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A few years
ago, a publisher name Coriolis launched a new product
called "Exam Cram", which offered experienced administrators a way to
efficiently prepare for the exams by intensely focusing
each book on just what you needed to pass the test. Each
chapter summarized the basics of the topic, highlight
exam pitfalls, and offered review questions that were
very similar to those on the actual exam. These weren't training guides, but rather review guides
designed to be adjuncts to either classroom training, or
a complete training curriculum. Despite this fact,
the series was so good many people used the Exam Cram
series as their only study resource and still passed
Microsoft's exams.
The Exam Cram series
wasn't perfect though. Each book in the series was
written by a different author which made the quality
inconsistent between guides. And the series didn't
include any test prep software. Unfortunately, Exam Cram's publisher has gone out of business and there
won't be any updates or improvements to the series. And
up until now, rival publishers attempts to release their
own versions of this format have fallen short.
There's
a new Sheriff in town...
Enter
Osborne/McGraw Hill, one of the leading publishers
of MCSE study guides (including our favorite
MCSE series written by Deb and Tom Shinder). The
Passport series uses a format similar to the
popular Exam Cram books, but with a light hearted
"Travel theme" that breaks up the inherently
dry subject matter. The softcover books are in convenient
and portable 6x9 format, and range between 350-400
pages each. The chapters are organized by exam
objectives as outlined by Microsoft, and follow it
closely. The tutorials are concise, well written,
and do a good job of getting you up to speed.
Surprisingly, the
travel theme works well to liven up each chapter
without going overboard (no pun intended).
As expected, every
book in the series follows the same format: Each chapter begins with an "Itinerary" of sorts
that includes an "ETA" of how long it
should take you to complete each chapter based on
your experience. Within each chapter you'll find a
number of call outs ranging from straightforward
Exam Tips to "Local Lingo" boxes that
explain technical definitions, "Travel
Assistance" boxes that refer to additional
resources, and "Travel Advisories" that
highlight common pitfalls and misconceptions.
There are 8-10 chapters in each book and they
include plenty of screenshots and illustrations
to accompany the tutorials. Each
chapter ends with a "Checkpoint" that
provides a quick summary of the key points of the
preceding chapters followed by review
questions. And every book includes an index
for fast reference.
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Publishers
Price:
$29.99 each
Street Price:
$18.95 Bookpool.com |
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To ensure the quality of the series, Osborne utilized the skills of veteran
trainer and author Mike Meyers as the series editor, and
recruited Microsoft Certified Trainers as authors of the
individual books. This combination appears to work well
for the series, and the overall quality of the content is
excellent. The black and white Illustrations and
screenshots used within the series are helpful and
legible, despite their small size to accommodate the
page format. The review questions included at the end of
each chapter (and the end of the book) are excellent,
and accurately depict many of the questions we've seen
on the actual Microsoft exams. Unfortunately it appears their technical
editors were asleep at the switch, as there are a
number of small errors and inconsistencies
throughout the series. However, it's not enough to make a big
difference in your studies or likely to impact your exam
results. To be fair we have yet to come across a series
(including Microsoft) that didn't have its fair share
of errata. You can view a list of some of the discovered
errors in the series here.
Hopefully Osborne/McGraw Hill will get these fixed in the second printing.
As a bonus, each book in
the series comes with a CD-ROM that contains a copy of ExamWeb's
exam prep software. The software is rather basic, and the
review questions are adequate, but they're filled
with annoyingly obvious typos and grammatical errors
that are very distracting. For
an additional $19.95, you can go to http://www.examweb.com/passport/
and download an upgrade the existing questions,
as well another set of review questions. We didn't test
the online "upgraded" version. However, if you have the budget, we
recommend using a higher quality exam simulator.
The
Acid Test
So how well does this
series prepare you for the exam? Quite well, actually.
We sent one of our LabMice (an experienced NT 4.0 MCSE
and Windows 2000 administrator) into exams 70-210
and 70-215 using this series as his
only study reference and he emerged
victorious with an 800 and 840 score respectively. (Stay
tuned - we intend to keep sending him in for each book
in the series) Your results may vary based on your
actual product experience, preparation time, and
familiarity with the Microsoft exam format, but we
couldn't think of a better way to actually test a
series.
Overall
Impressions
Overall, we really liked
this series and think Exam Cram fans will be pleased.
The portability and focus on exam objectives make it
easy to study anywhere without lugging a huge hardcover
tomb around, and they do a great job of preparing you
for the actual exams. Just keep in mind that these guides are not designed
as a stand alone certification product and should be
used with a Microsoft approved training guide, or as a
companion to a class. If you have limited experience
with Windows 2000, make sure you set up a lab and do the
exercises provided in many approved training guides. We
would have liked to see a tear away "study
sheet" that highlights important last minute
material, and perhaps even an electronic version of the
book on the CD. We also hope to see an improvement in
the quality of the test prep software included with the
books. Still, the books are a great value and an
excellent study resource. As a plus, the core Windows
2000 exam study guides are available as a boxed
set
Sample
Chapters Online
If you would like to take the series for a test drive
the publisher offers several sample chapters in PDF
format on their web site:
Disclaimer:
To ensure that our reviews are impartial,
LabMice.net does not recieve direct commissions on book
sales. In addition, we do not accept advertising revenue
or other compensation from book publishers
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