Best book for 70-291?

I have just recently passed 70-290 and am in the process of studying for 70-291. I currently work as something of a junior system administrator in a Windows 2003 environment with limited actual technical experience dealing with DNS and my subneting experiences comes from a class I took in high school about 7 years ago. The major of my duties right now are more along the lines of high level desktop support.

I have been using a mix of resources ranging from the ones on this site, to my test lab at home, from the Microsoft press and Sybex books as well as the transcender practice exams.

Trying to find a book that goes very in-depth with 70-291. Unfortunately, all the reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles for the MSPress book and the Sybex books for 70-291 are inadequate and poor at best.

Can anyone recommend a book with decent coverage on topics for 70-291?

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ilcram19

mspress

JdotQ

ilcram19 wrote:

mspress

+1, MS Press 2nd Edition will prepare you well.

Claymoore

JdotQ wrote:

ilcram19 wrote:

mspress

+1, MS Press 2nd Edition will prepare you well.

+2, MS Press 2nd Edition helped me pass

I only have 2 complaints about the MS Press book. One, there are no explanations given for the correct answers to the review questions at the end of each lesson. However, there are explanations given for the correct answers throughout the exam prep / review sections in the 2nd half of the book. Two, I found the information about WSUS severely lacking - use the MS Press 290 book instead.

I used the O'Reilly Core Exams in a Nutshell book for a very high level overview and then dug deep into the Name Resolution and Network Security sections of the 291 book.

Revenue

Claymoore wrote:

+2, MS Press 2nd Edition helped me pass

I only have 2 complaints about the MS Press book. One, there are no explanations given for the correct answers to the review questions at the end of each lesson....

Im using the MS Press for 921 for my studies now. Seems to be quite good, However its annoying me too that they provide no explanations to their chapter review questions/answers >_< Sure you can go back and find that section in the chapter however it would be nice to have a summarized explanation just to recap.

Good luck

bwcarty

I used MS Press (1st edition) and O'Reilly's MCSE Core Exams in a Nutshell, also. The 1st Ed MS Press book was good, so I'd think the 2nd Ed is even better. I use WSUS extensively at work, so I didn't really need that section of the book, anyhow.

If you're looking for something other than books, I'd recommend the Transcender tests and CBT Nuggets training videos, as well.

macado

bwcarty wrote:

O'Reilly's MCSE Core Exams in a Nutshell

How was this book? I've used O'Reilly books before for Linux stuff. Was the MCSE one helpful?

bwcarty

How was this book? I've used O'Reilly books before for Linux stuff. Was the MCSE one helpful

It's very good for review. They condense the 4 MCSE Core Exams down to 100-120 pages each, so you won't want to use it as a primary guide. I used it at the end of my studying and as a refresher the night before and morning of the test. The "highlighter's guide" at the end of each exam section does a good job reducing the items you need to know down to bullet points. If you hit one you don't remember off the top of your head, go back in the book for more details.