Sybex vs MS Study Guides for MCSA

infamous

I'm about to start studying for the MCSA exams...70-210, 215, 216 and 218 but can't decide whether I should buy the MS Core pack for these 4 exams or the Sybex core pack.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what I should use? They are priced about the same so that's not really an issue.

Appreciate any responses!

Alien

The same question has been asked before. I suggest you use the search engine to look it up. Most replies recommend MS Press for Microsoft exams. Funny, i had the same dilemma btn Sybex & Mike Meyers AIO for A+.

janmike

I always try and find some reviews on the books. Amazon.com has reviews on lots of books. Not all of them, but I'm sure they'll have some on the 2 books that you're considering.

Bookpool.com also may have some reviews. I have both for my 70-210 studies. I got them pretty cheap by a lot of shopping on the internet --you have to look for the bargain.

One more observation(since I do a lot of bargain hunting for certification guides), as far as I can tell, both Sybex and M$ publications' most recent publication dates for these series of guides are around June, July, & August, 2002. It looks like M$ is probably pushing the guides for the 2003 track now.

I find that Sybex is quite as dry as M$, but it still takes a lot of re-reads to get the material to stick. Both give you practical examples as you progress that you can actually use on your home lab set up.

Hope this helps.

whome

If it is not to late to comment on the book issue. I'm currently taking a class at a local tech college that is required to use the MS press book for the 70-210. I felt that the book was lacking. Not very in depth. My instructor also recommend other books to the class before taking the exam. I purchase the Sybex books for the MCSE and ExamCram2 I've almost completely finished reading the Sybex book for Pro. The Sybex book is easier reading (IMHO) plus it has good exercise problems for each subject. I'm schedule to take the TEST tuesday morning.

infamous

Thanks for the replies. I ended up purchasing the sybex 210-215-217-218 core pack over the MS books. Will also pick up a cram type book or two and try to use as many other resources as I can find.