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| tdogg75 2001-05-27, 3:35 pm |
| I was wondering what are the best 2 or 3 books to read to help me pass the exam (70-210). Any help is appreciated. | |
| SasiSan 2001-05-27, 6:18 pm |
| Let's see I like the Alan Carter's MCSE Study System. It covers the core 4 exams so there is minimal repeat information.
For beginners: I like the Microsoft Press books. This is the one that has plenty of hands on exercises.
And for zeroing in on the exam topics after you know the subject you can use the Exam Cram books.
That's my two cents. | |
| EGeorge 2001-05-28, 4:31 am |
| I agree with those but I would add Sybex to the mix. | |
| SasiSan 2001-05-28, 3:42 pm |
| I don't like the Sybex because of all the repetitive information... My question is: do you really find them useful? It seems to me that it scares newbies because there is so much to read... Because there is so much repeated info -- especially in the first two books.
Just wondering. I never recommend Sybex but I am willing to be converted... | |
| EGeorge 2001-05-28, 3:49 pm |
| I think I like them because of the repeated info. With my short attention span, I need to hear things more than once. With my short attention span, I need to hear things more than once.(oops, didn't I already say that).
I usually recommend the Sybex and MS Press (for the hands on) and everyone seems to come back with a positive experience. To be honest, I have only looked at the 70-210 and 70-215 Sybex books though. I still have the others in a pile on my shelf. | |
| SasiSan 2001-05-28, 3:57 pm |
| I guess that is where we differ. I would rather filter through one book twice than multiple books. I actually have the Sybex on my shelf but I have never opened them.
I like the Alan Carter for the first exposure.
MS press for the second exposure.
Exam Cram as the third and final exposure.
Ah -- the wonderful thing about MCSE -- the endless amount of resources to help you prepare. I only wish there were as many selections for the CIW track... | |
| EGeorge 2001-05-28, 4:16 pm |
| I like the Exam Cram as they really sum everything up and give you the key exam points but I can't touch anything before at least the second edition if not the third because I can't deal with all the errors. | |
| kingsway4us 2001-05-29, 10:43 am |
| ...but it's not a get-ready-for-an-exam book. Mark Minasi has a couple of excellent books published by Sybex, Mastering Windows 2000 Professional and Mastering Windows 2000 Server. I'm going through the Server book right now to brush up on some things (it's 1600+ pages just for the Server book, and I don't have time for the whole thing!) before I take the exam next week. The Server book answered a lot of questions I had and cleared up a lot of fuzzy areas for me, and I would think the Pro book would be just as in-depth. And READABLE.
You can get both books in something called "Mark Minasi's Windows 2000 Resource Kit" and I got mine from a book club. The link is http://lcis.booksonline.com/cgi-bin...ome?clubId=LCI. They send you the kit (4 books)for just the price of shipping (around $25 or so) if you join. Then you buy one book from them at their price over the next 12 months to fulfill your obligation with them.
True, their price plus what they charge for shipping comes out to slightly less than retail, but I ended up with a $120 set of books for $25. Can't beat that. I did have to wait for about 3 weeks to get it, though.
Good luck, tdogg! | |
| SasiSan 2001-05-29, 11:31 am |
| I feel like I am beating a dead horse or defending my honor here... But...
First, everyone learns differently. We all know that! I like the approach that Alan Carter takes to showing the information. He teaches Windows 2000 not each category. They all work together and that is why I prefer that book. And... It is my desktop reference to look things up. If I don't find it there I go to technet.
This is my approach to book buying: Go into a book store. Grab a bunch of books and a capaccino  Then in each book look up something you know -- and see if it explains it right; look up something you don't know -- and see if you understand the explanation; and most importantly -- see if the index is inclusive so you can find things later
Of course, the next step is to put all the books back on the shelf and order them online...
I am trying to overcome my hangup with Sybex but the redundancy and the writing just puts me to sleep... It is a style thing... Everyone needs to decide for themselves!
Good Luck!!!
Oh -- and I did the book club thing too. Join with a promise to buy one more book and I got the entire Exam Cram series for free. Well worth the money -- where they get you is if you don't cancel after buying the one... | |
| kingsway4us 2001-05-29, 12:33 pm |
| No debate intended  I've got the Alan Carter Accelerated book too, and I used it for both Pro and Server. It's excellent and I recommended it to my classmates this past semester - it's nice to have everything in one book - as well as Exam Cram.
I didn't use Sybex a whole lot for my NT track. The only Sybex book I got anything out of, really, was Exchange 5.5. I got a lot more out of Exam Cram, and I've used Coriolis heavily over the course of a year and a half. I didn't like Sybex on the whole, after I tried to use it for Proxy Server 2.0. I switched horses in midstream and crammed the Exam Prep Proxy book for a week before I tested. I still prefer Exam Cram to Sybex by a long shot. But I also like Minasi's writing style. I didn't even realize that Sybex publishes his stuff until I got the kit, and then I said "Oh, well" and opened the book and just kept reading. Same for Carter. They just both have a style that I can read and understand. And in the end, I think that's all it comes down to, whatever works.
Peace! |
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