Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Book contains all topics needed but ...
Comment: I believe the worst what a Exam preparation book can do to you is not containing all the topics needed to pass the exam. The book does contain all topics but there is something else why I was not able to give more then 3 points for the book and that is the fact that the examples in the - specially code examples for XML and SQL - are wwwwwaaaaayyy to complicated to understand that them. Also there will be no code examples that complicated at the exam either. When you are new to XML as I was then there is no way that you understand the examples. I got an additional book to learn the XML basics and after I was done I went back to the code examples and I still couldn't figure them out.
I passed the exam already and if you decide to work with this book you can rely on the fact that you covered all the topics you will see in the exam but do not get hung up on the complicated SQL and XML examples in the book. You do not understand them as me and you still can easily pass the exam
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Technical Book
Comment: Outstanding technical book. It covers many areas of a very rich and complex product, and covers almost all of these areas well. The writing style and presentation is excellent. It will be useful to DBA's whether or not they go for the Microsoft certification. The extremely thorough chapter on XML is particularly impressive.
I am a SQL Server developer and instructor for Microsoft SQL Server 2000/2005 certification courses, and recommend this text to students who plan to take MCTS cert exam 70-431.
I recommend reading the book straight through, performing practice labs as desired, then using the Transcender practice exam to reveal your weak areas. If you set yourself a goal of 20-30 pages a day (hard to absorb much more), you'll finish in a month or two.
I passed the MCTS exam with a high grade, but thanks only in part to the practice exam that comes with this text. The text's one weakness is that the practice questions are not at all like those on the real cert exam; they are more like flash-card type questions. Even the Transcender exam was not up to their usual standards, but it is much better than what is included with the book.
The quality of the book itself, however, aside from the practice questions, is excellent. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A very good guide
Comment: Although I have not yet finished reading all the chapters, I would say that I'm very pleased with this buy. The book is very well organized, the information for each topic are clear and the practices help very much understand what you read.
and don't forget the 15% exam discount!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good book with helpful details
Comment: I bought the book on Oct. 2006, thought I might take the certification test, there are a lot of details steps such as setup database mails, but no coverage on Report service, integration service or analyst services.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Helped a lot with the test
Comment: Study this book and buy Transender and you will find at hard to fail the exam.
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