Rating: 
Summary: Excellent source for certification
Review: A great book to pass the Microsoft certification exam. Good material for future reference. Covers lots of SQL Server topics needed by developers.
Rating: 
Summary: Could be better
Review: I am after the first two chapters and I'm not very impressed so far.
The first chapter contains a lot of names of different components of SQL Server without clear explanations useful in case of people new to SQL Server, too messy.
Chapter two contains terms without sufficient explanations and examples how to use them (isqlw, isql, osql for example).
If you are an expert in SQL Server you do not need this book but if you want to learn the book is too enigmatic so far.
Rating: 
Summary: So Far....
Review: I am only about 150 pages into this book, most of it so far has been a review of SQL Server basics that most people who have used SQL Server will be familiar with.One bad thing that I have noticed so far are that many of the diagrams are incorrect, tables and columns misnamed etc. Also some of the information in the begining was a little to much on the sales side, the discussion of what SQL Server is for example: "The SQL Server 2000 relational database engine is a modern, highly scalable engine for storing data." pg. 11 I have finally finished this book, and I have to say I was expecting better. There were many gramatical errors, and many times when I had to re-read a section of the book because the wording was awkward. The review section at the back of the book seems to be very good, the questions are somewhat challenging and the answer explanataions are very helpful. However, you will have to do some research into SQL BOL to help find some of the more obscure questions or answers. Such as what types of Join operations are performed by the query optimizer?
(Answer: Nested Loop Joins, Merge Joins, and Hash Joins)
Rating: 
Summary: Sales book, not good for certification
Review: I bought this book, thinking I would get certified. I spent 2 months reading the pages, and doing the exercises. Then I went to take the exam... Failed 3 times before I actually threw the book away and searched for another training source. And I'm not a dufus; I've passed many certification exams in the past. This book contains SOME quality information, but if your goal is to get certified, just read Books On Line and totally disreguard the existance of this book. Its common knowledge that the goal of MS certification tests is to test your ability to transform working knowledge of a product into real world application, and for that reason, an effective training source should simulate that real world expierence. This book fails to do this.
Rating:
Summary: Sales book, not good for certification
Review: I bought this book, thinking I would get certified. I spent 2 months reading the pages, and doing the exercises. Then I went to take the exam... Failed 3 times before I actually threw the book away and searched for another training source. And I'm not a dufus; I've passed many certification exams in the past. This book contains SOME quality information, but if your goal is to get certified, just read Books On Line and totally disreguard the existance of this book. Its common knowledge that the goal of MS certification tests is to test your ability to transform working knowledge of a product into real world application, and for that reason, an effective training source should simulate that real world expierence. This book fails to do this.
Rating:
Summary: More of a course on SQL than an exam prep guide...
Review: I used this book with the intention of passing Microsoft's 70-229 exam. Although I took the exam yesterday and passed, it was not due to the material in this book as much as it was taking practice exams.
As I read this book, all I could think is that it was a review of what I already knew. I have been a software developer using SQL for over 10 years now and I was a bit worried that this book wasn't giving me the information I needed to pass the exam. I got a great refresher of SQL DDL and DML commands and even learned a few things I didn't know. I learned a little about how SQL Server works specifically.
It wasn't until I finished reading the book and began taking the Transcender practice exams that I began to realize what I would be in store for on the actual exam. The Transcender practice exams were a very accurate simulation as to how the actual exam would look, I would recommend them to anyone. As a matter of fact, some of the Transcender exam questions looked very similar to ones I saw on the real exam. I did not take the practice test in the text of the book or on the supplied CD, so I cannot comment on their quality. From my experience, the exams offered for free in books are not very good.
This book would be a lot better if it modeled the exam a bit more. The exam likes to present a situation and ask what you should do to solve a particular problem. For instance, a example Security question on the exam goes something like this:
"John creates a table and you create a view on that table. Neither of you belong to the sysadmin role. The users in the sales department try using the view and they report that they cannot access the information they need. What should you do?"
I would have liked the book more if it presented examples like this to illustrate the information presented. As a matter of fact, this book reminds me of an information dump. Like most Microsoft exam study guides I have read in the past, they simply back up the information truck and dump the load onto you. You are responsible for figuring out how to apply that knowledge. But guess what? The exam test you on applying that knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: 70-229 SQL 2k Design and Implementation
Review: I was not pleased with the contents of this book in terms of sloppy editing and in the paltry treatment of important topics. Those of us in pursuit of the MCP or MCDBA will have to augment this book and what we take from this book with other more complex books dealing with design and implementation. Do be prepared to purchase additional books on T-SQL programming and do be prepared to purchase real exam prep software.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good for beginner to intermediate
Review: I've learned a lot of stuff and it makes sense. You probably will, too so don't be too afraid to buy it. I use queries on the job and know some programming so I am ready to give a shot to getting my dba cert. I like the approach the book takes because it starts out pretty easy and progresses logically to more advanced concepts. The book uses several different business scenarios which helps give an understanding as to why you would need to do xyz in the real world. The flaws of the book are that it seems intentionally technical for the sake of being technical. An inexperienced person isn't usually up on what aggregate functions are, and some in-context definitions would be nice. I'm from the school that says big words are what we use to confuse management who normally won't ask questions lest they appear to know less than the underling :-) So.... personally I'd rather spend brain power learning the concept instead of deciphering overly technical (imho) text. BUT, if you have a reasonable grasp on the english language and are a little bit tech savvy you should be able to work with it. I plan on taking the exam in Dec of 2003 or Jan of 2004, so I'll try to post how I did if anyone is interested. Happy Landings
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good for beginner to intermediate
Review: I've learned a lot of stuff and it makes sense. You probably will, too so don't be too afraid to buy it. I use queries on the job and know some programming so I am ready to give a shot to getting my dba cert. I like the approach the book takes because it starts out pretty easy and progresses logically to more advanced concepts. The book uses several different business scenarios which helps give an understanding as to why you would need to do xyz in the real world. The flaws of the book are that it seems intentionally technical for the sake of being technical. An inexperienced person isn't usually up on what aggregate functions are, and some in-context definitions would be nice. I'm from the school that says big words are what we use to confuse management who normally won't ask questions lest they appear to know less than the underling :-) So.... personally I'd rather spend brain power learning the concept instead of deciphering overly technical (imho) text. BUT, if you have a reasonable grasp on the english language and are a little bit tech savvy you should be able to work with it. I plan on taking the exam in Dec of 2003 or Jan of 2004, so I'll try to post how I did if anyone is interested. Happy Landings
Rating:
Summary: Not quite worthless, but close
Review: Most of the Microsoft certification books are bad, and this is no exception. A lot of page space is used explaining how wonderful Microsoft products are and no space is used defining the obscure terms that are constantly bandied about. Often a common word is used to mean something totally different than what it means to the rest of the world. Other times terms are just made up and never defined. The exercises are tedious, though occasionally userful.
Buy a different book.
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