Customer Reviews

MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-293): Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server(TM) 2003 Network Infrastructure (Pro-Certification)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I really wonder if the people who have reviewed a few hundred books and wrote a review of this even read the books. I was shocked to go back after purchasing this bookset to reread the reviews that led me to purchase this set. When I read the reviews I also noticed how many other books some of these people read. I thought wow, they must read all day. Their reviews were nothing but glowing.
A friend of mine claims this book set is designed to force people into taking classes, I must agree with him. The chapter reviews contain questions that were not presented in the section. The companion CD has test questions that also contain questions that are not covered in these books. Every time I found these questions I had to question my own abilities. I asked others to prove me right. To further compound the difficulties were the format of the questions. In some questions the correct answer(s) was the "best practice(s)", this would exclude some answers as being not proper even though correct. Other questions had just the opposite and required any possible even though not a "best practice" response.
My point is that if you have only these books to help you pass the expensive tests then you might consider some classes. I don't feel that this set will allow you to pass the tests without a lot of other studying. I would hate to think that some people pass the test by learning the question pool instead of learning the subject matter. I claim to be no expert in any subject. I am sure I can get trained and certified despite the curves thrown to me with this set with a lot of extra effort and training matter. Thank you for your time.

You will need this kit. The Evaluation 2003 Server installation alone is critical to your success. The books themselves are quite long, have a technical tone, and aren't light reading. That being said, they are extremely valuable and filled with good information. If you are an entry level student, plan on spending many quiet hours with the study kit. Make sure you install the 2003 Server Eval. copy. Make sure you do all the exercises, whether you feel like it or not. When you are reading you will want to follow along on your test machine, even when you are not instructed to do so. I have found that the only reliable way to learn the material is by repetition of performing tasks, as much as necessary until it becomes second nature.

Read at least one more book from another author before taking the test. Using multiple books is a must in my opinion. Different books provide different points of view on the test material. Its the difference between seeing a statue, and taking a walk around a statue.

Don't be too hard on yourself if you don't pass your first test. I didn't pass my first test and I remember feeling pretty disappointed as well. Most people don't pass their first test, even the 'experts.' The Windows 2000 tests were harder than the NT tests, and from what I can tell the Windows 2003 tests seem to be harder than the 2000 tests. It should be some comfort to consider that the difficulty of test is going to have an effect on the number of people that get certified. Simply put, you are starting to realize how valuable the MCSE certification will be when you get it.

A warning; in the introduction you are told that these books and this certification are for IT Professionals with an extended period of on the job experience. Its easy to gloss over this, but they aren't kidding. You should probably have a CompTIA A+ level of PC knowledge or the equivalent. Without breaking my MS confidentiality agreement, I can say that you will be expected to have a strong foundation in networking and systems administration. You will need to be able to troubleshoot networked environments and you will need to have, at least in the beginning, an understanding of subnetting. Lets be honest, you can't talk about troubleshooting a networked environment for very long at all without touching some aspect of subnetting and routing.

Also, and this is important, the MS Books don't like to repeat themselves. If they tell you how to do something, they don't like to tell you again. You may find yourself in Chapter 10 and being told to perform a complex operation that you learned about in Chapter 2. Basically, if you don't have the prerequisite knowledge, they aren't going to help you find it. You won't have your hand held through the learning process. But keep in mind, these books have a target audience; experienced and employed Windows Technicians.

Its seems like I have been highly critical of the MS Press study kit, but really I'm just trying to convey that the target audience is very narrow. If you take the books for what they are, I think you will find them exceptionally usefull.

The question is not whether or not you will need the Study Kit: you will certainly need it. The question is whether or not you are prepared to commit to the certification challenge.

Just the sheer number of practice questions alone makes it worthwhile to buy this set from Microsoft but adding the 15% off exam fee discount voucher makes it really hard to resist buying this set. If you actually take all 4 exams and buy this set from Amazon, your cost is 60% off the list price! But after comparing the number of practice questions from other vendors, I found that it is definitely worth buying this set.

