Customer Reviews

MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-290): Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft® Windows Server(TM) 2003 Environment, Second Edition

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I purchased this book for study purposes after taking a class that was supposed to completely prepare you to pass the 70-290 exam. Thinking that this would be mostly review, I tore into the material last week when I got it and found that it is way more in depth than my class was. Excellent depth and the writing style is easy to follow.

I recommend this highly to anyone wishing to prepare to pass the test.

First of all I am not highly technical. I am a CRM Project Manager and I wanted to take and pass this exam to become and MCP and a MCBSM Profession for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. I do not do any of the outlined Windows Server tasks on a regular basis and had very little knowledge of them before I read this book.

I also found the certification exam to be very challenging and confusing at times; even more than some of the other Microsoft Certifications Exams the I have taken. That being said I believe this book did a very good job preparing me for the exam.

I found it to be bearable, which is actually pretty good considering my interest in the topics was limited. I spend roughly 30 hours reading the text and doing the examples from the book and another 15 hours taking the practice tests. In my opinion each of these three components are equally important.

Overall I don't think I retained much of the content and I would not recommend reading this book if you don't plan to taking the certification exam or using the content on a daily basis. However, if you are planning on taking the exam this probably the best resource because of the content, examples, and practice test cd.

But don't limit yourself to one book. I've been in the field for some years now and working with Server 2003/AD for about 2 yrs now. I combined my studies with the Sybex book and ExamCram series, all available at excellent prices here on Amazon (I usually get all my new tech books here because of lower costs). I'd highly recommend anyone wanting to pursue this MCSA certification to use all 3 books, it all balances out in the end and you get different perspectives on the same subject matter, some explained in a more layman way than technical. I used a combination of this one and MOAC 70-290 ([...])
for my studies (as well as those listed above), actually had to read thru the book twice since it had so much to deal with. Can't stress enough to do the labs, do them all, do the reviews. I'm not fond of the testing materials MS uses on the CD but I used Transcender on a professors recommendation and it was as close to the real thing as you can get. Passed my test no problem, dedicate yourself to closing off the world you know for an hour or two in the evenings and maybe a few hours on the weekend until you get it all down pat, the investment you make in yourself doing this will be well worth seeing that "CONGRATULATIONS!" screen when you take your test.

If I had the choice, I'd give this book 3.5 stars. This book is full of useful material, and the exercises you are supposed to perform are generally relevant and useful for preparing for the exam.

Every objective in the exam is technically covered, but the book does not include some of material that is covered on the test. This is not entirely the book's fault, as some of the test questions bordered on obscure. Still, 85%-90% of the actual test material is covered somewhere in the book. If you read the book carefully and slowly, there is a good chance you will pass the exam.

Unfortunately, the problem with this book is NOT detail. This book was extremely dry and was it wasn't very fluid. The material simply did not "flow" as you were reading it, and the sections were very disjointed... If you look at my review history, you'll see that I've read quite of few technical books that others would consider "dry"... but this one takes the cake (just edging out the ISC's CISSP book).

I also managed to read Sybex's 70-291 book, and also viewed CBT nugget's training video. Sybex's book was more geared toward the fundamentals, and lacked some of the details found in this book. The Sybex book is perfect for starting from the ground up, was fluid and explained itself very well. It was much more pleasant to read than this MS self paced training kit. The Sybex book would be the better book for a beginner, while this book would be better for a seasoned MS Administrator.

CBT nuggets was an excellent resource as well. It covered a lot of those little details that are hard to pick up through reading, or that might not be obvious until you perform the actions in a lab environment.

About the exam:

The MS exams are less straightforward (more tricky) than other exams that I've taken. I hear people often complain that they narrow it down to "two possible answers", and have trouble choosing between the two. If you encounter this problem, you aren't reading the question carefully enough. Almost every question like this that I saw had a small detail that would eliminate all but one answer. Not one question had two "correct" answers.

The questions are also a bit more wordy than other exams, so if you aren't the most patient person you may have some trouble. Once again, its important that you look over the details.

