Customer Reviews

Microsoft® Office Specialist Study Guide Office 2003 Edition (Epg-Other)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I debated about giving this book three or four stars. It does have several great qualities, but I final decided to just give it three. If I had reviewed this before take the certification tests I might have given it four, but I've just finished taking the tests and I believe the book only deserves three. The book is a great review of all the office products, but I believe it could do more to help us to actually pass the certification tests.

The book does provide an excellent review of all the products, so if you just want to review then I recommend it highly. If you do not already know Microsoft Office, I do not believe this book will be much help to you because I believe the information is too packed, but if you're reviewing or updating your knowledge it should serve you well. It touches on most everything, and the disk has tons of practice files and there is a practice at the end of each section. I rate it high for all that.

But I have just taken different college level classes on all the office 2003 applications. And I wanted a book to help me get certified on them. Believe me the certification tests are not easy and simply making an "A" on your course work, which I did, will not assure you of passing them. The free practice test from MeasureUp was of some help (finding my way in the MeasureUP web site took some doing, but the test did have the look and feel of the real thing) in that it let me see what I could expect; it alone might be worth the price of the book. But after taking the real tests I realize this book did not help me much. I did work through the whole book, and I feel that I know all the programs well but I failed the Excel Expert and the Access test. I did pass the Excel Core and the Word test (the Word test was by far the easiest).

There is one change that I think could have made the book a truly great winner and would helped me a lot. The practices at the end of each section, and there are a lot of them, simply tell you what do, taking you through it step by step. It would have been much better if each practice had presented you with a problem in the same format as the certification tests, giving you a chance to work them yourself, then given the step by step solution.

If you want help passing the test you might want to look at the disk on "shop.certiport.com." I only recently discovered them and have not used them but they look like they might be a lot of help.

There are so few 2003 Office certification Study Books on the market right now, that this turns into the default. Do yourself a huge favor, and look elsewhere.

For the record, I passed both the Word Expert and Powerpoint cert tests using this book. I found nothing really wrong with the Powerpoint section, but did have a few times while studying for Word Expert where I had to ask my boyfriend (a Microsoft Master Office Instructor) to explain things things to me due to the book basically making a mess of the instruction and stumbling all over itself. I am lucky to have someone like him around, but not everyone is...and you shouldn't need someone to explain things to you when the book you're studying was created just for that reason.

I ran into a massive problem yesterday when I went to take my Excel Expert exam. I knew everything the book had taught me. Had the test simply quizzed me on the information in the book, I would have passed with flying colors. Unfortunately, most of the test might as well have been in Chinese for all that I had been taught. The Excel section simply left a lot of material out. Take a look at a book like Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Inside Out. How thick is that book? 1104 pages. How many pages of information on Excel 2003 does the Microsoft Office Specialist Study Guide Office 2003 Edition offer? 181 pages. That's including both Core and Expert sections.

There are simply too many important points missing.

It is my belief that reading and learning more than I might need to know for a particular exam is far better than spending a lot less time and effort learning way too little and winding up as a deer in the headlights come test day.

I failed the Excel Expert exam with flying colors. I'd be down on myself over it, but it's hard to expect myself to know something that I wasn't taught and had never seen. I just purchased Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Inside Out, and will be studying out of that before retaking the Excel Expert exam. I will probably also be purchasing the Inside Out Access 2003 book, as well, before finishing up my exam taking for the Master Office Cert.

Don't bother with this book.

As of 8/3/05, I passed the Excel Expert exam with the help of the Inside Out Excel 2003 text. I am now studying Access 2003 Inside Out, and I have no doubts that I'll get through this test without a problem, either. I highly recommend the Inside Out books. You may have to put a little more time into reading and studying, but you'll come away actually understanding the program you're trying to learn, instead of just learning the bare minimum in order to get a piece of paper that will be useless in the workplace when everyone finds out that you really only do know the bare minimum.

My two cents.

Microsoft words it well - In today's job market, it is not unusual for a single job posting to attract several hundred applicants. Whilt that is good news for employers, it can be very discouraging for job seekers. Putting Microsoft Office Specialist on your resume helps you stand out as a job candidate with the necessary computing skills to get the job done.

This book is really three books in one. First it is a good reference to everything you can do with Word, Excel, Access, Outlook and PowerPoint. With each of these subjects, it is a bit turse. That is it quickly tells you what you need to do to accomplish the task. It is not a first time learners book. Second it is a tutorial on the exam itself. While you need to know Word to be able to pass the test, the orientation of the book to just what to study to pass the test is important. The third part is a practice test that is laid out in the same way and is of approximately the same difficulty as passing the actual certification test.

I studied Access and Word Expert for 3 days. I took both tests on a Thursday afternoon and PASSED both exams. I have Excel Expert and PowerPoint exams left to reach my Master Certification. This book will prepare you for the Microsoft Office 2003 Specialist exams.

