thinking when the exam was completed that I studied a lot of stuff that I saw no questions on. On the other hand a lot of stuff I knew through my experience with the OS and not from what I read in the book. The opposite was true for 70-271 which as I said before, the covered content was pretty relevant.

Overall I am not sure I would recommend this book to someone who is looking for an "all-encompassing" testing tool. It provides good working knowledge of WinXP but I think a little more material relevant to exam 70-271 should be covered. I think on future exams I will stick to MS published material instead.

I have been in tech support for a decade, and picked up this book to cover the stuff my job does not. I drilled down on it, studied it, passed its practice tests with 80-90%

And it was utterly USELESS when I showed up at the test site. It does not cover the run-line commands, does not cover nearly enough on installation questions or protocols. It's a great book for everything BUT what you need to pass.

I used only this book and plenty of hands on experience to pass the test (271:880, 272:918).
The 271 coverage is iffy. As other reviews have said the book covers a lot about the boot sequence which wasn't on the test for me at all. It is missing coverage of security templates .inf s completely but that is probably a page's worth of material, you can google it.
The 272 coverage is complete and very much what the test questions covered.

I gave it 4 stars because it is concise, a feature that many other MCDST books lack.

The practice exams on the CD are slightly easier or about the same than the actual test albeit is worded very differently.

If you already have some experience in the field, and don't want to spend too much time then this book is great. Otherwise look for something more detailed.

This book the MCDST Study Guide "DELUXE EDITION" which is the second edition of MCDST Study Guide, is really helpful and updated in order of studying it and taking the exams, it contains a cd with test / exams and flashcards wich are really helpfull= for revising the chapters. If you are willing to take the exams i recommend you to buy the deluxe edition because its an updated version, dont buy the previous edition. Some of the questions included on the CD are pretty similar with questions in the exams. I did pass the exams studying this book and thats why i recommend it! Dont forget that taking the exams requires also a bit of experience:)

The text is easy to read and well thought out. If I should need an additional study guide I will greatly consider this author. My only additional addendum would be if purchase the book on audio disk. Possible as of this writing it may already be available.

Great book for anyone trying to learn how to Support Microsoft Windows XP. Also, a great tool to have on hand while working in the field.

The Sybex MCDST book is an excellant resource for passing your MCDST. Although I do highly recommend experience in addition to this title, you should be able to pass the test with it alone. I would have liked to have seen questions in the book that more closely resembled what was on the test but other than that, this book was excellant.

I would tell anyone that this book is not the one to get because everything you
read in this book you will not have any thing on the exam no way like it nor any questions you study for will be on the exam. Don't get me wrong we all know that the same question from the book and the question from exam will not be the same but there should have been some examples as the same in which there wasn't any at all. Get another study guide for this test because this book is not the one.

I failed both tests on first try, almost passed both though without studying. Failed both again on second attempt after serious studying with this book AND my scores were lower! The only way to pass these tests is to memorize the actual answers. Many of the test questions have 2 or more correct answers and the test-taker must memorize the test author's preferred answer. I did pass the A+ tests on first try without studying!