Customer Reviews

MCSE: Accelerated Windows 2000 Study Guide Exam 70-240 (With CD-ROM)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Just passed This exam yesterday. I used this guide for study and the Exam Notes to refresh my efforts prior to the exam. This book is recommended for anyone who is current in their NT4 MCSE skill sets. Troubleshooting issues like DNS, permissions, IP, etc. all have their roots in NT4 so the book may not offer indepth troubleshooting sections. Having passed the exam, I can tell for your sure...Your NT4 troubleshooting skills will get you through. What is most important is applying those skills to the new features of Win2K DDNS, RIS, NAT, RRAS, GPO, Active Directory and other new features. They Sybex guide covers them well and the included exercises in the PDF on CD really bring home the points even for those of us who have been working with Win2k from its beta release but haven't yet implemented all of its various features sets yet. Microsoft does not waste your time with trick questions on this exam about obscure corners of the OS not covered in study guides or used in the field as we may have seen in NT4 exam. The Window2000 Accelerated exam will definitely test your attention to detail (clever scenarios but no tricks) however the exam fairly tests your knowledge in areas you should know about to implement Win2K effective and prove your real world experience with this OS. Take nothing for granted, take your NT4 experience, your Win2K hands-on, and THIS Sybex guide and go pass this exam. I highly recommend the companion Exam Notes as it takes all the objectives covered in the Study Guide and neatly organizes them by individual exams: Win2k Pro, Win2k Server, Win2k AD Admin, and Win2K Net Infrastructure Admin. I'm proof the exam can be successfully passed. The exams are not as overwhelming as first thought but they are definitely not a peace a cake. Sybex will get you there.

T

I've completed the MSCE NT4.0 exams using Sybex and did well in all my exams. I've come to expect high standards from Sybex in their study guides but this one doesn't meet them. Don't get me wrong, all of the information needed is covered but it makes to many assumptions as to what you currently know about W2k by not going into depth on many things. I've found my self refering to other books to fill in the blanks.

This book will help you to pass the Accelerated Exam but I don't believe it will do it by itself. You will need to augment your studies with other materials. I'd recommend using Mastering Windows 2000 Server and Mastering Active Directory. Both of these books have been extremely usefull in filling in the blanks.

On a positive note, there are MANY hands on excersises to follow.

Holding the MCSE title I'm using this book for preparing the 70-240 exam. But this is the worst book from Sybex I ever read! The book skips around the themes, repeats whole paragraphs and has a lot of errors in it. I reported quite a lot to Sybex. But until today, none of them have been put onto their web site! Also there's NO such electronic version of the book on the enclosed CD-ROM as they say in the Readme.txt. This is a big misstake too! It's a pitty, really not worth the whole money!

Unfortunately, this book does not follow the trend of well written Sybex books. To put it bluntly, this book is miserable. It is poorly organized, full of errors and poorly written. It also wastes time with reduntant text tossed all over the place.

It is also obvious that this is a "beta" book as it includes SEVERAL examples mentioning Alpha support. Alphas are NOT supported in Windows 2000!

This book was rushed and it is painfully obvious in every way.

I'm not sure there are a lot of offerings for this exam, but if there were, I would not be able to recommend this book.

Just passed the 70-240. I used this book to study for the whole thing and it was the best of all the books I saw. If you want a concise guide (most of them are just too long) that will give you all the essentials then this is it. You have to know every little bit that is in here because it doesn't repeat things but the text, exercises (on CD-ROM) and Exams (also on CD-ROM) are all spot on - very clearly explained and not riddled with mistakes like some others. I did also use a 4 day Wave bootcamp to reinforce the material and fill in a few gaps before passing the exam.

Passed using this book and using the most popular practice tests. I actually liked that they put the labs on the CD because I first read all of the book, then I set up my own lab at home with two systems networked together using the labs on the CD. Then I did all the practice tests and supplemented my studying more with the T-tests. I also had the MS 70-240 kit, but it's intimidatingly big. Probably big because all the labs are included in the text.

I'll start by saying that I did pass the test, so it's apparent that this isn't just sour grapes. But, having passed the test, I can assure you that, for the most part, nothing in this book applied. The labs are fine, but they just take you through one or two canned scenarios per subject, and nothing in the book or the labs actually contributes to your understanding of the subject matter.

I know that the point isn't to be a paper MCSE. You need experience to pass the test. The study guide should be either a starting point that gives you the theory so you can implement it and experience it, or it should be the reference that fills in the gaps in your existing experience. This book is neither.

Sure, this is pretty late for a review of this book. If you are just now buying a book to prepare for this test, you have problems. However, I am still fairly upset with the lack of depth to this book, and I would like Sybex to know about it.

In most cases, what I would consider crucial topics are only covered in the slightest detail. In fairness, the two chapters on TCP/IP and RRAS were fairly decent. There was a good amount of explanation as to WHY to configure things a certain way rather than just HOW.

Plusses: Not very many errors at all. Errors in previous Sybex books were frustrating, so it's nice to see this go.
Minuses: Too many bulleted lists and tables, not enough good meat. Reminds me more of a Test Success book than a Study Guide.

This book is completely worthless! It is absolutely, positively the worst excuse for a Technical Book I have EVER read - and I've read hundreds. The material is EXTREMELY thin (MCS in 3 pages). In addition, you have to continuously flip back and forth between the book and the CD-ROM. If you want to be a paper MCSE - buy a different book. If you want to know the material thouroughly, buy a different book. (...) it has absolutely no value as a reference book! The ratings should include zero stars, since this is exactly what this book is - worthless!

I found this book to be very un-informative. It mentions all of the new technologies, but provides none of the in-depth information that you would normally associate with a study guide. The book also skips around between what you read in each chapter, and examples that are stored on the cd-rom. Overall I would say that this book was informative, but not worth the money by a long shot!

I've relied on Sybex books for a long time and with great success (MCSE, CNE, CCNA, and 3 CCNP tests to date, all on the first try), so I expected the Accelerated Windows 2000 guide would be equally useful. I went through the book twice before taking the test. I might as well have used a copy of "Grim's Fairy Tales". I could see I was in significant trouble with the very first question. The test covers subjects the book doesn't even mention in passing; the book's chapter on Active Directory is so weak, it's worse than useless. And I'm no newbie to directory services, having many years experience with NDS.

The Microsoft upgrade is one BRUTAL test, harder than any Cisco exam I've taken. If the rest of the 2000 series tests are anything like the upgrade, then Sybex's texts aren't worth the lives of the trees killed to produce it.