While I can't violate the NDA, I can say that a good portion of the questions fell within the core of the objectives. Most were very routine questions that involve average day to day tasks for an Administrator. About 5%-10% of the questions, however, were only LOOSELY related to the core objectives. For instance, the disaster recovery objective could extend to any service in the active directory. Do you know how to backup/replicate/transfer data from ALL the services that are integrated into active directory? Probably not. I was very lucky to have seen these things before, but they were so obscure I doubt most people have even seen them (let alone know how they work).

Also, I have a feeling most people will be unprepared for the automation objections. No one really uses them. Just a wake up call to all of you, they are on the test (its in the objectives!). If you don't know exactly what these automation tools do, you are going to have a hard time. Do you know the format differences, and do you know the functionality differences of LFIDE vs CSVDE vs AD Users and Computers? These tools aren't very automated, so no one really uses them (Much easier to use user data to produce dsadd or dsmod scripts). Learn how to use them.

I would definitely set up a lab, or use CBT training videos. Reading alone isn't going to be enough, especially for the simulations.

Finally, you NEED practice questions for this test. Its coverage is far too broad, and you need to make sure you have all areas of the objectives down pat. Its easy to have some wrong ideas about permissions, and/or group scopes and not realize it until you are tested. If you have a problem like this (especially in these areas), you aren't going to do well.

This product is far superior to the proscribed Microsoft course books that you will get in a classroom setting. I basicly tossed them aside and concentrated on using this before I took my exam. Guess what, I passed with flying colors! Take this book and run, It's the best source out there.

This is an excellent book that will prepare you for the exam. I used it as my only source and passed the test on the first try. The 70-290 is a very easy exam but regardless of that the book prepares you very well.

The MS Press book may not be the best guide for everyone. I used it in conjunction with the included MeasureUp tests and passed with a respectable score. However, there were several subjects that appeared both on the practice test and the actual exam that were never mentioned in the book.

If you have an excellent memory and can understand all the topics, especially file/folder permissions, backup, and group scope, this book should be sufficient. If you require a little more reinforcement and can't afford to miss a few oddball questions, better grab a second reference manual or be prepared to dig through TechNet for details on more subjects. Also keep in mind that the new MS tests feature simulations that require you to use a mini virtual version of Server 2003 to work through certain problems.

This book is a little light on IIS 6.0, IPSec/SMB (not mentioned at all), and certain details of Terminal Services. The MeasureUp test questions are hit and miss, some of the really huge ones are much more complicated than what you might see on the test, but if you can pass on the practice tests, you can pass 70-290. I didn't even look at the labs, but I hear they can have you bouncing around a lot.

This book is a little strange organized(chapters order) and some exercises cannot be completed due to additional configration steps needed that were supposed to be done in prior exercises, but they were omitted. Not to mention there is no chapter for GPOs.

I felt that this book was written very well and I enjoyed reading it. This book touches on everything that Windows Server 2003 has to offer. However, I would strongly advise using this in conjuction with other study materials if you are planning on taking the 70-290 exam. The practice questions in this book (and on the CD) are very good for real life situations that you will encounter as an administrator, but they are nothing like what you will encounter on the actual exam. I would suggest reading this book cover to cover doing all of the practice labs & questions, and then doing as many free practice questions as you can find online from a reputable source.

I took about 3 months reading and studying this book cover-to-cover. There is a lot of information in the book, but it is rather poorly organized, with multiple mistakes/typos, and missing information. This is a "Training Kit" yet the authors/editors seem to believe the reader should have prior knowledge of certain concepts or terms. I have been working with Windows servers since 1996, having taken the NT 4.0 certification classes, and I found there were many concepts and 'proprietary terms' that were not addressed. I spent a lot of extra time Googling these.

Further frustrating were the multiple references to many, many external sources for the in-depth information needed to attain the level of proficiency required for the exam on certain topics.

After finishing the instruction part of the book, I randomly opened to the self-testing part of the book. The very first question referenced a topic not covered in the text; I know because I did a thorough search of the included PDF of the text and the answer was not in the search results.

Over-all, a typical Microsoft experience, lots of over-sell with little follow-through. Final grade: FAIL.