Passed 431

brad-

Last week, the test crapped out on the sims. At that time, I was already burnt out on studying. Long story short, I got my money back, went to another test center, everything worked without a hitch.

The test, I would give a moderate to high degree of difficulty because the topic covers SO much material. The MS Press book actually had good matierial and excercises in it, it just had so much more information than what was on the test. Here's a 1,000 page book...now go answer these 47 questions

The sims were either simple tasks that didnt take long, or poorly worded...almost cryptic...questions, but still with a simple task once figuring out exactly what you need to do.

Almost no knowledge of T-SQL is necessary. I think I encountered only a couple of questions regarding language/syntax.

Been prepping since early April, glad it's behind me. I dont recommend it as a hobby.

Next step for me is 70-621, the DST upgrade.

astorrs

Congrats on the pass. I don't remember but did you have much SQL 2005 experience before taking the test? Or was this all new?

brad-

I had worked with 2000 in college, and we just started setting up 2005 at work, which prompted me to look at this.

RobertKaucher

Brad,

Thanks a lot for your comments about the test. I have it scheduled for the end of July and I think I have been wasting time on T-SQL, based on your comments and the comments of others here. Any areas you found especially important in your studies?

Congrats!

unclejohnny

congratulations brad. I plan on taking the test in a few weeks. thanks for the insight about the TSQL syntax.

brad-

RobertKaucher wrote:

Brad,

Thanks a lot for your comments about the test. I have it scheduled for the end of July and I think I have been wasting time on T-SQL, based on your comments and the comments of others here. Any areas you found especially important in your studies?

Congrats!

The different kinds of backups, recovery models, linked servers, security, when to use what tool(s) to improve performance on something.

Goldmember

Congratulations Brad!!!

My questions to you..

Were there any questions on TsQL involving indexes, statistics, table creation?


I have been studying the book like a madman and found that TSQL examples are prevalent but everybody tells me that TSQL is not as important on this test.

What do you think is essential TSQL commands and statements?
Statistics? Index Creation? Select statements? Joins? Views?

Thank you

brad-

Goldmember wrote:

What do you think is essential TSQL commands and statements?
Statistics? Index Creation? Select statements? Joins? Views?

Thank you

Anything in SSMS you can right-click and do is 'technically' SQL since it just automates it. Statistics and indexes...you can rightclick and create them, or even schedule their maintenance. Select/Joins/Views can be done in the query designer as fast as you could type it in. SSMS simplifies alot of the non-developmental stuff.

Of course there are little caveats to all of those things as well that you will need to have an understanding of conceptwise, but they are covered in the MS Press.

BeaverC32

Congrats on your pass!