Customer Reviews

MCTS 70-431 Exam Cram: Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Exam

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have six years experience working with earlier versions of SQL Server. SQL 2000 was also the only Microsoft Professional Exam I ever failed (in all honesty I wasn't really ready for the test and still only missed by 2 questions). With the new Vista/Longhorn series coming out I need to update my MCSE and this is the first of the new electives available and a product series I really want to document my competency in.
What makes SQL Server harder than many of the other exams in the MCSE/MCSA track is that you have to deal with a lot of programming issues and on top of that nearly everything can be done from the Command Line (SQL Queries), so you really need to go in knowing a lot of SQL commands. In addition SQL 2005 has packed in a lot of features - CLR (which lets developers interface other programming languages directly to SQL Server), enhanced XML support, a variety of distributed database configurations that can be created, etc.
There was a lot to cover, and there wasn't any test topic area that wasn't covered by this book. After studying the book the next important things are the practice tests at the end. The two practice tests I found to be more difficult than the real test. This is something I consider to be important for a good exam review, because studying the questions I got wrong definitely helped me improve my score. While my poor practice test performance had me anxious on the way in, I ended up scoring .894 vs a passing grade of .700.

This is a book designed purely to get you a passing grade on the Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist 70-431 test on Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Note that this test is not concerned with the use of a database, there's nothing on areas like programming in T-SQL. Instead it's oriented more to the database administrator.

A lot of exam preperation books are oriented around just the test. This book is written more in a standard text format, and it's a pretty good introduction to setting up the database. Each chapter has a small test to see what you learned, then at the end of the book there are two separate sample tests that are in the same format as in the real examination. Of course here you can then turn to the next chapter and there is the answers to all of the practice questions, something you won't find on the real test.

The book is written in a fairly simple tone so that reading it doesn't put you to sleep quite as fast as a lot of books.

First of all, I just passed the test with very comfortable score. I did prepare for this test with this book along with MS training guide. It is very difficult to remember exactly where did the questions come from, but here is the overview to those who are starting to prepare.

This book is meant just for this test. It has a very direct focus on the test. Many times, it is much more useful if one has the background information which this book does not necessarily cover. So, in my opinion, starting the preparation with the training guide and finishing with this book is a good strategy to pass the test and also, to become a good DBA ( which is more important).

This is a lightweight book designed to be easily carried with you. The size is such that your palm can almost fit the whole book. It uses cheap newsprints for its pages which make it lighter than it would normally have. It has a little more than 330 pages but the main part has 220 pages, the rest are for the practice tests and answers.

I recommend this book as a study guide to be used in conjunction with a more detailed book (like Microsoft's 70-431 training kit). This book is very focused on the examination objectives. Also, its conciseness and brevity of the discussions make it an ideal quick reading in order to grasp main points about the examination before reading a more detailed book. And since this is a very light book, you will want to always carry this with you so that when spare time comes up you can continue your study.

Read this book with caution. For example, I found an error in page 20 that discusses about RAID. It erroneously defined RAID 1 as disk striping. I believe RAID 0 is disk striping and RAID 1 disk mirroring. I will say that this is most probably a typo, considering the author's credentials.

I would suggest you invest in the Exam Cram 2 book for 70-431. I also bought the MS Press book but didn't use it much. I found that the cram book was better at condensing the material down into what I needed to know. I liked the MS Press book but it is HUGE. I was crunched on time (I bought one of the voucher from VS 2005 launch), so I didn't take any exam prep tests. However, I wouldn't suggest anyone follow my lead there!!

I would stress that you need to know the product hands-on (I was weak in this area) and you need to know about the new features. I think everyone can figure out what those new features are, so I won't list them. You, of course, need to be strong on database concepts ie. the various objects supported by SQL Server in general.

Good luck!

Jonathan

I would recommend this book to anybody that is about to take 70-431. I would say a word of caution though about this book. If you have never worked with Microsoft SQL 2000 or 2005, I would recommend getting the microsoft press self training guide. Otherwise, this book covers all the material you will need to pass the test. It also includes a free test exam from MeasureUp. Microsoft's prefered pratice exam provider. Also, I would recommend exam insurance from Microsoft if your testing center allows it.

I've been a big fan of the Exam Cram series, starting back with 60-067 (Networking Essentials to you youngins), but they have steadily gone downhill as Ed Tittel takes more & more of a backseat.

This book contains errors right off the bat, confusing the different types of RAID volumes. This I have been around enough to spot right away, but what about the stuff I'm trying to learn. There could be more blatent mistakes, causing me to learn the material incorretly. The editor should have caught that.

The book is poorly written & a chore to read. The author's examples are sad at best. This is by far the worst of the 3 books I'm using. I've been a Sys Eng for 8 years & been working with SQL, doing installs & maintenance for about 3 years, but this book contains little relevant/useful information. The author would have done better to just state facts & examples, & not try to explain anything.

OK, I'm modifying this since some of the RAID confusion seems to have originated in the MSDN docs, rather than with the author.

Virtually every reference to RAID in the book has it wrong, presumably because it is referring to *software* RAID. RAID 5 is described as "poor performing", when in fact, hardware RAID 5 (striping with parity) is probably the most common production configuration for data files. RAID 5 provides high read performance (though small writes are slower) with fault tolerance (drives can fail and be replaced (hot-swapped) and rebuilt while database is online) while using fewer drives than RAID 10. At one point striping with RAID 0 is recommended, which should basically *never* be done in production since a single failure would destroy the entire array. The classic 5-disk production RAID setup is a 2-disk RAID 1 mirror for logs with a 3 disk RAID 5 array for data. A 6-disk RAID 1 + RAID 10 setup would be preferable, however, at the cost of only one more drive.

There are other errors, specifically on the practice tests. For example, questions 30 and 34 on the first test demonstrate a misunderstanding of floating-point types. The explanation for question 30 says "Float gives accuracy up to 308 decimal places...", which is untrue. A float can *represent* 308 decimal places, but not with anywhere near 308 places of accuracy. In fact, the decimal/numeric type is more accurate than a float, but is limited to 38 decimal places.

While it is annoying to find factual errors when trying to learn material, this book is overall not too bad. I would say it covers the points of the test at least as completely as the much larger "Training Kit" book. It is not as comprehensive, but it does focus more specifically on the actual test material. I also prefer the tone of this book; it is more conversational and less mechanical.

I first purchased the Microsoft Press book and thought it had too much information in some areas and little or no information in others.
The Exam Cram seems to fill the holes and summarizes other topics that MSPress covered in too much detail.
Even with all the info covered in both books I dont feel like it's enough, so I also research on the web and have access to a SQL server. A third book probably couldnt hurt.
I gave it 4 stars because I consider a 5 star book to be the only book I would need to study for an exam.

After reading this book, I felt it was lacking in details and possibly had more than a few errors. Although it is a study guide, with some good challenging practice questions, I can not help but emphasize for a few dollars more you could get a better study guide that would be far more useful and prepare you better.