Customer Reviews

MCSD Architectures Exam Cram (Exam: 70-100)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book is great! The exam is real tricky - its the only one I have ever failed on first try - miserably! No book can prepare you for the Architectures exam fully but this book gets very close. I guess if you have a few years experience in data modelling you can pass with just this book. but if like me you have very little experience in data base design and data modelling, you definitely need something else. I bought and read the Data Modelling book by Lawrence Sanders after I failed this exam. That is a little book that fills in all the gaps! After reading these two book, anyone can pass this exam. Oh, one other thing you most likely will need is the Transcender sample tests. This exam is unlike the othe Microsoft exams and without the Transcenders it will be a shock the first time you do it and that may cause you to fail. So invest in the Transcender sample tests for this exam and you will be glad you did. Good luck!

EXAM vs. BOOK: Looking over other reviews, you'll see wildly divergent opinions about this book. The problem is that this particular exam (70-100) is structured in a way that is unique among Microsoft's exams. Aside from the required knowledge, the mechanics of the exam process are counter-intuitive, confusing and require practice to master.

First, let me say that passing 70-100 requires a knowledge base that is too broad to be contained in a single book (or even 3 or 4 books). If you go into this exam with several years of software experience, and AFTER having passed the other exams needed for MCSD, then much of the background is already covered. To be more specific, SQL Server 7 Design (70-029), is superb preparation for the IMPORTANT entity and data modeling aspects of 70-100. Since you have to learn it for 70-100, you might as well do 70-029 first. (70-029 is one of the most marketable of the electives.)

Beyond that, the candidate is expected to be adept at sifting through a haystack of scenario verbiage in order to identify process flow, data flow, and the underlying "business" problem, as opposed to the technologic problem, with which we are all more familiar. This is where a book dedicated to solution architectures is useful.

Brandt provides us with a readable survey of approaches to projects (including Microsoft's way of truth), development models, the array of project deliverables, including context diagrams, entity-relationship diagrams, data flow diagrams, case-use scenarios, and the physical manifestations of these. You need to know this, as well as tier models and user interface standards.

Although the multiple choice questions throughout the book are not what you are likely to see on the exam, they are helpful in clarifying your understanding of topics you will definitely see on the exam. If you can sail through the big exam at the end of the book, then you have a good foundation. But you'll need more to pass the real test.

WEAKNESSES: The material on data normalization are only adequate as a review if you've already learned the concepts elsewhere (do 70-029 first!). Practical applications of performance, availability, security, scalability, maintainability, and extensibility are not covered in sufficient depth. These shortcomings are acceptable if Brandt is not your only reference. I would strongly recommend Cornish, et al. as a primary book. The two books cover the material from different perspectives, and mutually fill in the gaps.

EXAM MECHANICS: Build-a-tree questions usually force you to create a hierarchical answer for non-hierarchical objects -- a horrible metaphor! The drag-and-connect questions are intentionally sneaky, and unintentionally difficult to set properly without practice. (The blocks that must be shuffled around will toggle unpredictably, causing intended connections to be misdirected. Even when properly connected, the results are extremely difficult to read.) In the drag-and-drop reorder list questions, dragging will occasionally drag an object not highlighted, and will occasionally drop onto non-highlighted objects. One remedy (unlikely) is for Microsoft to recognize that these testing tools are not ready for prime time, and fix them. The other remedy, and the only realistic one I know of, is to download the free Transcender demo. I bought the Transcender product (SolutionCert) and was only able to pass the third Transcender test, after failing the first two -- and I've been doing this stuff for 22 years!

CONCLUSION: Brandt is an excellent choice for a small book. Consider getting a large book, and at least download the Transcender demo to see what you're up against.

I agree with Patrick and Mark. This book is the best study guide for the 70-100 exam but the sample tests are more important. This book contained the most concise and easy-to-read information. I bought three other guides which turned out to be a waste of time and money. If you are going to take the test, read this book once and then download the sample Transcender test. Without the Transcender samples, you will probably fail the exam, no matter how much you study.

I am writing this review just after I passed the test. Many subjects on the test elapse those on the cores and the database elective (I took SQL Server). 80% of the test is about business analysis and tables design while the other 20% covers COM, classes, interface design, etc. No one book except the Transcender Exam will prepare you for the test. But if you feel obligated to read something, this is the book to read. The test asked nothing about MSF, so don't waste your money and time reading thick tomes. This book is succinct and very well written and the sections on COM and user-interfaces were pertinent to the test. I rated it 4 stars because it lacks simulated scenarios like those of the real test. Last point, Transcender is a must, I felt that Transcender CD better prep me for the test than any other reading materials.

