The Sybex MCDST book is an excellant resource for passing your MCDST. Although I do highly recommend experience in addition to this title, you should be able to pass the test with it alone. I would have liked to have seen questions in the book that more closely resembled what was on the test but other than that, this book was excellant.

I used only this book and plenty of hands on experience to pass the test (271:880, 272:918).
The 271 coverage is iffy. As other reviews have said the book covers a lot about the boot sequence which wasn't on the test for me at all. It is missing coverage of security templates .inf s completely but that is probably a page's worth of material, you can google it.
The 272 coverage is complete and very much what the test questions covered.

I gave it 4 stars because it is concise, a feature that many other MCDST books lack.

The practice exams on the CD are slightly easier or about the same than the actual test albeit is worded very differently.

If you already have some experience in the field, and don't want to spend too much time then this book is great. Otherwise look for something more detailed.

Really I wish I could give this 2 and 1/2 stars since it really only covers one of the exams well. I found that this book covers the content in 70-272 wonderfully and most of what is included in this text was really relevant and helpful in that exam.

The same can not be said for the content covered for 70-271. I found that a lot of what was in the exam was not mentioned in the book, specifically security template inf files (which there were a few questions). The book focuses a lot on the knowledge of the boot process and I can say I don't remember seeing one question about troubleshooting that in the exam. I understand that all questions may not be the same for every session but I remember thinking when the exam was completed that I studied a lot of stuff that I saw no questions on. On the other hand a lot of stuff I knew through my experience with the OS and not from what I read in the book. The opposite was true for 70-271 which as I said before, the covered content was pretty relevant.

Overall I am not sure I would recommend this book to someone who is looking for an "all-encompassing" testing tool. It provides good working knowledge of WinXP but I think a little more material relevant to exam 70-271 should be covered. I think on future exams I will stick to MS published material instead.

This book the MCDST Study Guide "DELUXE EDITION" which is the second edition of MCDST Study Guide, is really helpful and updated in order of studying it and taking the exams, it contains a cd with test / exams and flashcards wich are really helpfull= for revising the chapters. If you are willing to take the exams i recommend you to buy the deluxe edition because its an updated version, dont buy the previous edition. Some of the questions included on the CD are pretty similar with questions in the exams. I did pass the exams studying this book and thats why i recommend it! Dont forget that taking the exams requires also a bit of experience:)

I just passed the 271 with an 899 and the 272 with a 916. This book was my only study resource, but I have been working with the XP OS on-the-job for four years.

The difficulty of the test comes from Microsoft's method of testing. Even though I did very well, I only had "warm fuzzies" with half of the questions as I was taking the test, because they really run your brain through the wringer. So, you must understand why all of the other choices are clearly wrong and only one is right, and this entails knowing the material thoroughly.

The only problems I had with the book are is the horrible amount of typos and strange program behavior with the practice tests, and the lack of anything other than multiple-choice questions.

Other than that, get hands-on training, read this book over and over, and be careful with the wording of questions on the actual exams.

I just passed the 271 with an 899 and the 272 with a 916. This book was my only study resource, but I have been working with the XP OS on-the-job for four years.

The difficulty of the test comes from Microsoft's method of testing. Even though I did very well, I only had "warm fuzzies" with half of the questions as I was taking the test, because they really run your brain through the wringer. So, you must understand why all of the other choices are clearly wrong and only one is right, and this entails knowing the material thoroughly.

The only problems I had with the book are is the horrible amount of typos and strange program behavior with the practice tests, and the lack of anything other than multiple-choice questions.

Other than that, get hands-on training, read this book over and over, and be careful with the wording of questions on the actual exams.

Sybex normally has a reputation of being THE book to study to prepare for your exam of choice. Unfortunately this one falls well below of my expectations. I've been in the IT industry for a few years now, and even I found this book to be a difficult read. Many times, the elements presented dont follow a logical sequence, making it necessary to flip back and forth among chapters to gain the proper perspective. This book often calls reference to items you'll learn in future chapters, which can be confusing when the authors throw acronyms at you that you dont understand.

Also, I find the review questions in this book rely solely on your memorization of the material studied, but not on APPLYING that knowledge to a real-life scenario, which is really what you will be tested on (applied knowledge). The review CD that comes with the book is equally uneffective. It does have a feature where you can re-review all the end-of-chapter questions, along with a "flash card" program of about 300 fill in the blank, and true/false questions, but again; these are strictly memorization, and doesnt really help when presented with a problem thats not in the book.

After finishing the 70-271 section, and answering all the book questions, I downloaded another test resource and was blown away with how much I still did not know. I really cannot recommend this book, I really should start reading reviews before I blow 60 bucks. Try the Microsoft Press books, they're more expensive, but well worth it. At least you'll walk away with a feeling of actually being prepared for the test. But of course, these are just my thoughts. Good luck to all the techies in getting your certs!

I purchased the first edition of this book nearly two years ago (before the Deluxe Edition) to prepare for the MCDST certification. Unfortunately, I found that many of the 100+ excercises were missing procedural steps or were just flat out wrong (ex. page 360/excercise 9.4). Usually after discovering that a study guide is full of errors and vague explanations I toss the book aside along with anything else ever written by the author. But I have examined other study guide material written by Bill Ferguson and I am convinced he is a competent instructor. I guess the editors of the first edition were in a rush to meet the release date for the 1st edition and did a cursory reading of the manuscript. Hopefully,the errors of the 1st edition have been corrected in the revised Deluxe Edition.

The MCDST Study Guide is a good value for the money. I would like to see more questions at the end of the chapters and for them to show more print screens of the topics instead of just telling you that you will need to know this for the exam.

But to get two study guides, in one book, that tells you what you really do need to know for the exams, is worth the price and is a bargain.

I placed an advance order for this book two months prior to release based on past experience with Sybex products. I took 70-271 using only this book (and considerable work experience). I did pass the test (830), but there were several questions on the exam that the book had not addressed at all. I am apprehensive about how well the book will prepare me for 70-272 and I'm considering purchasing additional material. Looking at the reviews on this website, the Timothy L. Warner book appears to be a much better product.

Having used Sybex Study Guides in the past, I thought this book would be all I needed to pass the 70-271 exam. Boy, was I wrong.

The material presented in this book was not nearly in depth enough to properly prepare for the test. After reading this book and using all the resources available on the CD, there were questions on the exam that I was simply not prepared for.

If you must buy this book, get other materials to supplement it.

Sybex makes some really good study guides. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them.

I can't believe they published this. The book must have been writted on cocktail napkins before being printed. Chapters are just tossed together, skipping some of the necessary information for the 70-271 exam. Review questions are asked 2 chapters before they are covered. Looking at MS objectives, which Bill forgot to do,the exam covers both Professional and Home versions. The book lacked the information dealing with XP home.
The 70-272 section of the book followed the same screwy format of the first.
The book is good for genereal reference but not good enough to for a study guide.