Learn how to design and implement database solutions using SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition—as you prepare for MCP Exam 70-229, a core requirement for MCDBA certification and an elective for the MCAD, MCSE, and MCSA tracks.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 20 Ratings

Simply badly designed for exams - 2006-05-22
Reviewer Rating:
I believe that the writers made some bad choices when they first began to write this book. First of all, unlike most other certification books the exam goals are not together in one section. Instead there are whole chapters for queries, indexes, views, etc with all of the information about each topic in that chapter. So if you wanted to read about 'query optimization' you would have to read the sections within that chapter about query optimation from the queries chapter, from the index chapter, some from the views chapter, etc. So if you want to review a specific topic that you are not as good at you will be doing a lot of page flipping.

Second the book is too thick. It contains a lot of information that i doudt that you will actually get on the exam (like estimating the size of a table). It also has about a 100-150 page objective by objective index at the back with questions. But these sections seem to be fragmented from the rest of the book and do not have enough information to truely learn the objective. The first part of the book seems to be written as an introduction to databases book rather then a certification book, and i dont think that i would use this book to introduce myself to databases anyway.

Third: the practice certification exam does not work. The practice exam is an exam that seems to have an embeded internet explorer and is ran by javascript. I have no clue why you would use javascript to create a practice exam. Anyway i get the 'error running these scripts, would you like to continue running scripts on this page error' and i am unable to run the exam. I am using windows xp service pack 2 internet explorer 6.1.

I personally went out and bought the exam cram for 229 and it seems to be much better.

Poorly written... - 2009-04-02
Reviewer Rating:
Most books I have read from Microsoft Press have been good, but this one is not one of them. The chapters referred to the SQL Book Online (BoL) way too often. It also jumped around on topics and referenced items that you would not read about until chapters later.

The worst part of the book was the fact that some review questions were NOT covered in the book. I went to the index to lookup the unknown term in the question and the ONLY page referenced was the page with the question on it!

Good training book - 2008-09-28
Reviewer Rating:
I am in a SQL Database Implementation and Design class right now, and the lessons provided in the book do a good job at instilliong SQL code into your mind.

Exam 70-229 - 2007-11-12
Reviewer Rating:
Fairly good book with some problems in repetitive text. Do NOT count on this book as your only resource for the 70-229 exam. Then again, it's foolish to expect to pay $40 to pass this very difficult exam. I passed the exam but used a test engine endorsed by Microsoft.

Bottom line: Outstanding value @ $40. Four stars because of the repetitive text, otherwise I would give it five.

Works for getting the basics and cert prep - 2007-06-09
Reviewer Rating:
Not being interested in certification, I was looking for something that would get me the basics, and tell me where to go to get the meat. This book is doing that. Includes a MS SQL Server 2000 120 day use installation disk. The install includes the "Books On Line" (a source of a lot of meat).

Not caring if this is good for cert test prep, and having never taken a cert test, I can't tell you if it is a good prep. It hase provided a good portion of the information I was looking for, and helped me understand the changes / inhancements in MS SQL 2005.

4 stars because I am seldom overwhelmed with something.

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