Customer Reviews

Windows 2000 MCSE Study System (with CD-ROM)

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

 

 

My full-time job for the past 3 years as a Microsoft Certified Trainer has been to prepare high school and college students to pass the Windows NT 4 (and now Windows 2000) MCP exams. I evaluated a dozen books before settling on Alan Carter's "NT4 MCSE Core Study System" to supplement the Microsoft Official Curriculum. My 80% student first-time passage rate on certification exams is now in serious jeopardy with the coming of the much more difficult MCSE 2000 exam track.

I have read through Carter's "Windows 2000 MCSE Study System", as well as the Sybex and Microsoft Official Curriculum courses covering the four 2000 Core exams. I am once again impressed at how clearly, logically, and completely Carter has treated the materials needed for the first two exams, W2K Pro and W2K Server MCP. These two exams assume that you have a broad understanding of 2000, including materials that you would expect to find only on the Network Infrastructure and Directory Services exams. If you carefully read through Carter's book , work through the dozens of step-by-step and lab exercises, skim the book a second time, and use Transcender exams for practice, you should have no trouble passing the Server and Pro exams with high scores AND have a solid foundation on which to complete your Network Infrastructure and Directory Services core exams.

As the best written "single" volume book on the market, Carter's 2000 book deserves 5 (or even 6) stars. However, for what it purported does, prepare you for all four 2000 core exams, it rates 4 stars because it does not sufficiently cover the materials for the Networking Infrastructure and Directory Services core exams. As always, Transcender exams will boost your score a 100+ points, but you would be well served to supplement Carter (and Transcender) with the two books from Sybex's MCSE Study Guide series that cover these exams. Also remember to bring an exorcist to the two Networking Infrastructure exams (Administering--core and Design--elective), because as one reviewer has remarked on a major certification website, they are "evil, evil, evil".

Bob Nordling MCSE, MCP+I, MCT, CTT, A+, Network+, i-Net+ and a worshipper at the altar of Cisco, i.e. a CCIE wannabe

This is a pretty good book. Some errors, some omissions, but not too bad for 1500+ pages. A THOROUGH step-through of Windows 2000. Contains lots of insight that Microsoft Press nim-nim tech writers don't have a clue about or put in their books. I think Carter cares about his students, because he takes pains to explain in detail things tech writers usually leave out that can cause people's understanding to stumble. Seems like he learned the hard way, and wants to help others avoid what he went through. The Beachfront Quizzer test prep CD that comes with the book really sucks. It's the same pool of lousy test questions that Cramsession uses for their W2K Questions of the Day. It seems like a day doesn't go by that I find a Crammsession question that's wrong or just poorly done. I probably would rate it a five-star book without the Beachfront crap, but since IDG uses it to help market the book, the rating takes a hit - 4-star, no more.

I used this author's NT 4 book for my NT 4 MCSE exams. I was never disappointed in the results. This book promises to deliver the same high quality tools for passing the Windows 2000 core exams. This book wasn't available when I took 70-210. However, I used it for 70-215. I passed the first time. Carter's book covers information inadequately covered, or poorly explained, in the Microsoft materials. Although the exercises and the review questions are excellent preparation tools, you should still use a good third party practice test to augment the book.

Remember the MCSE STUDY GUIDE NT 4, from A. Carter. Well, that was, is and ever will be the best study guide for nt 4 out there. It helped me pass the 3 core exams quite easly

The new MCSE STUDY SYSTEM core Windows 2000, in my opinion, sirves well to pass the Server and Pro 2000 exams. But NOT the other 2 core exams (network and AD. After chapter 8 i thougt that something was missing.. Yep, it covers network and AD material, BUT NOT ENOUGH. Unless you got a lot of experience in DNS and AD, i am not sure if you will pass these exams, (or with a lot of difficulty). Why, well check it out for yourself: Go to your local store and read other books about DNS (network) and AD exams, like Sybex or the Exam Preps etc, and you will find out that details,specialy AD, have been left out in Carter's book.

AD is a new (ok, a failed copy of NDS) and complex thing. Carter DOES NOT dedicate enough chapters to explain well the in and outs of AD. You MUST understand AD because it is one the most important items of Windows 2000.. it's the very heart of administrating a Window$ 2000 network

Be pacient: the MCSE WINDOWS 2000 is a long way, more difficult than MCSE WINDOWS NT4..and you must understand ACTIVE DIRECTORY and DNS

Bye

I have to thank Alan Carter for writing a great book that gave me a solid foundation for Win2K and allowed me to pass 4 cour exams. Before turning to this book, I have tried New Riders guide for 70-215 (Server) test, and it definitely was not enough to pass that test. It seems that all 4 cour exams overlap greatly, so if you are trying to pass Server without knowing anything about Active Directory or basic TCP/IP concepts, might as well forget it. "Windows 2000 is Windows 2000"--states Alan Carter, and that's how he is able to prepare you for 4 core tests with just this one item. Don't get me wrong, you will need a dedicated effort to study and practice the material, but by the time you are done, you will have a solid framework that you can hang all your future Win2K knowledge on.

I have yet to come across a book for windows 2000, that explains the subject in detail. This book by carter is outstanding. I had already read his Mcse study guide for NT 4.0 and when i was planning to study for 2000, i could not think of a better author than Alan Carter. This book is a must read. Thanks to you carter, i am enjoying the Win2000.

I liked this book for the 210 & 216 but it was severely lacking in the 216 & 217 tests. You will not pass unless you have a TON of experience. Its a good book to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Not 4 birds. Get different books for 216 & 217. I was NOT impressed with the CD rom either. Its asked hard questions NOT coverd by the material.

I agree 100% with the reader from Spain, but I would take away an additional star because of the price. Yes, this book makes an o.k. study guide for Professional and Server, but even then it suffers from some serious flaws.

1. Not enough material. The font is huge and the white space is vast making the book seem like a hefty tome, but it's a facade.

2. Very annoying is the repetition of the procedures. In the chapters, Carter walks through the procedure for a particular function, and then for the lab, gives a virtually identical walk-thru. I would have preferred that more detail about the functionality, the differences between various options, and theory be written in the chapter text with the labs focusing on the hands-on procedures for actually performing the functions. The duplication simply wastes space.

3. As previously mentioned, this book <i>might</i> get you through the Prof/Server exams, but it will in no way prepare you to pass the other two core exams. One example is DNS. A full and complete understanding of DNS and the DNS server is vital to administering a Windows 2000 network and Carter gives it very short shrift - sharing a very small chapter with the installation of Active Directory.

Because of the superfluous text and non-concise information, I can't even recommend this book to MCSEs who want a guide for the 70-240 exam. Carters NT-4 Core study guide was fantastic. This one is a travesty.

I have to say, this book is filled up with important information. And it is a very easy to read book. You do not need to take a long break after 10 minutes of reading! You can just flow through the chapters one after another! So, this is a good buy! Not sure if it is the best in the market. I picked up this book right away because I used Alan Carter's books from my Windows NT 4.0 tests and I just love to read his books! Good luck to you all!

I can't rate this book high enough. Alan Carter has simply nailed the entire study guide concept. This book truly has it all, very well written, great index, excellent outlines, great sample questions, great labs, and even a "beach side" exam quizzer. Alan covers all the material very well and adds in his own excellent real world incite and experience. You won't find a better MCSE 2000 book than this one.