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Title: MCSD Training Guide: Solution Architectures (MCSE Training Guide) by Randy Cornish, Derek Ferguson, Denny Dayton, Eeraj J. Qaisar ISBN: 0735700265 Publisher: Que Pub. Date: 22 October, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $49.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.91
Rating: 5
Summary: Best of the litter
Comment: Passed the exam on the first try! Microsoft states that the 70-100 exam is for experienced developers. Cramming for this exam is mostly ineffective. However, of all the books, this one came closest to addressing the topics actually covered on the Microsoft exam.
Less experienced architects should spend more time following the suggested web links and Suggested Reading.
I found most of the chapters helpful and ALL of the case studies to be similar in style to those found on the exam.
There are two additional parts of the book that were most helpful - Appendix E (How to Interpret Case Studies) and the exams on the enclosed CD.
Rating: 3
Summary: Relevancy of Exam materials
Comment: As a MCP who's completed 70-100 I can wholeheartedly recommend you buy this book as an (excellent) primer into the world of Solution development. Wonderful cases and exercises make this book worth your time (if not for the sake of the exam). It also has a good sense of humor and doesn't bore you to death with facts (unlike some MS Press books I could name) Anyways, my recommendations are that you study the exam (with this book) and then forget all there is to know about it. Then, focus on Chapter 10. It is the ONLY chapter you will need. The rest is irrelevant (if somewhat useful) exam preperation material. I advise you acquire a Transcender demo so that you acquaint yourself with the special way you are tested. Don't worry the built-in Exam Gear software is fabulous and will show you how to use the exam software. All in all from a technical standpoint this book deserves a C+.
One more thing, do not buy the MS Press 70-100 exam preparation book, it has nothing, NOTHING to do with this exam.
Rating: 4
Summary: Covers the exam material well; needs some editing
Comment: I pased the exam on the first try.
If you are a developer with limited business or design experience this book is a good resource for exposing you to the concepts of business requirements analysis, database design, and logical vs physical design. If you are an experienced systems designer, much of the material is a good review, and the case studies used are very helpful in preparing for the exam.
After taking the Transcender practice exams (highly recommended) I realized I needed more depth with the Microsoft-specific technologies (COM, ADO, etc). The references in this book were good, though I found myself wondering why a book this size couldn't have included the key information from the references instead of making you search them out. I found that the Sybex book for this exam covers the technologies pretty well, and also has some very good practice cases. I would recommend the Sybex book as a companion study tool for this exam.
On the down side, there are numerous editing mistakes in the book, especially discrepancies between the case studies and the "correct" answers to the review questions in some chapters. It looks like the authors of the questions weren't always working from the final manuscript. For example, in one question the answer is explained with "Since XYZ company has selected Oracle..." and the case study for XYZ never says a word about Oracle. Hopefully New Riders will correct this in later printings.
Several reviewers have commented on the practice exam software included. I also had difficulty installing the practice exam software under Windows 2000. New Riders support said it was not tested to run under Win2K and offered me a full refund. I found a Win98 machine and was able to run the practice exams without difficulty. They are ok for the multiple choice part of the exam, but you will need to be very confident with the "build a tree", database modeling, and flow diagramming covered in the case studies to pass the exam.
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