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MCSA/MCSE 70-290 Exam Cram: Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment
Product Description
MCSA/MCSE Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003 Environment Second Edition Exam 70-290 Dan Balter Patrick Regan The Smart Way to Study™ Covers the critical information you’ll need to know to score higher on your 70-290 exam! Set up and maintain Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Use the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) Intelligently select the appropriate disk storage technology when deciding between basic versus dynam… More >>
MCSA/MCSE 70-290 Exam Cram: Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment
5 comments
This is a great book. I just passed the test. It is not for junior admins. If you are trying to learn Server 2003. Look else were. If you have a lot of hands on experience with it at work, and are looking for a book that will get you by the test. Here is the way to go!
Rating: 5 / 5
Exam crams should never be used by someone who doesn’t already have experience with the product and this is no exception. If you have used Windows 2003 server and want to take the exam this is a great book.
This book was perfect for me and it was pretty easy to read and follow. I have a home lab so that made it easy to bring up Windows 2003 when I couldn’t already visualize what the book was talking about. Perhaps a few more photos would be nice but it did have a lot.
The book includes 50 practice questions from Measureup.com which are good. However be aware they expire after a short amount of time. I took 5 questions on the site, then got sick for a week and went back only to find the measureup.com site had expired. I called them and they re-enabled the questions and gave me an additional number of questions. Thank you Measureup.com!
I am currently a MCSE in NT4 and Windows 2000. Read the book in about 2 weeks and passed the exam with a score of 880. I had a very busy few weeks and wasn’t able to study properly but still passed easily. Learned a number of things from this book and reinforced a number of items I had forgotten.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a good book to read after you complete the Microsoft Press self-paced 70-290 book. The ExamCram book seemed to really bring everything together for me and tied up any loose questions I had from the labs in the MS 70-290 self-paced book.
I would not suggest you use this book as your only source. Honestly I have yet to find a single source book for any IT exam! But if you are planning on taking the 70-290 exam, this book is a must.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have MCSA in Windows 2000, and I work daily with most aspects of Server 2003. The upgrade (MCSA 2000 -> 2003) exam was recently retired, so I am taking the 290 and 291 to upgrade. I read this book in 2 days, and passed the test with a 960. (700 is required to pass). If you already know Server 2003 – this book very quickly and easily will fill in any gaps in your knowledge. I found the actual test to be quite a bit easier (mostly, just much less specific) than the sample tests in the book.
My major quip has to do with typos. They were so prevalent that I started underlining them and marking the pages. There wasn’t a single chapter that I didn’t spot at least one, sometimes two or three(!!) typos. They were all relatively benign, but there were some annoying typos in sample questions and answers. In one case, the question didn’t specify how many answers to select (most tell you if you should mark more than one answer, or “all that apply”) but then the answer key had two answers. Another question had the exact opposite; the question asked you to mark two answers, but the key only had one answer listed.
Overall, while I was reading the book I was annoyed by it, but my test score was the highest I’ve ever had, so apparently despite its shortcomings, the book works.
Rating: 4 / 5
I used the Exam Cram series to pass my SQL tests some years back. I’m finally starting to update my MCSE and purchased the exam crams for 290 and 291 (I haven’t opened the 291 book yet). There are a handful of typos and mistakes (AGUDLP is referenced once in the wrong order) but nothing you’d miss if you have used the product before. The key is what others have said — its a cram guide for the test, not a book on Windows 2003. If you have experience with the product, this will help you pass. If you are new to Windows 2003, you’ll need more than this book.
For example, command-line utilities like csvde, ldifde, dsget, dsquery and the like are covered along with descriptions of when to use them and what they do. Instead of printing out every switch and usage for each utility, it simply shows you how to get help (dsget /?). If you don’t take a moment to check the syntax or don’t understand concepts like piping (“dsquery user -name Tim* | dsget user -title”) you might miss a question or two.
Features I never use like Volume Shadow Copy and NTBackup (thankfully backup isn’t part of my duties) were covered well enough and where the book fell short on a subject I just supplemented the material with a quick google query. Thankfully there wasn’t much of that.
The book does have gaps — the two tests at the end of the book asked questions that weren’t even covered in the book (again, quick google query to the rescue). The book includes a link to online tests which were only valid for 14 days or something like that but it did cover items the book didn’t. I do recommend at least taking one of the online tests to prepare you for the actual test as it will teach you to look for key words to limit choices for right answers (volume instead of disk, etc…). Neither of these resources prepared me for the simulations when I took the test, but that’s to be expected. Its a cram guide, not a class.
Rating: 4 / 5
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