Having already passed the 70-100 exam before reading this book, I reviewed it as a candidate for supplemental material for a course I teach. I found the book to have very worthwhile info in it that definitely will help people pursuing the 70-100 exam. Knowing the subjects covered in the book will certainly better prepare you to analyze the case studies that make up the bulk of the exam. However, don't expect the multiple-choice type questions throughout the book to look anything like the real test questions. The actual test is mostly case studies with tasks to complete like creating entity-relationship diagrams, data flow diagrams, drop and connect questions, with very few of the multiple choice questions like the ones this book uses throughout.

Still, there are narratives of several case studies in the book with discussions of analysis and solutions that are very similar to the thought processes you have to go through on the real test. Those case studies plus the summaries of terms covered that every developer should know make the text worthwhile.

You might want to supplement this text with a test-prep software package such as one from Transcender to get a real feel for the actual type of case-study questions included in the real test.

I found this book to be easily readable and enjoyable. It had some case studys which are similar to the ones you see on the test. It is probably the best book out there but that is by default because there are really no good books which cover this test. I still think somoeone has to be able to do better now that the format of the 70-100 test is pretty well known to everyone. The Transcender test is still the best bet for this test. However this book is a good supplement.

I used this book during my preparation and found it veryuseful. It provides a brief summary on all topics you need to know topass the exam.

The book uses a usual Exam Cram format, i.e. each chapter is finished with sample questions and a list of additional information sources (Internet, MSDN, etc.), so if you don't feel confident you know where to find more.

The last chapter is a sample test. The questions are very similar to the actual exam. However I strongly recommend trying the electronic simulation after reading the book, because the format of the real 70-100 exam is very different from any other Microsoft exam. Otherwise, on exam you may spend your precious time not analyzing the case studies, but mastering the user interface of the test.

Another big advantage of the book is that covering all exam objectives it has a comparatively small volume, just about 300 pp, of which at least 50 pp. are questions and answers,

I don't give it 5 stars only because I found a couple of minor inaccuracies in the book.

REMARK: I agree in many aspects with what Dr. Robert C.A. Goff, MCSD said below in his review, especially what he wrote about relation to 70-029 exam (I did the same way). What I don't accept is the necessity to pay extra money for Transcender practice exam. In my opinion using a simple demo simulation from Microsoft site will let you get familiar with the format exam and it's enough. At least it worked for me.

I had passed three other MCSD exams by studying just the Exam Cram book, so I thought I could do the same here with 70-100. In fact, I thought the architecture exam will be a pushover because this is such a thin volume. I took the exam and was humiliated by my first Microsoft certification failure.

This book covered all the subjects on the exam, but only on a very light level. Now, I don't know if everyone will get the same exam I got but the exam is composed almost exclusively of case studies. More than half of the questions involve matching or ordering, which made them extremely hard to follow on screen. There were only twenty questions on my exam, but only about eight multiple choices. I probably got all of these correct. It's those case studies that killed me.

I managed to pass the test on the second try, after two more weeks of studies. I would recommend the following approach: read this book, know it inside out, and memorize the terms. The exam did not have that many multiple choice exams, so it's not worth your while spending too much time memorizing terms. This book has enough of the important terms in it, but not so many that it's unmanageable. Don't try to memorize one of the study guides: you'll go nuts first. After you have a thorough understanding of the terminologies, master the following areas: physical/logical database design, gathering business requirements, and MSF concepts. There will be something that you don't understand very well in the exam, but if you know these subjects well enough that should be enough to pass.

Having read the book and taken (and passed) the exam, I can honestly say that NO BOOK will help you with this exam. Like the reviewer below me says, the exam is all case studies - multiple choice questions are only a small part of it. You need to be a combination busines analyst / technical architect / DBA to pass this exam. I give this book two stars only because it's the best one out there, but it really won't help you at all. If you're serious about passing, get the Transcender Exam (or the free Transcender Demo) - it's identical in structure to the real exam and the questions are amazingly similar. I'm someone who felt obligated to buy some book (any book) to help me pass - it didn't help at all.

This is the best 70-100 study guide currently on the market. I actually bought two other study guides that were released earlier, and they were not helpful at all. The quality of the sample questions seems reasonable, and the case studies are helpful. For this exam you must have practised constructing DFDs and E-R diagrams. If you want to ensure that you give yourself the best chance of passing this exam first time, get Transcender for hands on practice.