Customer Reviews

MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-443): Designing a Database Server Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Pro Certification)

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I'm just about finished my MCITP: DBA Certification on SQL 2005. So far I've done 70-431, and 70-443. I've been working with SQL Server for a number of years now, and I've recently switched over to a full time DBA position.

I read this book in about 2 weeks, and did the exam on the third week. I managed to get 910 on the exam, out of 1000. As 700 is the passing grade, I'm more than satisfied with anything over 900. Along with some kind of practice testing, this book is adequate study material. I suggest you have a lab in place so you can do the practices and test out the software for yourself. Besides just being a study guide for a certification exam, I've found myself referring back to this book several times, and it has a permanent spot on my book shelf at work. With that said, I can safely say I recommend this book to those looking to take the 70-443 exam.

Good luck!

I have passed all 3 exams using only these Study guides. This exam is the most difficult due to the format, not the material. The exam makes you read 8 pages of case study and then asks you 10 questions. The questions all conform to MS Best Practices, which is what this book is all about. Damned boring to read though, after the 70-431 title. I did this test last. Do not try to do it first. If you cannot pass the 70-431's simulation, you'd rather not waste time and expense on any other exam.

One note about the exam: each Case Study has it's own timer. I freaked myself half-way through and thought I was out of time. Raced through the case study and then promptly got another one with a reset timer. Frayed my nerves so bad I could not absorb the text. I had to sit back for 5 minutes and force myself to think about non-SQL stuff.

Concentrate on the last 2 sections of the study (Business Requirements, Technical Requirements) ... the rest is detractor.

Do not buy this book unless you plan to sit the exam. Force yourself to read it in a weekend and then just go through the cd practices.

This book did a good job in preparing me to pass the 70-443 exam. Out of the three exams for the MCITP - Database Administrator I found this one the hardest and would recommend that you take the 70-444 exam first as the study you do for that test will also help you on this one. While I did find that a couple of questions on my exam were not covered by any prep book for all three tests, there was more than enough to pass by a comfortable margin.

Make sure and take advantage of the prep tests included with the book, and pay special attention to the scenario based questions as the entire test is scenario based,, no simple what does this definition match up to questions on this test!

This book covers the exam material, but so does the book for exam 70-431 - SQL 2005 Implementation and Maintenance. I did not read this book carefully, so I can't comment too much on its quality, but if your goal is the MCITP-Database Admin certification, since 70-431 is required, you should be able to reuse that book (and knowledge). This exam deals a little with applying the knowledge, but if you understand the pros and cons of various RAID options, security options, fault-tolerance options, and backup options (all covered in 70-431), then you should have no problem identifying which apply to which situations. Having passed the exam, I must conclude I didn't miss much. At least the 15% off your exam coupon reimburses some of the cost of the book.

This book is very good in the fact that it steps you through real world examples. The examples in this book can be used for the real world work place.

Some of the many examples from the ground up are Clustering, Database Mirroring, Log Shipping and much more.

It helped me so much for the Exam 70-443.

Good stuff!

I passed 70-431 and turned right around to study for the next test. I used the Microsoft Press book for the last one and went with Microsoft on this test. I passed 70-443 on the first try, but read this book all the way through first. I did some of the hands-on examples, but I have a lot of experience with SQL Server 2005. I thought the book could have expanded more on Clustering and Partitioning. I found errors in the Chapter tests and other areas, so watch out. A lot of information was covered in 70-431 that is in this book. Don't get hung up on the repeat of information because you are taking all this information and taking a test over "Case Studies". The test will show you a company situation and then you must solve a problem. It is not just a "fact test" -- like "What is the Workgroup edition memory limit?" or something like that. There are a few chapters that I will reference, so this book will stay on my shelf.

My personal opinion this book should have been that last in series ...it has some repeated information i.e High Availabilty, High Protection architectures.. Ch8 : Failover Clustering being introduced first time in this book should have been give more pages and info. Some body who has done all practise in First book ( implementation and maintenance ..) don't need know or redo Mirroring, replication etc. Anyway the book has some important aspect in the first seven chapters which cannot be missed and being a simple DBA is not enough ..one need to know how the infrastructre go about...

It's helpful for the exam 70-443. I passed the perfect score.

Van