certifications

In order to appreciate a review, I believe it's necessary to understand reviewer's perspective. In my case I am NOT someone who already passed the exam and therefore loves whatever book got me there. Nor am I someone who just failed the exam and needs to tear apart the piece of junk that lead me to failure. I'm like you- looking for the best book to study and learn from so that I may pass the exam with as little struggle as possible.

One final cautionary note: Some reviewers out there, especially a few famed Top Reviewers, seem to never have met a book they didn't like. Their reviews are filled will comments like, "oh this book is great to supplement the class I'm teaching..." or something similar. My advice is to take this information with a grain-of-salt. The fact that so-and-so thought a book was a great edition to their collection says nothing of its real value to someone in my or your position. On with the review!

Lisa Donald is another very knowledge techie who can't write to save her life. A lot of this book is a poor summation from Microsoft's own technical reference library. I know this to be true because I constantly referenced Microsoft's website to gain further clarification from the often obtusely explained material in this book.

Check out this sentence, chpt. 2, p. 47, in reference to the /checkupgradeonly switch used with the winnt32 command:

"Used to check the current operating system for
upgrade compatibility with the hardware and software
that is currently installed and will be upgraded to
windows XP professional."

Why not just say, "Checks currently installed OS, hardware and software for its ability to be upgraded to XP"

The book is filled with verbose statements like this. Fortunately in this case the sentence is still understandable. Unfortunately, most of the other poorly written pages are nearly indecipherable. I love this one from chpt. 5, page 178. Here Lisa is describing the two sets of files that are used with Windows XP Multilanguage Version:

"Language groups, which contain the fonts and files required to process and display specific languages.

Windows XP Professional Multilanguage Version files, which contain the language content required by the user interface...."

Seems simple enough on the surface, but try to explain to somebody how these two descriptions are really different. Such an attempt would require actually understanding the difference between these two sets of files: Language Groups and Win XP Pro Multilanguage Version files.

Lets look at Language Groups. Looks like Lisa is saying that Language groups contain fonts for different languages so they can be displayed. Ok, no problem- now lets look at what the other sets of files do: Contain language content (what's that if not fonts???) required by the User Interface (how is that different than displaying them???).

What's lacking here is an explanation. The author does not concern herself with ensuring that the information she is providing imparts understanding or learning. This pattern continues throughout the text- it is almost devoid of comparisons to real life or easy to understand examples that would help relate the material to the reader.

On the somewhat bright side, the book is well organized and seems very detailed (although it isn't complete). The old adage of never rely on one book to prepare for a certification exam certainly applies here. I found several errors, mostly due to the mind-numbingly poor attempt to write clearly, instead of out right inaccuracies (although those exist as well.)

The other good news (at least for the author) is that to the best of my knowledge, there aren't any decent study guides out there for the 70-270 exam. Exam Cram 2 publishes their indispensable review of the exam, but this is not intended to be a one stop shopping book, only a review book.

That having been said, go ahead a buy Lisa Donald's "MSCA/MCSE Windows XP Pro Study Guide", just don't expect much. While you are at it, pick up "Exam Cram 2: MCSE 70-270 Windows XP Professional". The Exam Cram 2 book is really great- well written, easy to follow, clear explanation, better coverage than this Sybex book and directions on where to find more detailed information at the end of each chapter. Finally, check out the Transcender Practice Exams, they are the best in the business for practice exams but also the most expensive (along with Self-Test, who are both owned by Kaplan.)

I hope this helps and good luck with the exam!

This is on par or slightly better than the average Sybex study guide. Lisa Donald actually seems to have a deep knowledge of the operating system, and there are fewer technical errors in this book than in most authors'.

The only chapter that has technical errors is "Chapter 9: Accessing Files and Folders". Lisa has a couple minor misunderstandings about cummulative permissions, effective permissions, and how effective permissions are determined when both Share and NTFS permissions are involved. So many authors are too quick to use the term "most restrictive" without explicitly stating how the permissions are determined. Lisa explicitly states everything, but she misses the mark slightly. Consequently, Question 12 on the Assessment Test at the beginning of the book is incorrect, and there are a few other technical errors related to permissions.

An appropriate qualification for any study guide is whether you could pass the test if it were "open book". In this case, I think you could score above 900. Overall, this is an excellent book, and I'm looking forward to reading Lisa Donald's other study guides.

I didn't find the exam too hard (try Directory Services!) The books was good, not too focused on just cramming, which was nice.