The book covers the practical training side of this rather broad topic quite well. Having no business experience in this area, I was looking for a vehicle to get this SQL Server thing down for my own use and as preparation for certification. I found the explanations of the subject areas were well-written, thorough, and helpful. Other sources such as Books Online and some of the more reference oriented texts are quite valuable supplements.

Having taken certification exams in the past, it was clear that the task of exam preparation is a separate animal and overpromised here. There is the ExamCram2 series that picks through this material and goes a long way to addressing that objective. Having certified with this pair, maybe there is a new job somewhere.

The book could use a reedit, but overall it is quite coherent.

The book met the requirements of the course it was being used for... it was how ever a little bit lax on the code portion...when it came to doing the project it left a bit to be desired in clarity of how to build a data base in SQL...

The book met the requirements of the course it was being used for... it was how ever a little bit lax on the code portion...when it came to doing the project it left a bit to be desired in clarity of how to build a data base in SQL...

Why can't authors ever flow through a book in an ordely manner? What is the point of jumping from chapter to chapter? For example, many times through out this book references are being made to up coming chapters about specific topics in chapters that don't belong there. Why do you tell the reader about an up coming topic in a chapter that doesn't belong there and then ask a question about it in the chapter test. Why even make a chapter about that specific topic if your going to include it in a chapter that doesn't belong there? Thats a little redundent!! Also the author likes to give you examples on how to do certain things the right way, and then tests you on something he never covered in the chapter. If the topic has nothing to do with the chapter, do not include in the chapter. If you do include it into a chapter in which it doesn' belong, don't include it into the chapter test. How do you expect the reader to completely understand and answer the question if he or she knows nothing about it? Unless, your wanting the reader to stop what there doing, flip to the chapter and read it, then go back to the previous chapter your testing on just for that one little question that doesn't belong. Rediculous!!

Why can't authors ever flow through a book in an ordely manner? What is the point of jumping from chapter to chapter? For example, many times through out this book references are being made to up coming chapters about specific topics in chapters that don't belong there. Why do you tell the reader about an up coming topic in a chapter that doesn't belong there and then ask a question about it in the chapter test. Why even make a chapter about that specific topic if your going to include it in a chapter that doesn't belong there? Thats a little redundent!! Also the author likes to give you examples on how to do certain things the right way, and then tests you on something he never covered in the chapter. If the topic has nothing to do with the chapter, do not include in the chapter. If you do include it into a chapter in which it doesn' belong, don't include it into the chapter test. How do you expect the reader to completely understand and answer the question if he or she knows nothing about it? Unless, your wanting the reader to stop what there doing, flip to the chapter and read it, then go back to the previous chapter your testing on just for that one little question that doesn't belong. Rediculous!!

I just passed the 70-229 exam this morning with an 862. My study strategy involved reading this book cover to cover over a 2 week period and taking some uCertify practice exams.

While I have absolutely LOVED the other books for the MCAD (by Amit Kalani) I feel this book was not nearly as effective. It had a lot of focus on items that the exam didn't touch (and neither did the 4 practice exams I took) and it actually didn't touch on some items that were on the exam.

I would, however, still recommend the book. It was easy to read and had good flow and descriptions; it is an excellent base to add to with exams or other cram style books. I would say that this book got me to 60% and the practice exams got me the remaining 26% of my score.

I just passed the 70-229 exam this morning with an 862. My study strategy involved reading this book cover to cover over a 2 week period and taking some uCertify practice exams.

While I have absolutely LOVED the other books for the MCAD (by Amit Kalani) I feel this book was not nearly as effective. It had a lot of focus on items that the exam didn't touch (and neither did the 4 practice exams I took) and it actually didn't touch on some items that were on the exam.

I would, however, still recommend the book. It was easy to read and had good flow and descriptions; it is an excellent base to add to with exams or other cram style books. I would say that this book got me to 60% and the practice exams got me the remaining 26% of my score.

not only it prepared me for the exam, but also gave me quite insight in practical enviornment.

