ISBN9780735622272

the product arrived in excellent condition and in excellent timeing. It was earlier than what amazon had prodicted.

A little background history:
I am 48 yo and I am italian, so I am not really fluent in english language, however I can read it (although with some difficulties).
I am in search of a new job so I needed to get a recent qualification in the IT field.
I worked almost 5 years as a Desktop Support Technician before leaving my old firm (due to my pay dissatisfaction) in search for best opportunities.
Unfortunately the new job I got (although ways better payed) was physically too hard for me and I got injured (it ways a factory worker job) so I needed to turn back into the IT field.
So I had the idea to get a Microsoft Certification to raise my job chances.

Back to the present:
When I worked as a DST I handled mostly Windows 2000 and NT 4 workstations, with very little theoretical background. So I knew that a lot of background knowledge was missing to me. This fact, along with the english language based study and exam, was scaring me.

But I took this book, I read it (with some difficulties) from the first to the last page, I did the tests in the enclosed CD, I practiced with my own pc and after 18 days of intense study I passed the 70-271 exam first try with 783.

I also had the Exam Cram 2 book, which I read only in part, doing all the tests enclosed with it.

Sure my previous practical experience helped a lot, but I knew I had big holes in my theoretical background, and this book helped me a lot to integrate my knowledge (I.E. until I read this book I really didn't know that the ipconfig /flushdns command was able to flush the dns cache of a workstation).

When I booked for the exam I was exitant to take it, because the "Certification simulation" mode of the tests enclosed with the CDs of these books had me often failing to pass.

After the exam I can say that the real Microsoft questions are ways more clear and understandable that those presented in the simulation tests.

In fact - beside learning unknown and valuable troubleshooting tricks and methodologies - the real problem for a foreign language speaker like me was to correctly understand the english-formulated questions, that often can be very devious.

But the learning tests enclosed with the books are a though (maybe frustrating) way to improve your reasoning skills about Desktop assistance.

Now I am studying for the 70-272 exam in order to get the MCDST certification and I am really more relaxed about it.

I read through the book cover to cover, and as I took the mini-quizes at the end of each section I was answering just about every question correctly. I thought I was good to go. Then I put in the CD with the practice tests... boy was I wrong. The practice tests were asking questions that were never touched on in the book anywhere. I'd try to use the book to find the answer to a practice test question and there was no mention of it. The book was far more basic than the questions being asked on the tests. I changed my study habit and used the practice tests on the to "study" but really all I was doing was learning how to answer the questions. Even that was difficult because the testing software was as buggy as Windows itself... There are questions were you have to click a part of a graphic, or move items up and down in list kind of things... I would put in my answer, it would mark me wrong, then when I read the explanation, I realized I was right and the programmer scored the question wrong. There were at least a dozen different questions in the exam where the explanation tells you you got the answer right, but are still scored incorrectly.

At the end of the day, I passed the exam with an 800 (need 700 to pass) so I suppose that's all that matters, but it was a pretty darn frustrating experience using Microsoft prep materials for a Microsoft test, but having the study aids be bordering on useless.

I will keep the book though. It is a solid reference book for Windows XP... just not any help for the exams.

This book did not help me much. I work as a Desktop Support Tech for a large business. Too many mistakes particularly when you use "Readiness Review Suite". I spent $50.00 for somebodies mistakes? I do not appreciate it! Finally, it is hard to find only one book to be on track.

This was the only book I bought before taking the test. I used the discount voucher included with the book and after studying for two weeks passed the Exam. I would highly recommend doing the exercises in the book as I needed to see the menus and paths to the options in order to answer the questions. Everything I needed was in the book; I just had to do the exercises over and over until I got familiar with the menus.