Customer Reviews

MCSE IIS 4 Exam Prep (Exam: 70-087)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Don't bother with this book. The errata on this is amazing, there are more pages with mistakes than not. That includes the answers to the review questions. There is hardly any good information in it, and it certainly won't prepare you for a test.

I took the exam after reading this book and failed it. I passed my first 5 MCSE exams first time every time with 800+ out of 1000, including Exchange 5.5. This book just doesn't cover what is required to pass the exam.

I was quite surprised at how bad it was as all of the other Exam Prep / Exam Cram books I've used to date have been great.

Keep away from it.

This book is poorly written with numerous mistakes. I'm disappointed I purchased it and I plan on using another company (Sybex Network Press) for the remainder of my studies. The subject matter is difficult enough without having to determine if the author's information is correct.

I used Exam Cram books to help me pass five MCSE exams. For the last test, I thought I might try out the Exam Prep series. Big mistake! The list of errors from Coriolis' website is 17 pages long, not to mention two rather large files that have been left off of the CD. The text is poorly written, though the book is rather long, there seems to be very little useful information in it. There are more practice questions at the end of every chapter, but there are no explanations included with the solutions. Read the other reviews and heed their warnings. This book stinks.

After reading more than half this book I began to question someof it's accuracy. Checking the publishers errata, I found more than 175 corrections and additions... It took me more than 3 hours to make the corrections in the book. Many of the review questions had wrong answers and whole paragraphs had to be added or removed. I e-mailed Coriolis to complain and received a prompt response. Apparently this book was written based on a beta version of IIS. It must have been an early beta.

This book will only give you a clear understanding on how to navigate through the Microsoft management console. The questions at the end of each chapter are useless and don't even compare with the ones on the test. If you are almost a MCSE and IIS4 is your last test, get the IIS4 Resource Kit.

This is a dangerous book for anyone who doesn't already know the topic real well. Full of factual errors (not just simple typos).

Whatever you do DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!

On initial flick-through in the bookshop it looked good - chapter summaries, lots of review questions and practical exercises. Trying to study from it, however, has shown its true worth.

The text is fairly superficial and mainly revolves around explaining the function of buttons and menu options. There is little in-depth explanation of underlying architecture. There are a lot of mistakes throughout the book - the most serious are the mistakes in the answers to the review questions. I found errors in the answers to the review questions for every chapter! Other mistakes include the usual typos (shows a lack of editing) and references to files on the accompanying CDROM that don't exist.

The so-called "hands-on projects" are completely worthless. They read like help instructions - basically just how to navigate through the management utilities to reach a certain button. There are no instructions on what to do once you find the button, or how to confirm your change has had an effect. A typical exercise has as it's LAST instruction "To prevent a specific user from accessing your Web site, directory, or file, click on Edit." It is easy to see there is little educational benefit to be gained from a vague, open-ended instruction like this.

I might have relaxed my tone on Coriolis if their Web page had been more helpful. As the answers to the review questions come on a seperate CDROM it would be simple for them to post an updated version for download. A search for errata on this publication, however, came up blank.

While the book is very readable, the cd has numerous errors as far as the end of chapter solutions, and their website has yet to post corrections. This does not create any trust in the technical knowledge presented. If you are already a wizard with this it might be good reading, otherwise this is the worst study aid I have run into. Fortunately the only bad one.

The practice topic are required reading prior to taking the exam. Each practical application not only teaches you what you need to know for the exam, but what you need to know in real life. An impressive improvement over the IIS4 Cram.