Customer Reviews

MCDBA SQL Server 7 Test Yourself Practice Exams (Exams 70-028 & 70-029)

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

 

 

This book I bought as part of the MCDBA boxed set from Syngress, and it's the only one of the batch that's really worth your money.

The questions in the book are very hard, and although the format is a bit different than in the real test, it's my personal opinion that these are harder than on the real test.

Each question has elaborate answers telling you both why the correct answer is correct, and why the incorrect answers are incorrect. Here, I learned much about SQL Server that I didn't know before, so with this book, you not only test your knowledge; you also learn while you do it.

More than one author has contributed to this book, and it's my impression that the section(s) on the design test are more thoroughly worked out than the ones on the administration test.

My only real gripe with this book is that some questions (most in the administration section) seem to have erronous answers, but it's not many.

This book will not teach you SQL Server, but if you know the product already, this book can help you prepare for the test(s).

The key to books like this one is understanding their limitations. The book does not claim to teach everything to pass the two exams it covers - it is simply a collection of practice questions and exams. And, to this end, it is a great book.

For those with a strong understanding of the material (designing and implementing databases in SQL Server 7, and administering SQL Server 7), the book is excellent in giving you a feel for the topics to be covered in the final exam. It certainly helps you highlight areas of weakness which you need to address.

In many ways, I like the style of the book, in that it does not really assist those trying to become paper MCDBAs (ie. with the certification, but without any practical knowledge), since it has a certain level of assumed knowledge.

There are (in my opinion) some errors, but they seemed to be few and far between. Overall, a fine resource.

I thought that this books was wonderful, between this book and the transcenders I fell very prepared for these tests. However, I not only feel better prepared for the tests I genuinely learned a lot about SQL Server 7 that I did not know, especially about optimizing the database with indexes.

I happen to like books with lots of questions to test my readiness for a certain exam. For the most part, this book accomplishes that (hence 3 stars). It does, however, have many subtle errors so you need to check each answer you get wrong with an authoritative resource, like SQL Server Books Online. For example, is says to upgrade SQL 6.5 to SQL 7.0 the SQL 6.5 system needs SP4 - which is incorrect, it needs SP3. Lots of little mistakes like that. By all means, use this book as a resource, but NEVER as your ONLY one. You'd also be wise to double check every wrong answer you get (which of course consumes that much more of your valuable time).

I just passed 70-029, this was one of the books i bought for preparing, and the only one i didnt need. The questions are not representative for the real test, and not all are well worded. The real test is more clearly worded and much more difficult. This book is ok for testing your knowledge, and you can learn many things from it, but i found it to be bad use of valuable time.

Don't waste your time or money on this one. I went through the MS MOC classes, read Inside SQL (a must have for anyone studing for the MCDBA cert.) and then bought this book. I also read the Troy Techs. This book was way off of both tests, 70-28 and 70-29. To get it done, study the MOC materials, read Inside SQL, and work with the product as much as possible. But don't buy this book.

This book seriously lacks the depth and difficulty that would be required to have a taste of the real Design exam. I have not used this book to pass the Admin exam, so I cannot comment on that. The only reason to buy this title is to give yourself a start. It is not by any means representative of the actual exam. May I suggest that you study from "Inside SQL Server 7.0" from Microsoft Press and from "Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming" from Wrox. Both of these are wonderful books. All in all, if you have the cash to stash, you can buy this title as well, But I would advise against using it to measure your preraredness to the exam.

Good Luck Gabor Bona (B.Sc. MCSE MCDBA MCP+I)

Book is not detail enough to guide both beginner or experience professional to pass the exam. ALL books from Syngress Media for MCSD OR MCSE are bad for the exam... do not get it!!!!

You needed this book to help prepare you for those SQL exams. I used it and had tons of notes in the margins. There were several small errors that I identified on my own. Yet not one question from this book was on either of these two exams that I took and passed.

The value was to get practice. You have to practice multiple choice questions and you need the largest sample set you can get. Of course, this book provided sufficiently detailed answers to the questions. But it is as if Microsoft has its exam-creating staff find the gaps from this very book to create their questions.

In the end, this book took tons of my quality time and gave me a dubious return. But there may have been an intangible benefit. It's likely that the practice itself got me thinking about how I would design the exam and anticipate even more questions. This may have helped me when I passed the exams.

Finally, I've never experienced such a big exam prep book filled with nothing but practice questions that ended up being so far off the mark with regard to the real exams. The mental work probably served me well but in an indirect manner.

I brought the book for my 028 and 029 examination. I found the book full of typo and spelling mistake. Sometimes I doubt the correctness of the answer. The practice questions are stragiht forward wherars the questions in the exam are much more complicated. It test your background knowledge but not good enough for the examination.