Customer Reviews

MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-270): Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional, Second Edition (Pro-Certification)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

It's rare to find a book that covers the exam material so well that you only need to buy one book to pass the test - but this one is an exception. Not only does it cover the material well, it is truly an easy read. The test was relatively difficult because of it's breadth of testing topics but I passed with an 857 (700 required to pass) and I credit it to this guide.

Buy this book + read it AND understand it = pass the test.

Sub-Title: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Second Edition

This is the official guide, published by Microsoft, it contains everything you need to know to pass the MCSA/MCSE (70-270) examination. In addition to the almost fourteen hundred pages of text, there are two CD-ROMs included. One of these is a trial version of XP Professional (updated to include Service Pack 2 with all of its security changes). The other is a Review Suite of practice questions that will test your readiness to pass the test. This CD also contains a complete electronic version of this book, so you can load it on your notebook and use on an airplane or whatever. It also includes two other complete Microsoft books in eBook format: Encyclopedia of Security, and Encyclopedia of Networking.

In short here is everything needed to not only become an expert on XP but to be able to pass the test and prove to a prospective employer that you know the subject. The book contains virtually everything you need to know to install, configure and administer XP. It is the second edition of the book so the input from readers of the previous edition was considered in making the changes to this edition, as well as SP 2 of course.

The 70-270 XP exam requires in depth preparation to pass this exam. It is a 58 question exam, with only 50 being scored.

Having recently took this exam and using this book, you can safely assume I am qualified in reviewing this book.

Firstly, for a book this size, you would want it to contain all areas of the exam. Sadly, it doesn't, and the student is left graping for external sources simply because the book doesn't even touch on them. IIS and vPN material is so scarce, I had to go through the book a few times to see if really was in the book. It wasn't. There may have been a time when this book was all you need, but the exam has been updated so much and changed that is more difficult than its initial release.

Secondly, the book reads like a technical manual at times, as though the help files from XP have been trimmed out and put into the book. Hence, the writing still is not very effective for those who need real life scenarios (which are exactly in the exam) instead of dry step by step instructions.

Where the book does have strong points is that it's errata page has only a few minor errors, so what it says, it says right.
Also, the included practice exams are a VERY BIG help if you are studying for this exam. Created by Measure Up, if you were to buy a Measure Up product directly from them, it would be very expensive. You should then consider buying this book simply because the included exams and questions will help you ALOT more than the book itself to pass the exam.

I recommend the XP Professional FAST PASS in addition to this book for it cover areas where this book falls short, and also the Fast Pass book explains things much easier on the mind than this book, and has great tables and charts for tricky areas.

Finally, I recommend you get hold of another practice exam provider. It is always a good idea to use a different provider than the one your book came with. Why? Because the objective questions will not be worded specifically to the content of the book (meaning that another provider will test you on exam objectives, not on whether you remember what's in the book or not) and also the wording of the questions will be different, so you will extra prepared should anything hit you that aren't familiar with.

I used:
This book
Measure Up practice exams (that came with this book)
XP Pro Fast Pass (Sybex)
Self Test Software practice exams

and passed with much room for error.

My final advice to all of you wanting to take this test is this: Please do not rely on a single source for the Microsoft exams. They are nothing like CompTIA exams or other exams on which you can do this.

Cheers,

I used this guide and passed the exam (score 984). I've used MS Press guides for all of my exams so far and this has to be the best one yet. The only thing I don't like is the page numbering scheme. I was especially fond of the end of chapter review questions, case scenarios, and troubleshooting labs (and the fact that the answers weren't in the back of the book like other ms press guides). The book does a good job of covering the objectives. (You will need to do additional reading of articles and material found on the MS website.) The evaluation version of the XP Pro SP2 accompanying the book is great and it lasts 180 days, plenty of time to get up to speed. The practice exam is also quite good.

All in all, this is a great value. I highly recommend it to anyone planning to take this exam or just get up to speed with XP.

If you want to learn about installing, configuring and administering XP Professional on a network, I think this is a very good book to have. This book prepares you to take exam 70-270. It covers the material very thoroughly with twenty chapters devoted to theory and seven chapters devoted to practicing for the exam. Actually, the last seven chapters were very helpful in learning the subject. These chapters present questions covering all objectives of the exam with an explanation of both the correct and the incorrect answers. You need to be aware that the questions don't simply cover material presented in the first twenty chapters. Quite to the contrary, they present new information that adds to your knowledge base. The questions were of high caliber being verbose and somewhat difficult. This is what you want to prepare for the exam.

As a bonus the enclosed CD offers hundreds more questions using the MeaurseUp testing engine. I found the questions to be very good. They were difficult and required a bit of thought to answer. They also include good explanations for both the correct and incorrect answers - very helpful for learning. But, I must say that several of the questions were wrong - only a few, and there were way too many typographical errors. I really think that MeaurseUp (the company producing the question engine) needs to vet their products better.

Overall, I found the book and CD combo to be a great value.

As a side note, XP Professional will remain relevant for some time to come. It is true that at this time Vista has been out for five months now, but many businesses will not upgrade immediately and many will just clone XP to their new machines. So you still need to know XP perhaps while learning the new OS on the block.

