Customer Reviews

Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Online Training Kit (It-Online Training Kit)

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

 

 

I COULD STAY AWAKE!

As a MCT I appriciate good training and in a nut shell this is it! It uses a very good training engine that has built-in presentations.

All sections are easy to follow and very well thought out. They all have a presentaion window, most have a sim(all very good hands on), and have full audio to follow the instruction. When you fininsh a section your quized. Finish(?) you can use the practice test software included!

This training follows the MOC training so close I broke out my trainers book and could follow section by section changing very little!

Best part you can replay where the class you can't! So what's better $179 or $1079???

As a Sr Systems Analyst and current MCP+I,MCSE+I,MCSD,MCT,CNE,VCE,HPSTAR I can tell you this one is well worth the money! I passed this exam after watching this ONE time and taking the included practice tests (yes they too are good). The sims do one thing good, teach you the right way to do things and give hands on without installing this beast on your system.

Just have to wait it out for the Imp and Design Online Training Kit.

Good Luck! One away form MCDBA...

I found this kit (along with its companion, SQL Server Database Implementation Training Kit) to be great for learning how to use and administer SQL Server. Both kits are very engaging, with graphic illustrations, quizzes, assessments, and simulation exercises, which do a good job of reinforcing the learning material.

If you're simply looking to get trained on SQL Server (or acquire a job as a SQL administrator), then these kits are more than sufficient (The simulations are especially helpful in this regard). Certainly, they helped me obtain my present job as a database analyst. And the price is very reasonable when compared with other software-simulation training kits such as those offered by CBT Systems and NETg (which cost about 4X more than the MS kits, and aren't really much better).

However....if you're looking to pass the MS SQL exams, you will need more. The SQL exams are notoriously hard. The enclosed Readiness Review is somewhat helpful, but the actual questions on the exam are much harder. Read BOL (included with kit), visit cramsession and similar sites, and take a practice test first.

I guess a review should really be more critic rather than blessing, so that other readers can use the review to decide and judge whether this kit is suitable for them.

3.5 stars on material and 4 stars for online training presentation.

1. There are mistakes in the quiz's questions and answers, such as:- 'All three drives' should be 'All four drives' instead, 'DLL' which should be 'DDL', syntax errors and etc.

2. There is also a session 'Publishing Database Data on the Web' under chapter 'Automating Administrative Tasks' with pre-asseement quiz and final quiz questions which are completely irrelevant to the session material.

3. Not enough administrative coverage. Does not covers:- Metadata, Linked Servers, Remote Servers, Full Text Search and etc.

A good overall training kit for the subject of administering SQL Server 7. However, still, this kit itself should be treated as a real-time lecture only. You will need to use other books (such as 'Inside MS SQL Server 7', 'Books Online') as technical references and allow you to do more research into the corresponding readiness review simulation questions and understand the reasons and theory behind it.

I passed the SQL Server Admin exam on the first try, but only after supplementing the online training kit (OTK) with three other books, plus BOL, plus Transcenders, plus several months of practice on live systems.

I rate this training material only 3 stars not because it is bad material - for an OTK it's 'okay' - but because I found that an OTK is not a good way to self-train in SQL Server 7 Admin. It's just too easy to hypnotically click-thru the lessons without really absorbing anything.

There's no easy way to take notes, no way to use a hi-liter, no way to bookmark important sections. Plus, I found myself hitting the 'repeat' button over, and over, and over again to clearly comprehend what was being said (I'm not talking sound quality - that part was fine).

This OTK is 'okay' as a resource for reviewing, but not as your primary training material.

My suggestion is to use the good ol' hardcopy training manual, supplemented with BOL, Transcenders, and lots of hands-on practice.

This is the first "online" type of training I have tried from MS. I enjoyed the lecture-style format as opposed to the book-training kits. I agree that it needs to be complemented with Books On-line and Inside SQl Server. But, I definitely came away with some practical experience which I am now using on the job. Knocks on the course, for improvement:

The unit on web publishing, with the wrong quiz questions. They should gear the exercises to a higher level. If someone is using this material, MS should make the assumption that we don't need to be told "to close Microsoft Outlook (or any other application) , click the close button". All of these types of statements could have been left out, and more content added to the course.

Despite this, it is still a good way to learn the material and I look forward to continuing to the next one.

I'm a SQL 6.5 DBA preparing to migrate to 7.0 as well as prepare for the 70-028 exam. Of all of the material I've collected, this training kit has been the most useful in getting me up to speed on both tasks. I find the Online Training kit to be much more engaging than the M.O.C. from the SQL Administration class. The Pre-Assessment and post-chapter quizzes for each module are very useful, as is the ability to switch between text and audio. Whether you need to implement SQL 7.0 at work or just pass the exam, this training kit in conjunction with BOL should do trick.

This product helped me pass the SQL Server 7 exams, some of the more difficult Microsoft exams, and I got certified. Right away, I'm going to confess that after going through all the trouble of getting certified, and it was a lot of trouble, I never worked with databases again. Changes in the economy favored my working in another direction as I am a CPA and a CISA, among other things.

This was the single best source of all the study guides I used. Microsoft put money into it and they created a brilliant learning product. It was absolutely brilliant. I love great textbooks and great learning software, and this is one of the greats. It was nevertheless an arduous preparation.

I came to understand that Microsoft Press produces the best materials to learn their products. Many other materials are also useful, but nothing I've found compares.

I used the CD training and it was better that the MS Official Curriculum class that I took from a well known Company. In fact that is all I will use in my future training. I like to be able to stop the CD and test ideas on a system what I just learned. I passed the exam and was able to use the information on a server that I was setting. Well done MS. Now can you do this with your Win2000 products?