MS Exam Kits are toooooooooo detailed!

NeMiNaToR

I used the Specialized Solutions A and Network+ materials and thought those were too detailed, but this MS stuff is just taking the pi$$!

I want to get a move on now and get my MCSA by march, Ive got my A and N+'s and need to do the three MS exams now (as well as study for them).

Yes I do want to pass the exam and also KNOW my field, but im just finding the MS Exam Kits do go OTT. Is there anything else, that I can use?

Pavlov

You can use the study notes found here and on other certification websites, however, I still recommend you read a full book. Any MS exam you take will not be like the ones you've taken from CompTIA. The books go into such detail because the exams go into such detail.

As for whether or not there's a better book to use instead of the MS Press Training Kit.... there are many to choose from... If you're looking for the condensed version of material in a book you might want to check out the "Passport" series of books by Mike Myers (though these don't get as good of reviews as the MS Press books do). I personally, didn't care for the Sybex books for the MS exams and relied heavily on the MS Press Kits and Transcender practice exams.

Let us know which book(s)/resources you choose and feel free to ask questions as they come up during your studies.

Best of luck to you with your MS exams.

ajs1976

NeMiNaToR wrote:

I used the Specialized Solutions A and Network+ materials and thought those were too detailed, but this MS stuff is just taking the pi$$!

I want to get a move on now and get my MCSA by march, Ive got my A and N+'s and need to do the three MS exams now (as well as study for them).

Yes I do want to pass the exam and also KNOW my field, but im just finding the MS Exam Kits do go OTT. Is there anything else, that I can use?

If you think the books are detailed, wait until you see the Qs.

I agree about the books, sometimes they can be to much to swallow. I would suggest using two books. one study guide like the MS Press or Sybex and one smaller book like the Exam Cram 2 or Passport series.

pmann

Neminator, I agree with you on the MS training stuff...

The MS books are considered 'definitive' since they do a great job of covering all topics in a lot of detail. For me though, these tend to be more like books for reference rather books for learning. So, the 70-215 and 70-210 books are great but about 1500 pages each!

I used the Exam Cram 2 series for all of my MS testing. These are about a third to half of the size, about half the price and cover the essential stuff.

Whatever books you use, be sure to do lots of practice exams, the sets of questions covered in the Exam Cram books are NOT sufficient! When you start scoring about 85% in your practice exams, then go for it.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of doing practice exams. I did as many as I could find and did them over and over again. Passed all my exams first time.

Pat

(MCSA, a+,n+)

D-boy

so do you recomend transcenders? from Transcender.com???

pandimus

Transcender rocks.

Ive used Ms press books for all three of my Ms exams, and I am currently preparing for my 216, and 217.. Personally considering ive read every Ms press books for all the core, i find the pretty redundant. When I studied for my 210, i read the whole book. When i came to 215, i read the whole book again, but when i came to chapters such as groups, and user accounts and the such. I said to myself.. "hmm this was in the last book.. Well I better read it regardless because it may go into more detail." Needless to say, it didnt... When i read my 218 book same exact thing. I read all of the 216 book, not too redundant, but the 217 i am almost finished with.. I totally skipped a good portion of the book. Getting kind of sick of reading the same thing time and time again.

D-boy

cool I'll try them, they must work you got loads of Cert's!

Sartan

I've got about $8000 worth of books (It came included with my $15500 tuition ~~ $CDN)

These books are, in a word, huge. My Active Directory Infrastructure book contains 1200 pages, and sample non-numbered exam questions. It covers everything from group policy to QoS over site links with IPSec.

I'm glad I have them, I don't place much respect on exam crammers
I know everything there is about windows server/services and workstations. I can tell you every command switch for sfc.exe and how to manipulate your registry using a dcom environment...
Some administrators I've met can barely configure a DHCP server, yet they manage to be MSCE certified due to these itty bitty books.
Do the industry a favor, put some respect in it, and get the big ugly reference guides Use Tech Notes as a nice guideline as to what you should be focusing on in the huge books, though.

Anyway, that's just my rant. No more newbies with higher paying jobs than me, thanks !!

(The books are from thomspon course technologies, www.course.com, but their CCNA book really sucks, their CCNP isn't too fantastic either)

Webmaster

pmann wrote:

So, the 70-215 and 70-210 books are great but about 1500 pages each!

It seems there is some confusion regarding the MS books in this post. I've got the core set with the books for 210,215,216 and 217, where the 217 is the fattest, almost 700 pages....

Are you guys reading the Resource kits? Or do the latest MS training kits really have twice as much pages?

pandimus

ive got the same kit as you..

janmike

Got curious and checked out 2nd edition issues. They're "fatter". Previous 218 is around 850 pages but 2nd ed is 1094. This is what I found.

70-217 2nd edition Microsoft Press, Hardcover, Bk&CD edition, Published August 2002, 905 pages, ISBN 0735617597

70-218 2nd edition Microsoft Press, Hardcover, Bk&CD edition, Published August 2002, 1094 pages, ISBN 0735617767

70-215 2nd edition Microsoft Press, Hardcover, Bk&CD edition, Published August 2002, 1321 pages, ISBN 0735617678

70-210 2nd edition Microsoft Press, Hardcover, Bk&CD edition, Published August 2002, 989 pages, ISBN 073561766X

70-216 2nd edition Microsoft Press, Hardcover, 2nd Bk&CD edition, Published August 2002, 935 pages, ISBN 0735617724

pandimus

Generally speaking though, the last few hundred pages are fodder. Answers to the questions. And alot of the stuff repeats througout the books. So if you can get it the first time, you dont have to work as hard later in studies

pmann

Hey Sartan, nice post!, but dont be so hard on crams. A lot of guys I know are trying to get their certs done, really want to learn the whole subject in depth and become a guru like you. But, from a practical perspective most people are working to some kind of timeframe.

I have a full set of the MS books too and there is nothing more comprehensive out there. The problem with these big fat books is that people get despondent with their rate of progress and lose enthusiasm. By the time they've gotten to chapter 20, they've completely forgotten chapter 1,2,3...

Just about everyone I know makes brief notes as they work through whatever books, DVD's etc. they use and those notes are of course personalised cram notes. So everybody is a crammer, that's how most of us learn. Ive seen some really good, helpful cram notes contributed by members on this forum btw. So there are lots of alternatives for people without the time or biceps for the MS material.

rossonieri#1

just go with mell - ms e learning library, doing so fine