This is very much a study guide and is not really aimed at the inexperienced user. It presumes a lot of knowledge and focuses on preparation of the exam elements only. If you need in depth knowledge then there are better books (QUE, other Microsoft products). As a refresher for the exams I have found it to be excellent. It can highlight the areas needing more study and its exercises get your mindset into the MOS exam process. I would recommend it as part of your arsenal in preparing for the MOS exams.

I've recently passed the Word Expert exam and the Excel Expert exam. However, apparently, I will only have two more exams to pass, as Certiport has no idea when the Outlook 2003 exam will be available, per Certiport support. This will pretty much delay any plans of being a Microsoft Office 2003 Specialist Master Instructor.
I have to say that I agree with some of the other reviews in here. While this is a good book, it doesn't go into nearly the kind of detail that you'd truly need to support real-world users, or train people at a technical school for a living. It simply gives you, in conjunction with the MeasureUp practice exams, what you need to pass the real exams.
I also have to agree with one other review on here. Before purchasing this book, I had heard that there was a label on the back inset of the book with a product key for a free exam from [...]. And when I went to the store to purchase it, there was no label at all. Seems to be a pattern here, no? So buyer beware.
I plan to take the other two exams shortly. I'm sure that this book will help with the basics. It does 3 stars worth as far as getting you certified, which, if that's your goal, then you're golden.

UPDATE:
Well, I took the exam (Word Expert) and passed. The book did cover most of what was on the exam. One recommendation I have for fellow MOS-ers is to know every part of any dialog box the book discusses in explanatory steps. In other words, even if it doesn't explain what a particular button does, you should explore it yourself, even briefly, as knowing these inside and out will really help. Also, the book is task-basead, just like the exam, so on that point it is really helpful. Best of luck to you!

[Original Post] The book does a decent job of reviewing the programs. I do wish that it actually demonstrated what to do with a particular type of doc once you completed the practice exercise for it, e.g. after it tells you how to create an XML doc, and walks you through the steps, you are instructed to simply "close the document without saving it." It'd be nice to see some real-life examples of what I might do with what I'd just created (practical application helps me to retain material better).

One thing that has really left me w/a sour taste in my mouth is that the book, on the cover, advertises that by purchasing it the reader receives a "free practice test from MeasureUp--a $40 value!" Unfortunately the practice test offered by MeasureUp is for Office 2000, NOT 2003!! (??) (Yes, I checked with MeasureUp tech support and they confirmed they have not yet created 2003 practice tests.) IMHO this is false advertising.

With that caveat, as I said, the book is decent enough. The material it covers is written/organized well. I haven't taken an exam yet, so I can't speak to how much it helped with the actual exam. To be continued, I guess...

The book/CD I received from Amazon DOES NOT contain the practice test as advertised.

Per the readme file on the CD the information to access the test is either printed on a sticker on the inside back cover or on the CD itself. Bull!!! The inside back cover is BLANK and the CD has a useless MicroSoft URL on it.

Of course you have to break the seal on the CD to find this out. Once the seal is broken, you can't return the book. Just lovely.

Additionally, there is no information to reach MeasureUp! anywhere in the book or on the CD. The book refers you to MicroSoft's website. There you will find NO information directing you to the practice test supposedly included with the purchase of this book - only to practice tests you have to pay for.

I bought this book based on the review that stated a 2003 practice test is included. Someone care to post exactly WHERE (is any test for that matter) before anyone else loses money on this???

The microsoft office specialist study guide provides a comprehensive look at all microsoft office programs. In addition to providing information about what microsoft office programs can perform, they also provide software that allows the user to practice microsoft office with hands on experience. Each section is incredibly detailed and somewhat intimidating. However, anyone who successfully completed a section on that office program and remembered the information would undoubtably pass the microsoft exam.
This manual provides the information needed to accomplish the goal of office certification in word, excel, powerpoint, access, and outlook At times the book is a little difficult to follow due to the large amount of information provided. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this manual for anyone seeking office certification.

This book appears to be fine for a general review of the Access topics, but is lacking in detail for the test. I found that the book alone would have been totally inadequate for the certification test. The MeasureUp online training had value, but it too was limited. Access 2003 has a sorting and grouping icon, yet what I found was that I needed to use Access 2000 procedures for this and other MeasureUp tasks, without the newer icons. The MeasureUp study guide was well-presented, yet I faced a culture shock on test day. The questions were formatted differently, the questions significantly different than the way MeasureUp presented them. MeasureUp wrote their questions in a clearer manner than the test, but the problem is that I needed to see the questions as they would be on the test. The text is essentially a step-by-step book, not of test-taking value. I will keep it as a reference, which was not my reason for purchasing it. The MeasureUp training was great, but not related to the actual test.