Rating: 
Summary: I expected better from Microsoft Press
Review: This book is fairly well organized into 25 chapters, each of which is made up of two to six lessons and followed by an brief review quiz (with answers in an appendix). Basic coverage is afforded to most of the 70-210 exam objectives, but mastery of this material will not be sufficient test preparation. It would be highly advisable to supplement this text with additional research and practice in key exam areas, which are specified on Microsoft's website. As another reviewer pointed out, it would also be good to familiarize yourself with concepts from the Server exam (70-215) and perhaps other core exams (70-216, 70-217).I found this book tedious to slog through. It is padded with redundancies, prolix descriptions of dialog boxes, and other filler. It could have done with more screen captures instead. Estimated lesson times are conveniently provided, but tend to be too optimistic. Practice exercises (some of which require a networked computer) appear fairly frequently and may or may not be integral to their respective lessons. This makes studying away from a PC impractical. After using Windows 2000 Professional for a few months, reading this book, consulting newsgroups, taking various practice drills on the web, and reading study notes and technical articles (both official and unofficial), I finally took the exam. It was harder than expected, but I passed. If I could do it over, I would look for a different study guide -- one that's concise, with better explanations.
Rating:
Summary: I expected better from Microsoft Press
Review: This book is fairly well organized into 25 chapters, each of which is made up of two to six lessons and followed by an brief review quiz (with answers in an appendix). Basic coverage is afforded to most of the 70-210 exam objectives, but mastery of this material will not be sufficient test preparation. It would be highly advisable to supplement this text with additional research and practice in key exam areas, which are specified on Microsoft's website. As another reviewer pointed out, it would also be good to familiarize yourself with concepts from the Server exam (70-215) and perhaps other core exams (70-216, 70-217). I found this book tedious to slog through. It is padded with redundancies, prolix descriptions of dialog boxes, and other filler. It could have done with more screen captures instead. Estimated lesson times are conveniently provided, but tend to be too optimistic. Practice exercises (some of which require a networked computer) appear fairly frequently and may or may not be integral to their respective lessons. This makes studying away from a PC impractical. After using Windows 2000 Professional for a few months, reading this book, consulting newsgroups, taking various practice drills on the web, and reading study notes and technical articles (both official and unofficial), I finally took the exam. It was harder than expected, but I passed. If I could do it over, I would look for a different study guide -- one that's concise, with better explanations.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book if you are holding MCSE NT 4.0
Review: This book is good if you have MCSE NT 4.0 background. You must have known DNS, DHCP, Networking Microsoft OS's, etc before opening this book which doesn't meet the requirement for the Windows 2000 Professional study guide (for a newbies). This book is not for those new in MCSE track. Sad to say, you must have read the Server, and Networking Guide before you open this book. It falls down very badly from the Windows NT 4.0 Workstation Training Kit. In the case of this book, the exam should be 70-217 not 70-210 because the Server Exam is 70-215 and Networking Exam is 70-216 which you should have known first before opening this book. If you give this book to a newbie, the person will throw a lot of question to you regarding configuring DNS, DHCP, etc which I experience when I lend this to my colleague who is a Unix guy and want to switch to Windows.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the Newbie
Review: This book is well written with clear, concise language. It is presented in a logical fashion and is a much better read that the NT 4 kits. I will say however that you do need some experience or already have your NT 4 MCSE to get the most out of it. The book itself states that the intended audience are IT professionals and that a prerequisite is "A knowledge of the fundamentals of current networking technology is required" Unlike the NT 4 track, which you can be a newbie and get through it, I think MS has raised the bar on this one (Win2k). If you meet the requirements I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Whether or not it is sufficient to pass the exam remains to be seen.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book (but NOT for beginers).
Review: This book seems to cover the needs for the MS 70-210 exam but NOT recomended for beginers.After finishing with it you will be able to implement and administrate Windows 2000 proffesional.This book actually teaches you the os and not just pass the exam, so if thats what you want fair enough if its just the exam ,well look for something else a bit easyer that you will probarly find in Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money unless your not serious.
Review: This book was/has been a major dissapointment, I have relied on every source imaginable for preparation for 70-210 and this one was particulary bad in that it ignores many items while putting emphasis on items you may not encounter. This book is ok if you just want to learn windows 2000 pro and be able to work with it, but not if you want to get certified. It completely neglects the novell/w2k enviroment and does not cover RIS/SYSPREP/unattended installations in enough detail. It's pretty crummy when the company who makes the software and the tests cant get it together.
Rating: 
Summary: A disaster of a book
Review: What is with the Windows 2000 Track?? I have been through many academic and industry certification processes in my life, and I have never seen such a badly coordinated certification process. At the peak of this chaos, is this training kit. Besides being extremely dry to read, there are many disastrous shortcomings. First, the kit does not begin to even negotiate the style and mechanism of the examination. The actual exam being much more complex and analytical than what is illustrated. Second, the training kit does not cover many (if not most) of the skills and concepts covered by the actual examination. One can even find several items on the Microsoft "Skills Being Measured" list that are not even mentioned in the kit. Third, many of the skills that the kit covers are discussed in much less depth than what is actually required during the examination. One very good example is "Windows Installer Packages" that the kit only scratches the surface of, while the examination actually goes into great detail with it. I guess the real question is: Is there lack of communication between the people who set the skills for the exams, the people who actually write the exams, and the people who put together the training material?
Rating:
Summary: Weak training kit, high price
Review: When I decided I was going to get my MCSE certification I thought the best training material would be written and published by Microsoft itself. Well, I was wrong. This book did not help me train at all. There were very few visuals and the ones they did include were very poor. The book assumes you have a computer running Windows 2000 Pro right in front of you. Therefore if you don't have Windows 2000 or you want to study away from the computer this is not the book for you. I recommend trying another MCSE book, not this one! Buying Windows 2000 Pro and just playing with it for a few days would probably be better training than this book.
Rating:
Summary: A suggestion for your study plan
Review: While I easily passed the exam using only this book and brainbuzz.com's free study notes, there were topics on the exam not covered in the book. If your're aiming for an MCSE, I suggest you study all four of the core study guides, and then take the tests. Microsoft has acknowledged the interdependence of the tests in offical training, where the four classes don't correspond one-to-one to the four exams. These books don't either.
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