Customer Reviews

MCSA/MCSE Windows XP Professional Study Guide (70-270), 3rd Ed.

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I used this book to study for the test and passed it. The chapters are broken down great. The review questions are very good and almost exactly what you will find on the test.

This is an excellent text for the 70-270 exam. I originally bought the Microsoft XP Professional training kit (written by Microsoft)and getting through it resembled eating an Elephant. I bought this study guide by Sybex and it was much easier to study and understand. It is written, organized, and presented very well. The questions and information on the CD mapped very well with the questions on the 70-270 exam. The nice part is that I passed the exam easily.

This book is broken down nicely and tailored very well to the 70-270 exam. I have used numerous textbooks and study material in my quest to obtain my various certifications, but this one was definitely the best. It is well organized and easy to read. The chapter end questions are decent and resemble those on the actual exam.

I found this book very helpful. Sybex books are straight to the point. I prefer Sybex Study Guides over Microsoft Press.

This book is very easy to read and covers all the main topics. I just passed the exam with a score of about 800. I found the questions on the actual test much more difficult than what are in the book and on the CD. I also used a Transcender software prep guide. Without Transcender, I would not have passed.

Maybe my test was harder than others. I've read that some people felt that the Transcender questions were more difficult than what was on the exam. But I found the exam questions just as difficult as the Transcender ones (if not more so).

Most people recommend this over the Microsoft Press book. I haven't used the other one, but I do think this one is a wise buy. It's just rather basic in many areas and the tests don't challenge you as much as you will need to pass the test.

Good luck!

This book is structured almost perfectly, all of the information is very easy to find and I've learned a lot. Despite a couple of errors on the chapter review tests, the book is flawless and I would recommend it to anyone.

I've been working in a Windows XP environment for over 5 years now and this book still taught me a great deal.

However, this book doesn't adequately prepare you for the MCP 70-270 exam, at least not now. The 3rd edition was published sometime in 2003. We are now in 2008 and the test has noticeably changed as the study material provided in this book and from other sources doesn't directly correspond with the actual test content.

I spent over 2 months reading this text from cover to cover, and took the MCP 70-270 exam 05/23/08 and scored 519 out of a passing score of 700. Went back to this book immediately after the test, and confirmed that it just didn't cover certain things thoroughly enough.

I currently have a Network+, A+, and an Associates degree so far so I'm not completely stupid!! :)

Bottom line: this book is informative, but it only covers the many aspects of Windows XP Professional to a certain depth, the MCP 70-270 exam is incredibly in-depth and you will need more study material than just this book. Don't throw away $125.00 on the test voucher like me--make sure you're prepared!!

I just took the 70-270 exam today and failed with a 609 of a 700 needed to pass. I have used several other Sybex books in the past and have passed many compTIA tests with them. When I took this microsoft test today, I was just blown away at how many questions weren't even covered by this book!!! I remebered several questions that I struggled with on the exam and as soon as I got back to my car after taking it I was going through those sections in the book and found that it didn't cover many areas of questions that I had run into on the exam.

I do think this book has a lot of good material in it though, but perhaps it is no longer up to date with what Microsoft is doing on their current versions of this test. Make no mistake this is no easy test, I found the actual test questions to be much, much more difficult than anything I ran into on the test engine that came with this book. I read this book and studied very hard for this exam and I did practice exams from exam cram and this book consistantly hitting in the 80-90% range. I know that if you see the same questions too many times you end up memorizing the answers, but I only went through the range of questions in this book 3 times and consistanty hit what I thought was a good score, but when I took the actual exam it was like a completely different format and topics that were not covered by this book.

I would not reccommend buying this product, Sybex has helped me with several other certifications, but I think this book alone is a very poor way to prepare for this exam and you will fail.

This books covers most but not all the areas that you are tested for the exams, which I discovered doing practice exams I will now buy MS Press Books for any MS exams in the future.

I paid for "expedited shipping"

My book was shipped on 8/26. Here I sit on 9/9... still no book.

I highy recommend the Sybex series of certification books for getting the practice needed to prepare for certification exams. This series of books is ideal if accompanied with the QUE Exam cram books. The Exam Cram books will help you to learn only the theory that is needed to pass the exam. I use the Sybex books first to get all the hands on experience, use that knowledge at work and then use the exam cram books in the final preparation for the exam. After the exam the Sybex books are also great as a reference if you forget how to configure something etc.