I've been working on my MCSD and have 2 exams under my belt already. Up to now I've been using the Microsoft MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit books, which have been pretty good. However, they don't include a book for the optional exam and I'm choosing to take Exam 70-229 (SQL Server 2000 Database Design and Implementation) so I decided to take this book for a drive. The Que Certifications Training Guide is VERY thorough and assumes you know nothing...which is nice for me. I like to know I'm not missing anything. The flow of the whole book follows a logical progression through the exam topics. The practice exam questions are very Microsoft Exam-ish. Also, this manual is written in an easy-to-read manner and I am finding it's not as hard to read through as the MS books were. All-in-all, this manual is very effective. Just my 2 cents!

I found this book to be very comprehensive, although it put emphasis on the wrong aspects, aspects that are not relevant to the exam. This is a good book if you want to learn to use SQL Server, however you should definately supplement it with a MeasureUp practice exam if you intend to pass the 70-229 exam. (I just passed the exam using this book and a MeasureUp exam for preparation.)

I found this book to be very comprehensive, although it put emphasis on the wrong aspects, aspects that are not relevant to the exam. This is a good book if you want to learn to use SQL Server, however you should definately supplement it with a MeasureUp practice exam if you intend to pass the 70-229 exam. (I just passed the exam using this book and a MeasureUp exam for preparation.)

I was really happy with the 70-315 book from Que, especially the hands-on learning style. I was hoping for the same from this book. Several concepts are explained poorly or are superficial. The Step by Step excercises were so simple as to be useless (SELECT * FROM Customers). At times, the author made statements that are just plain wrong: "If two values are compared, the Boolean result is either positive, negative, or equal(greater than, less than, or equal to)." Another title for this book might be 'SQL Server 101: Read at your own risk'.

In the past, I used the QUE books by Kalani and the Transcender practice tests to gain my MCAD. I bought this book to help prepare for my next test (70-229) on the MCSD track, and I have been disappointed.

I come from a programming background, not a SQL Server Admin background. This book is light on the kind of detail that Microsoft tests for in their exams. I am extremely displeased with the sections on replication, SQL Server Profiler, database security and performance tuning.

Other sections such as the writing queries and stored procedure I found to be OK. But then again, most of my Sql Server experience has been in writing queries and stored procedures.

Maybe this would be a good study guide for experienced SQL Admins. I can't answer that question. I do feel that us programmers would be better served by not using this book as a preparation guide.

The book does a nice job of interspersing just enough personality to keep you reading when you're about to "hit the wall" without reading like a "...for Dummies" book. The content seems to be well represented and explained well overall with the beginning (broad intro) and end (security, measuring, etc.) chapters a bit sketchy-but these generally seem the hardest to write meaningfully while being concise.

The organization is occasionally a bit off. There are a number of cases where the author discusses a concept and how it applies to certain objects, but has not yet covered those objects. Rather than referencing a later chapter, I'd prefer to see the core components discussed first then the additional features added on. As intertwined as topics can be, there may be no perfect answer, but I kept feeling like there might be a better one.

The first two chapters cover a lot of the necessary basics and details that likely won't be tested on directly. The final chapter deals with monitoring, troubleshooting and optimization--a broad and amorphous topic that despite more pages than any other chapter, leaves you feeling like you've learned a tenth of what is there. Much of it is probably more admin and less programmer so glossing over is somewhat appropriate, but in many sections, there's no real information and barely even enough to lead you to the help file.

Everything else in between is discussed generally well, and should be both relevant to the exam and informative for learning the technology on the whole. It gives a solid level of detail while reading like its trying to teach you something rather than the one M$ book I've used that seems to solely want to give you enough to pass the exam. Many earlier chapters could use more of the guided practice, but are otherwise fairly instructional.

This book does a much better job of deciding when to direct you to other resources, especially Books Online, than the one M$ Press book I've made the mistake of using.

The only really serious issue I had with the book dealt with some of the questions at the end of chapters. Review questions-those designed to make you think through the general concepts, e.g., "Describe the difference between x and y"-are sometimes a bit sparse or focus on a very specific, minute point.

The worst of it seems to be in a few of the "Exam Questions", which attempt to simulate what you might see on the test. In some cases the right answer was never covered in the text or worded too vaguely to really choose one answer. At least one presented two correct answers but only one indicated as right. 80-90% of the questions are just fine. But the occasional bad ones can cause you to spend an unfortunate amount of time researching your "errors" only to find out they weren't your errors.

