70-431

vCole

I will be taking this exam on May 27th. Any suggestions for study material?

dynamik

http://www.techexams.net/forums/sql-server-2000-2005-exams/23217-resources-70-431-sql-server-2005-a.html

vCole

dynamik wrote: »

http://www.techexams.net/forums/sql-server-2000-2005-exams/23217-resources-70-431-sql-server-2005-a.html

Oh der, thanks!

brad-

SQL 2005 Unleashed. That one resource is the best I've seen out there.

I also recommend the Apress SQL server 2005 High Availability.

vCole

brad- wrote: »

SQL 2005 Unleashed. That one resource is the best I've seen out there.

I also recommend the Apress SQL server 2005 High Availability.

Thanks!

jbrown414

brad- wrote: »

SQL 2005 Unleashed. That one resource is the best I've seen out there.

I second this book. It's thick but that's because of how thorough it is. It's so thick that they had to put additional chapters that aren't in the book on a cd.

Not sure if you know but there are sims for the exam.

savior faire

For the sims, make sure you are very familiar with the ssms studio.

vCole

jbrown414 wrote: »

I second this book. It's thick but that's because of how thorough it is. It's so thick that they had to put additional chapters that aren't in the book on a cd.

Not sure if you know but there are sims for the exam.

savior faire wrote: »

For the sims, make sure you are very familiar with the ssms studio.

Thanks for the heads up!!

knownhero

Just to make sure I have all I need I got both the unleased and the MS books. Covered both bases there!

Knopper

Hi. I also plan to sit for this exam at the end of May. I'm new to SQL Server and currently reading the MS training kit. Since I am not a developer or even DBA, I am having a hard time getting all this stuff into my head since I'd rather do Exchange, AD and networking. This looks more like a developer exam as I read through this book, but anyway I have to try myself out since my company requires it. Comparing 431 to 432, the latter seems much more DBA-like than 431 as I look through the requirements, e.g. the XML part is not required in the SQL Server 2008 exam.

So, I just wonder if someone can give some advice about 431, are there many sims, do I need to perfectly master T-SQL, is there a lot of coding? I've passed 294 and 620 with no problem, but I am somehow scared from this one.

RobertKaucher

Knopper wrote: »

So, I just wonder if someone can give some advice about 431, are there many sims, do I need to perfectly master T-SQL, is there a lot of coding? I've passed 294 and 620 with no problem, but I am somehow scared from this one.

Well, you should be muhuhahahaha (evil laugh). I'm jsut kidding. You only really need the basics of T-SQL. It is much more important that you know and understand administrative tasks using the SSMS GUI. You need to know how to back up and restore, how to work with stored procedures (not write them, just work with them in the SSMS), and how to manage security. Sims are very big in this test. So you have to know what to *do,* it's not like one of the MCSE or other tests were usually just understanding the concepts will allow you to pick the right answer. You need to know where to click and how to perform the tasks. I nearly failed because I found the questions confusing on the sims. So make sure you read them carefull and take your time. Looking back this was not an exceptionally hard test, though. Do not be affraid. just make sure you know your stuff. Hands on knowledge, do lots of labs!

Knopper

Thanks, Robert. The authors of the book seem to prefer T-SQL for all the tasks, so I'll have to dive into the SSMS GUI on my own.

RobertKaucher

Knopper wrote: »

Thanks, Robert. The authors of the book seem to prefer T-SQL for all the tasks, so I'll have to dive into the SSMS GUI on my own.

One caveat to what I said earlier. While you will not be asked to write t-sql on the exam, you may be asked to look at a script and understand what it does. This is what I mean by a basic understanding of t-sql.

On a practical note, I had very little SQL server experience before getting my current position but I am fairly certain that my SQL Server certification is what got me the job. I have been here a little over a month and write t-sql queries for users sometimes. The foundational study that I did has helped me a lot. I can now write inner joins with the best of them, though at the time of my test I would have had trouble with the syntax. But I knew enough to be able to recognize what was wrong given a multiple choice question and that is what counted on the exam. The day-to-day work I do with the sql server here is all through SSMS. Anything administrative you see in the book that is done via t-sql, you should ALSO know how to do via SSMS.

Knopper

You have a point there, one should be able to do it both ways. Especially on a simulation, where the simulated environment supports only the features that would be required to accomplish the task and if you want to write an SQL query but this is not implemented in the environment, you are stuck if you can't do it with the GUI. Or vice versa. But, to the best of my knowledge, there are things you can do only in the query window and they don't have a graphical equivalent.

RobertKaucher

Knopper wrote: »

But, to the best of my knowledge, there are things you can do only in the query window and they don't have a graphical equivalent.

Yes, you are correct, but none of those are administrative, which is why I included that adjective. I don't believe there is anything from an administrative perspective that can be done in the query window that cannot be done via the gui. The good thing about doing things via the query window is automation. If there is a task that only needs to be done once, I will always do it via the gui. It is quicker for me and I'm less likely to mess up. If I have to do it repeatedly, though, I'm gonna script it.

jbrown414

So Fade, did you take the test?

Knopper

Okay, 10.July is the big day for me. I used MS Press, Books Online, virtual machines for hands-on labs and some experience with live SQL servers as an IT generalist. Do you have any last-minute tips for me to consider?

RobertKaucher

Go through all of the sample databases in ssms and browse their structures. Make sure your knowledge of userdefined data types is good, make sure you know backup and recovery (full, incremental, trans log, tail, copy). Make sure you know backup and recovery, and also backup and recovery. Did I mention backup and recovery? That is where I messed up on my exam. Read the sims carefully. I felt two questions were so similar I had made a mistake in the navigation of the exam. I am sure I blew one of them because of that. Good luck!

Knopper

Thanks, Robert. I passed with 771 on the questions and 880 on the simulations. Overall, the exam was from medium difficulty - not extremely hard, but not possible to pass if you don't know what you are doing.

Interestingly, I found a mistake in one of the simulations. The scenario was very strange, since the only way to meet the requirement of backing up the changes since the last transaction log backup is to backup the transaction log, which is not possible with the given configuration.

RobertKaucher

ooh. Might want to edit that post, knopper. You went a bit far explaining the question... Whatch that NDA.

But congrats on the pass. I scored exactly 700.

Knopper

Sorry, edited it. But I gave feedback about the simulation and hopefully they will fix it or remove the question.

tribe_menx

well done ! .. be taking me exams somewhere in august i saw on vtc site they have tutorials based on t-sql quite interesting seeing how deep they go in tha languge if u know wat i mean, so far got adventure works DB installed to run queries me not sure with cbt nuggets if its enough, yet again i wanna make history in this place if u knwo wt i mean
Just a question i think is legal to ask but is the whole exams simulation based ?

RobertKaucher

The format of the exam is no secret. It has two parts. One is multiple choice and the other is the simulations. VTC is a good resource, but to learn the language you should have a print reference.

tribe_menx

thanks !