You want to study other resources in preparation for this or any exam. I found that answering questions and noting the explanations for the answers is a very good way to master the subject. I researched many Web sites that offer practice exams for a price. It appears that the two I would recommend are also the two that Microsoft recommends, that is, MeasureUp which you get for free on the CD, and SelfTest.

The MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit is one of two Windows XP Professional resources I use all the time. The other one is Stanek's highly regarded Windows XP Professional Administrator's Pocket Consultant, 2nd Edition.

If you are looking for a one-stop resource for Exam 70-270, I don't think you can beat this self-paced training kit. Very well done.

Although I haven't made it all the way through this book yet, I would like to say that it's taught me a lot. I've been using Computers and MS Windows since the days of DOS. Just goes to show even though you use an operating system daily there are still many things you can learn about it. I believe that when I finish the book and start the practice exams included I will be ready for the 70-270 exam. With the excellent content, e-books, Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2 120-Day Eval, 15% off Exam voucher, and practice tests this book is a GREAT buy! I would definitely recommend it.

This book is the Microsoft answer to everything you need to know for their 70-270 exam, but it doesn't quite hit that mark. It covers a lot of material on XP Professional but lacks some information you will need to know. You can pass the test just using this "training kit" but you would miss some questions that are not covered adequately.

The book is organized well and has good examples, questions, and self-test on CD. The CD has a lot of other material that comes in handy. The trouble is that the book is so verbose it is like trying to eat an elephant! The reading is boring, typical Microsoft tech talk/technical manual stuff. If written better, the book could be half its size. I ended up using it for a reference book and relying on two other books (Sybex and Mike Meyer Passport) from which to learn. It is now sitting on my shelf and comes in handy for a reference book.

Fortunately, I passed the 70-270 the first try with a healthy margin. I could have done it without the Microsoft XP Professional Training Kit by just using the other books. I recommend it if you need a good reference in your office but this is not the best book to use as your sole source for the 70-270 exam.

I recently passed the the 70-270 exam. I read the Exam Cram 2 book and when I needed a little more information I figured that I would find it in the Microsoft Windows XP Pro Self-Paced Training Kit. However, the Self-Paced Training Kit was not very helpful. When I needed more information on RAS and the protocols associated with RAS, I went looking in this book and found very little helpful information. All the information is basic and lacked details. Windows XP Pro has numerous features that most people don't use on a daily basis, and this exam covers those numerous features. Extensible Authentication Protocol and Windows Management Instrumentation aren't even listed in the index, and you had better know what those are if you are taking the test. The book fails to give enough information on VPNs, RAS, WMI, IIS, adding computers to a domain and Security Templates. It probably is lacking in more areas but I eventually lost faith in the book. It does have a lot of information on the basics of XP, but the exam covers situations and components that as a desktop technician you don't use very often if ever.

Also, the book doesn't have questions that are in the style of the exam which is very important when preparing for the exam.

Helpful advice for passing the exam: The Exam Cram 2 book was very helpful. The Exam Cram 2 Practice Questions book was not as helpful. Get Transcenders practice questions if you can and check web sites that have practice questions. Use the Microsoft Knowledge Base and TechNet documents to help find the details that you need.

The best things going for this book are the evaluation copy of XP and the exam voucher.

Good luck with your studies.

I bought this book in early February. It was my sole study guide for the 70-270 exam which I passed very comfortable on April 2nd.

The book comes in at almost 1100 pages. Just over 900 are devoted to the various topics that make up the 70-270 exam with the remaining 200+ acting as a quick reference exam preparatory guide. Like many Microsoft press books this study guide is way too bloated. The book could quite comfortable have been condensed by half while still encompassing all the
relevant exam topics. Therefore should any Microsoft folks be reading, size does matter particularly when dealing with exam preparatory guides. Nevertheless I found the quality of the material to be very good although there were areas ( detailed below ) that were lacking and could have done with a little more explanation or at the least a link pointing the reader in the right direction.

So let's begin with the good.

The core topics of Windows XP Installation / upgrading, hardware devices and drivers ( basically everything that can and will go wrong ), the desktop environment,user accounts, hardware profiles, NTFS permissions / shared folders, printers, performance optimization and security configuration were I felt very well explained. Those new to the world of IT will appreciate the dept the authors have went too in their coverage. The IT professionals will find the explanations very drawn out; there is nothing new or exciting revealed that you possibly have not already come across in your everyday use of XP Professional. Suffice to say these chapters will be a good point of reference.

and now the bad

Topics such as EFS ( encrypted file system ), offline files, Internet Explorer settings and how could I possibly forget Supporting TCP/IP were; well lets just say no cookies for the authors from me. These are all sections ( or lessons to quote Microsoft press jargon ) of larger chapters but none the less questions do appear on the exam. Those new to IT will find the EFS material truly cryptic ! ( no pun intended ), TCP/IP subnetting will make no sense and the configuration of Internet Explorer consists of 11 pages of screenshots and alas these pictures do not tell a thousand words folks. Supplemental material will need to be gleamed from the Internet. No way around it.

and finally the downright ugly
has to be the 200+ pages devoted to exam preparation. Nasty nasty stuff.

To summarize if you are hoping to do the 70-270 exam I would recommend this book. It is not perfect but it is very very good and in my opinion money well spent. The IT professionals will use it merely as a reference book for the exam and never again. Those new to IT will obtain a good grounding in XP but will need supplemental material to ace the exam and shine like a star among their peers. Best of luck.