Even though these books are intended to train you in the Windows Server 2003 Operating System, I found that it is better to have either 'Windows Server 2003 Administrator's Companion' from Microsoft or 'Mastering Windows Server 2003' from Sybex as a reference guide and use this set mostly for review and exam preparation. After comparing the two reference books, I found the book from Sybex to be better as its coverage is more extensive than the book from Microsoft.

The four exams covered in this set are 'Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment', 'Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure', 'Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure', and 'Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure'. They are exams 70-290, 70-291, 70-293, and 70-294 respectively.

The books are made of very thin paper and are all paperback editions. This makes it easy to carry the individual books around. This is especially important considering that there are 4000 pages in the whole set and imagine what the hardcover editions with heavy paper would feel like! There are 2 CDs that come with the set. One has a 180 day trial version of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition and the other has the 1500 practice exam questions and several good ebooks. All four books are in searchable and printable electronic formats that are supposed to be Pocket PC-ready. The extra ebooks are 'Microsoft Encyclopedia of Security', 'Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking, Second Edition', and 'Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Sampler'. This last ebook contains excerpts from other Microsoft reference books. But the first two are worth quite a few dollars if you purchase them separately! There are several white papers and miscellaneous software on the second CD-ROM on top of what I already described above.

This training kit assumes that the readers have a minimum of 12 to 18 months of administering Windows technologies in a networked environment and an understanding of Active Directory. I am still looking for a good book on Active Directory Infrastructure.

Each book has its own unique and specific hardware requirements but to illustrate, they recommend that you have two computers to learn from the 70-290 book. One computer needs to have the server installed with a specific name (Server01) and the domain controller in a specific domain. This may make it difficult to use a work computer for training purposes unless your boss lets you have a dedicated computer or these requirements don't affect what's already on the server. The other computer should ideally have a Windows XP client for the optional hands-on exercises.

Each book follows a lesson style format with each chapter having several lessons. Every lesson has an estimated time at the beginning that may not be that accurate depending on your level of experience. Each lesson has several tasks with the concepts and the step by step instructions explained in a easy to understand manner.

Beginners may be able to do okay with the 70-290 book but intermediate to advanced users will definitely be more comfortable with the other three books. I am finding the 70-291 and 70-293 the hardest probably due to my background.

Overall, I think this set is definitely worth purchasing as I haven't run into any good competing books yet. But the price and the number of questions included make it extremely WORTHWHILE to purchase this set. Not to mention the additional free ebooks that you would have to pay for otherwise! If you are planning on taking the MCSA/MCSE exams, definitely get this set. If you are just trying to learn Windows Server 2003 from this set, I believe that there are better books out there. Good luck with your training and exams!

First off, these books are study material for certifications that Microsoft states (from the MCSE website):

An MCSE candidate should have at least one year of experience implementing and administering a network operating system in environments with the following characteristics:

* 200 to 26,000 supported users
* Five to 150 physical locations
* Typical network services and applications including file and print, database, messaging, proxy server or firewall, dial-in server, desktop management, and Web hosting
* Connectivity needs including connecting individual offices and users at remote locations to the corporate network and connecting corporate networks to the Internet

In addition, an MCSE candidate should have at least one year of experience in the following areas:

* Implementing and administering a desktop operating system
* Designing a network infrastructure


So, if you don't/can't understand many of the questions these books ask of you, it is because Microsoft assumes you have a fairly extensive background in networking before reading them. I am halfway to my MCSE right now, AND I have a pretty good background in this field and STILL the test questions throw curve balls at me. This is MS's way of making sure you know what you are doing before they certify you. Also, you will get questions that may give you multiple CORRECT answers to choose from. However, the questions will state, "Choose the one that has the least amount of administrative effort" or will assume that you remember a specific sentence that described the so-called "best practice" from the text.

All of this is clearly stated either in the introduction portions of the books or on Microsoft's website. So please... stop bashing these books.

After passing both Comptia criteria electives, MCSE was next in line. I chose these books for the 6 month evaluation copy of Server 2003 which is indubitably essential 'hands on' before the required examinations.

Unfortunately these books are full of intellectual goobledegook - not geekspeak. I believe this was a deliberate attempt to confuse the reader. 2003's nature is an intuitive NOS - not that complicated.

