Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Engl. ed. (IT Professional) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

I also read this training kit and took the exam. I do find that the book is well written and contains a lot of usefull information... but it isn't enough to pass the exam. I got a lot of questions about subjects that weren't covered in the book. Luke me... i passed with a score of 660 (620 was needed). I really hate Microsoft Exams very long questions etc. I've done a lot of Novell exams and they are much better. Also the Novell books did cover everything for the exam. I give this book 2 stars because it just doesn't cover every objective you need to pass the exam.

This book is not for people like me who want to know everything and make a big score on the exam.

Greetings,

A dude from Veenendaal, The Netherlands.

Quite frankly, I only bought the MS Press Win2K books because there were no other alternatives at the time.

Note that Microsoft has changed the content of the Win2K tests to try to weed out the so-called "paper MCSEs". In doing so, a number of items on the test are network troubleshooting questions and the like that are more easily answered by the IT engineer with some actual experience under his/her belt.

These kinds of questions are not covered in the MS Press Win2K Professional training kit.

It does, however, present most of the Win2K Pro information you might be asked about during the test. There are areas that I feel the training kit brushes over too briefly such as Infra red and other wireless devices, but you're expected to supplement the info from the training kit with product help files, TechNet, the Resource Kit and experience with the product. I have started reading the MS Press Win2K Server training kit and have discovered that it covers some of the same material as the Win2K Pro kit in more detail, so you may want to get and read both Pro and Server kits before taking the 70-210 test.

Aside from the dry "put-you-to-sleep" writing style that is common with many of these types of books (not exclusively MS Press, either) the only other quibble I have is that (with the exception of the chapter on RAS) there is no or very little mention of or comparison with the Win NT4 Workstation product. There is some new terminology and new ways of doing old tasks in Win2K Pro, and I think such comparisons would help those readers who are already familiar with the NT4 WS product.

Finally, this is a book geared towards preparing you to pass the 70-210 test. I would not use this book as a reference on Win2K Pro because of the lack of in-depth coverage on some features and concepts. If you're looking for a reference book, try the MS Press Win2K Pro Resource Kit or any of a number of books from other publishers that should be cropping up like weeds over the coming months.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Hope you found it useful.