I have just passed the exam with score 738. The exam was relatively difficult. I used the book to prepare along with MeasureUp exams. The book covers most of the areas needed for the exam but didn't go into enough details on security and performance optimization. Also you probably would need more practice with complex SELECT queries. (BTW, MeasureUp exam was almost completely useless).

Despite the fact that I've worked with SQL Server since the days when the manual said "Sybase" (SQL is a spawn from Sybase), I am always amazed and delighted to find the pieces I still don't know. One of the benefits of studying for exams is that these tidbits become more relevant. Programming is a great field, because we can never get bored.

This book assumes that you are a relative beginner, and the 70-229 test assumes both programming and administration knowledge. There is therefore a lot of ground to cover. Due to its Que Training Guide format, the information is properly chunked for digestability. The first 9 chapters talk to the programmer, the rest to the administrator.

You need two learning styles to pass the exams: one for understanding and one for memorization. I not smart enough to do the second without the first. This Training Guide is an excellent resource for understanding SQL administration concepts.

The fact is, the 70-229 is a moving target. I base this on the fact that all 70-229 books carry both programming and administration information, but the Microsoft "Skills Being Measured" focuses almost solely on programming skills. I think that one is well served by reading and truly understanding this book, but then getting the latest certification buzz before taking the exam.

This book was marginally helpful in passing the 70-229 test, which I did earlier today. Don't get me wrong, I love the Que study guides, but this is not one of their best efforts. For example, the Que guide for the 70-320 test is a gold mine of sample code and working get-to-the-point examples. It was critical in my passing that one. This one is just a little too general and a little too non specific. If you want to nail this test, get the transcender practice tests and leave this on the shelf, or use it as a supplemental text and try another study guide.

- This is a great book for studying and for reference around the office. I used it for the exam (and passed); my co-workers use it as a general reference at work.
- As usual, Que did a great job editing. I found two mistakes, but they were very minor.
- The sample questions / practice exam could use some re-working, but if you read this book through, the exam should not be too much hassle.

This book has a lot of good content. I felt the explanations of the different subject areas were well-written, thorough, and very helpful. Succeeding on the exam is a matter of being able to think through the problems presented to you - not just memorizing isolated facts. This book can help you gain the kind of understanding you need to take the exam.

I feel the book is weak in terms of focus on the exam itself and the sample tests, etc. Many of the exam questions were very poorly worded. They don't give you enough information to make a really good decision. In some cases they were just plain wrong. (Fortunatly, I didn't find that to be the case with the real exam.) One really dissapointing thing is the way the big practice test at the end nearly repeats a lot of the individual chapter test questions.

So, the information in the book is good but somebody who really knows testing methods needs to rework it.

Also, I think the book emphasizes areas (e.g. replication, full-text search) that aren't stressed very much on the exam. Conversely, it seemed not to cover other areas (security and performance monitoring) very adequately.

This book needs to be proofread thoroughly and corrected.

The CD only contains a softcopy of the book itself plus some kind of sample test. (Since the sample test in the book were so poor, I didn't waste any time installing and taking the test from the CD.) A very useful addition would be a CD containing enough data to build a reasonably large database. This could be used to give practice in creating, loading, and then running performance tests, etc. "Northwind" and "Pubs" just aren't big enough to do this.

This is a very useful book, and it helped me both on the job and the exam. The practice exam was especially beneficial, as some of the questions on the real exam happened to be from the practice exam. Good advice on what to concentrate on in your studies. Together with Transcender, this book really prepares you for the exam.

The only problem with this book is an excessive number of typos which kind of hindered the learning process.

This book is a good resource for people who want to learn more about SQL server 2000 programming, but don't soley rely on it if your goal is to pass the exam. I used both Transender and this book and passed the exam.

Not bad! Has a good study outline and organisation with all required objectives of the test. Pretty good detailed examples in chapters, Review exercies a little weak, but review questions are good. Using this book, the Books On Line from the product and all the 70-299 example tests i could find on line, I past 70-229 test comfortably....