To be fair it is stated that you need over 12 months experience of installing maintaining Windows in order to start this course: yet from the start the authors fall short of any explanations of the "what's and why's" of 2003 environment; instead they compiled a short list of facts.

In comparison the previous Windows 2000 server manuals [by microsoft] demand the same credentials yet are packed with charts details and easy to understand explanations. I contrasted each chapter of Windows manuals, ONLY the 2000 manuals are self explanatory.

Note: 2003 is just a souped up version of 2000...

This is given 3 stars, for its evaluations cd - 6 months of hands on will prepare me for the Windows Server 2003 exams. Also its logical step by step instructions covering all areas from setup and advanced configurations.

I will need other books before taking the MCSE though...

I am currently undertaking my MCSE 2003. I am using this set of books along with Transcender Practice Exams. So far, I have passed exams 70-290 and 70-294 using these books. They are sufficiently detailed and test your knowledge by end of chapter reviews/questions and a readiness review suite of questions at the end of the book. Along with this, there are also MeasureUp practice exams included on a CD that is included as well. Although I find these practice exams much more in depth and detailed as to what you will find in the actual exam (hence my recommendation to purchase the Transcender practice exams which are closer to the mark), they do ensure that you really do know your stuff. I managed to pass the 70-290 exam without any knowledge of Windows Server 2003 and studying for only three weeks using these books and Transcender.

First, I've JUST ordered this set but had the pleasure of already studying through a friend's and wanted my own for future reference.

There was one review where the reviewer claims that Microsoft expects you to have a certain amount of experience in the field in order to understand this material and before they certify you. That just doesn't hold water with me. The books aren't advertised as requiring 1 year hands on experience in order to make sense of the material. Nor does Microsoft expect everyone studying for MCSE to have such hands on experience. Not sure where that reviewer was coming from but it's simply not accurate and it's a poor excuse for some of the obvious mistakes and sometimes vague nature of some of the material.

However, overall I'd say the material will absolutely help you pass the exams if you work through some hands on and also research what you may not understand right away using other resources... especially the internet.

Don't rush through. Take your time...and be realistic about this. You're not going to skim through these books and go pass a bunch of very intense exams. If you expect it to be that simple then you really don't think very highly of those of us in Information Technology who do this for a living.

These books... mixed with patience and diligence will yield the desired results.

I am an MCT/MCSE/MCBDA and have read scores of technical books.

Don't let the fact that it's Microsoft Press fool you.
These books are shallow and do not offer the depth of information needed to pass these exams. There is no continuity between the books either. I read someone's comment posted below that said they had trouble with some of the technologies because the technologies are new to them. That is not the case; the fact is you are having trouble with the concepts because these books are horrible.

Craig Zacker - The author of two of these books is not even an MCP! This guy couldn't pass these exams if his life depended on it.

To sum up these books are shallow, plagued with inaccuracies, and have horrible explanations of many important concepts.

With these books you probably won't pass the exams, and you certainly won't be able to perform the job function of a systems engineer.

I bought this set a few years back. It consists of four books, one for each of the exams, and a resource cd. While this is an okay set, I was surprised by how little actual information there is with so many books and so many pages. Ultimately, this is not what I ended up using regularly for studying. What I use regularly for studying is Stanek's MCSE Core Exams and Stanek's Windows Server 2003 Inside Out. I use the core exams book for studying and when I have a question or need more indepth, I refer to the other one. Either way, I don't see how this could be used as an only resource (I don't think any single resource could prepare one for the exams either.) At any rate, a combination of resources is what is getting me through: 70-290 done, now I've got 70-291, 70-293 and 70-294 to go.

I read every page of these books, the readiness review sections and all 430 practice questions. I felt very confident going in to the first test that I had a mastery of the concepts taught in the books. Problem is...the exam covers many topics which are not covered by these books. I cannot recall the exam verbatim but do remember the test included questions on subnetting, compostion of .vbs scripts, and webdav, NONE of which are covered in these books.

What the books do teach they teach in an easily comprehendable way. They do a good job of reinforcing the concepts they teach through the included readiness review section and practice questions on CD.