McDst Exams (Exams 70-271/70-272)

As an MCSE I wanted to go ahead and add the new Microsoft Desktop credential. Already familiar with Microsoft's test and having already passed the WindowsXP Operating system this was a great book to fill in any missing gaps that the MCDST certification was looking for. However, if this is your first Microsoft certification you better make sure you either have additional study materials, have lots of hands on, or you know this one book inside out... Like all cert study books I have read, this book too has its fair share of blatent mistakes...these are obvious if you've been in IT for a while but these errors could be thing that causes you to fail your test. Overall I would recommend this book to someone who is already familiar with Windows XP; if that doesn't describe you then you may want this book as well as another source to make sure you are ready to take the test.

The book covered almost all material on the first exam which i just got back from passing. Many of the practice questions had a letter answer that did not match the explanation answer. It seemed like there was no proofreading of the questions and answers. The author also defers a lot of the subjects to other books. Overall the book was OK. I used only it, and test kings in order to study and pass the exam.

Seriously this is one of the best certification study guides that I have come across and surprisingly the breath of this certification is broad. The author has really isolated the main point of the certification objectives. 1.) Microsoft was offering for free online training for the MCDST courses. After the training, the training was very vague in some areas. 2.) I used the www.measureup.com practice tests and need something a little more substantial to fill in the gaps. 3.) This book filled that void and gave me the confidence to pass the exams. Many questions where on the actual exams and the way the book was written it provided excellent examples and his delivery methods was very effective. I wish all certification study guides where as complete and easy to read as this one.

This book provides a good way of preparing someone for the MCDST exam. Most of the questions that I had when I took the MCDST has very similar "situations" as the questions and answers in the book. I was concerned at first with getting a book that covered both tests instead of getting one book for each exam. This book doesn't disappoint, in my opinion. Unless I got a later edition, the book does provide reasons why the answers to the questions are correct and why the incorrect answers are incorrect. The only issue I had was that there are some questions that list incorrect answers. Those errata are shown on the publisher's website, and the correct answer is explained in the book. I think there were only 5 questions out of the entire batch that has incorrect answers listed. Overall, it was an excellent book.

One of the many Microsoft certification exams the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) certifies a technician to support the workstation or home user's system. The certification consists of one exam on Operating Systems and one on Applications. The purpose of this book is to prepare the test taker to pass the exams. As such, the book covers the exam objectives, installation, configuration, troubleshooting operating systems and applications, hardware devices and drivers, user environments, customization, and application security. It even comes with a CD-ROM with practice tests. The book does a good job of covering the various ways to install a Windows operating system as well as how to update a Windows system. Throughout the book are questions and answers to help the reader test their knowledge of the subject. Unfortunately, while it does provide the answers it does not provide an explanation of why it is the correct one. Presumably you would have to look it up in the text to understand why it is the correct one and the other answers incorrect. While the subject can be very technical it is written in an easy to follow narrative style. One of the problems of most certification exams is that real life often varies considerably from a pristine laboratory environment assumed in most exam situations. This may be an excellent book to prepare for the exam if that is your goal but it may not the best to learn actual installation and troubleshooting. For example, the problems that arise when upgrading an operating system can be quite difficult to troubleshoot and the book does not deal with this real life situation to any significant extent. For the purpose of passing the certification exam MCDST Exams is a recommended purchase and since acquiring the certification is the purpose of the book, it scores a direct hit.