MCSE Training Kit (Exam 70-220): Designing Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Security (Pro-Certification)

Exactly the info I needed and saved me a ton of money

It amazes me really; how come a company like Microsoft - the author of the exam - is willingly gave away it is potential position as the best provider of the exams training kits which - at least in this case - is very far from being true.

I passed this exam a month ago, while I am restricted by NDA from speaking about the questions; I can tell you that nothing in this book has any thing to do with this exam whatsoever. The questions in this book are too elementary; it is like asking you what is 4 + 4 in a SAT study kit (you got the picture). The only thing you can get out of this book is that if you are unable to answer ALL the questions correct in about an hour or two, rest assured that you are not ready for that exam but the not the other way around. Meaning, if you are able to answer all of them, by no means this - by it self- means that you are ready. Invest your money some where else or if you are in Redmond WA pay a visit to the library where you will find my copy, I am in my way to donate it.

If exam's are your motivation then this is only the starting point not the "Learn by rote" you need to guarantee success. If you're new to SQL Server then this training kit does what would be an excellent job if of gently introducing you to the world of SQL Server and relational databases, let down by sloppy proofreading. Some examples: Page 106 has three tables to illustrate normalisation: a book table and TWO author tables. I think what they meant was a book table, an author table and an AuthorBook table and someone just didn't check the table captions. On page 73 the sp_helpprotect stored procedure is introduced. The example won't work because the stored procedure is called sp_helprotect. And when you hit brick walls with examples (try turning debugging on - the book makes it sound dead simple, the reality is you'll hit an "unable to connect" message that requires extensive research and additional work if you're running SP3) there's nowhere to turn. It's a shame because the book does an excellent job in other ways. But it's lazy. It gives the easy and obvious examples and sample questions and whenever anything that might require a bit of real explanation comes up if you're lucky it says "Go read somewhere else", if you're unlucky the subject doesn't come up at all. I'd still recommend it as a "gentle" way into SQL Server for those new to databases, but it could have been so much better with just a little more effort

This book contains enough information in the following areas:
stored procedures, triggers, XML, entities and indexes.

It also contains poor information in the following areas:
Managing and manipulation data.
Cursors.
SQL Server tuning.

I strongly recommend the Microsoft self-paced book. It contains more material for the exam.

Good reference book, and covers subject matter decent, but still leaves a lot of details that you are tested on out. This is one of the harder Microsoft exams, so study hard for this one. I would definately use another resource if I had it to do over again.