certifications

They just can't call it self-preparement guides - maybe exam-review or something like that. I saw many self-prep guides, these are the worst. For example, 70-290 is ~350 pages long. Book is split onto two parts. Only half of the book has been dedicated to well structured but very brief concepts. Another half is just hardcopy of the same questions that included in the CD. This is what I cant understand. Seems like somebody was so lazy that day and just wanted to puff up the book's size, fill it with something. Although test quesions is ok and there are some nice case studies, the overall picture is poor.

The test if pretty hard and you'll never pass it only with this book - you'll have to buy something additional or spend time and tons of paper finding and printing appropriate topics from help and Technet - keep it in mind when buying these books.

You will need this kit. The Evaluation 2003 Server installation alone is critical to your success. The books themselves are quite long, have a technical tone, and aren't light reading. That being said, they are extremely valuable and filled with good information. If you are an entry level student, plan on spending many quiet hours with the study kit. Make sure you install the 2003 Server Eval. copy. Make sure you do all the exercises, whether you feel like it or not. When you are reading you will want to follow along on your test machine, even when you are not instructed to do so. I have found that the only reliable way to learn the material is by repetition of performing tasks, as much as necessary until it becomes second nature.

Read at least one more book from another author before taking the test. Using multiple books is a must in my opinion. Different books provide different points of view on the test material. Its the difference between seeing a statue, and taking a walk around a statue.

Don't be too hard on yourself if you don't pass your first test. I didn't pass my first test and I remember feeling pretty disappointed as well. Most people don't pass their first test, even the 'experts.' The Windows 2000 tests were harder than the NT tests, and from what I can tell the Windows 2003 tests seem to be harder than the 2000 tests. It should be some comfort to consider that the difficulty of test is going to have an effect on the number of people that get certified. Simply put, you are starting to realize how valuable the MCSE certification will be when you get it.

A warning; in the introduction you are told that these books and this certification are for IT Professionals with an extended period of on the job experience. Its easy to gloss over this, but they aren't kidding. You should probably have a CompTIA A+ level of PC knowledge or the equivalent. Without breaking my MS confidentiality agreement, I can say that you will be expected to have a strong foundation in networking and systems administration. You will need to be able to troubleshoot networked environments and you will need to have, at least in the beginning, an understanding of subnetting. Lets be honest, you can't talk about troubleshooting a networked environment for very long at all without touching some aspect of subnetting and routing.

Also, and this is important, the MS Books don't like to repeat themselves. If they tell you how to do something, they don't like to tell you again. You may find yourself in Chapter 10 and being told to perform a complex operation that you learned about in Chapter 2. Basically, if you don't have the prerequisite knowledge, they aren't going to help you find it. You won't have your hand held through the learning process. But keep in mind, these books have a target audience; experienced and employed Windows Technicians.

Its seems like I have been highly critical of the MS Press study kit, but really I'm just trying to convey that the target audience is very narrow. If you take the books for what they are, I think you will find them exceptionally usefull.

The question is not whether or not you will need the Study Kit: you will certainly need it. The question is whether or not you are prepared to commit to the certification challenge.

Earlier editions of the Microsoft Training Kits were not particularly thorough, well written, or real world. The three volumes I've used in these new editions, though, 290, 291, 294, are 100% IMPROVED. First, they are EXCELLENT as learning tools (I really wonder why others believe that they're too brief. And they include real-world case studies that did not exist in the earlier editions. But the best part of this new series is the extras, especially the exam practice and test prep information, READINESS REVEIW. This gives you the value of a "study guide" plus an entire "exam cram" type book. With the 10% exam discount vouchers and the eval software,this is a great package!