|  | Author: Mike Hotek
Publisher: Microsoft Press
List Price: $69.99
Buy New: $37.25
as of 11/22/2009 11:25 CST details
You Save: $32.74 (47%)
New (29) Used (10) from $36.99
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 13549
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Platform: No Operating System
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1 Har/Cdr
Pages: 900
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.6 x 1.9
MPN: 9780735626058
ISBN: 0735626057
Dewey Decimal Number: 004
EAN: 9780735626058
ASIN: 0735626057
Publication Date: February 18, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 15
 This book is one of the best SQL Server books August 12, 2009
Sabin Shrestha (Irving, TX)
If you are looking a technical book to learn SQL Server 2008 rather than to learn English, this is one of the best books with lots of real world examples.
 This book is better than they say!!! August 9, 2009
Tim Sutton
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I must say I was concerned about this book given the other comments - the only value appeared to be in the CD with the practice exams (the other recommended book "The Real MCTS SQL Server 2008 Exam 70-432" does not include practice exams). So I went ahead and purchased both books - "The Real MCTS..." for studying and this book for the Practice Exams.
What I discovered is that "The Real MCTS..." does not go into enough depth in a number of areas. Reading through the book and doing the exercises left me inadequately prepared. Running through the practice exams showed that I still had quite a bit to learn in some of the new/enhanced technologies (certificates/encryption, mirroring, partitioning). I have started going back to Mike Hotek's book - and have found (to my surprise given the negative comments) the information, explanations & exercises a great sight better than in The Real MCTS book.
Do not let the other reviews put you off. Even with the mistakes this book is way more worthwhile than it is made out to be.
 Don't waste your money! August 5, 2009
A. Moore (USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It took Microsoft long enough to publish this book and I really wish Microsoft would have waited even longer to release it. Perhaps if they had they would have had something worth buying. It's full of errors, full of redundancy, and FULL of spelling errors. The author of this book seems to like to just hear himself talk and the book isn't structured in a manner that really even makes sense...this is aside from the fact that many things right from the beginning are simply WRONG. If you read this review, please do not waste your money on this
 MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-432) June 16, 2009
Ryan C. Fox (Richmond, KY USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It has taken me a while to come back and review this book. The reason it has taken so long is because there is not much positive to say about the book.
First, the book feels very poorly edited. By the time I was done reading the book, red pen in hand, I felt more like an editor than someone studying a subject. I bought the book to learn about SQL Server 2008 but even I was able to find several factual errors. The most annoying errors were the numerous places where you are asked to answer questions about subjects that had not yet been covered, and at times never covered. This was not only present in the book, but also in the practice software. Eventually, it seemed rather pointless to attempt the practice software until after reading the whole book, even though it allowed for chapter specific practice. Beyond that there were also more grammatical and composition errors than one would like to see in a textbook.
Second, this book throws a lot of information at you and it tries to explain what that information is good for; however, it often reads more like Microsoft's SQL Server Books Online than a teaching manual. This being the case there is little reason to buy what is given away for free.
What I did like about the book was the real life examples. Putting in a scenario to help you understand what can be done with what you are learning is great. I only wish the book had many more of these.
For the most part I trusted that the author knew what he was talking about, despite the errors. From reading the book I could tell that this guy knows his stuff, unfortunately, when I was finished I did not feel like that knowledge was passed on very well. This was after reading each chapter two and sometimes three times, plus taking notes.
In contrast, I just finished another Microsoft Press book, which I found immensely helpful, easy to understand, and with just one reading I retained 80% or more of the content. With that in mind I felt better about my assessment of this book. The difference is night and day.
Bottom line, I would not recommend this book. You can find a list of what you will be tested on from Microsoft's website, and from there you can use the Microsoft Books Online and some other Microsoft Press books to cover what you do not know.
Thin on actual content May 27, 2009
R. Lockhart (Oz)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Exam candidates using this book will quickly find it suffers from actual lack of technical content. Mike Hotek would have been better of spending less time talking about his experience and conquests over problems and more time giving actual examples of T-SQL that you can use against your own data. Also the sample questions do not cover nearly enough breadth of the chapter content, you get 1 or 2 summary questions per section, when there are lots of examinable facts just glossed over in the text. If you want to be able to wrote learn stuff its a very poor resource. You have to take the book and then get resources of the web, and real exams in order to fill up on the required content. Not recommended.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 15
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