MCSE IIS 4 Ace It!: Exam: 70-87

The IIS 4.0 exam has the reputation for being a difficult exam to pass and even to prepare for, and having written the exam today, I can vouch for both points. This exam does a better job of truly determining competency than other MS exams, in that you have to carry out certain tasks in an MMC simulator engine in addition to the usual multiple choice questions. This is the 13th certification exam I have taken, and it was without the most difficult.As mentioned before, it's also a difficult exam to prepare for. There doesn't really seem to be one book that covers all the info you need for the exam, since such diverse topics as ISAPI, ASP, and CGI scripts are fair game, as are ODBC errors.Iseminger does a very good job of covering all the basics. Obviously, the book's goal is to get you past the exam, and having successfully written it using this book as my main tool, I think it does a good job.The questions in this book are a real plus. They go beyond the usual "gimme" questions in most books. They truly test your understanding of why things work the way they do in IIS, not your ability to memorize (although a little of that is necessary!) There's also a challenging "mock exam" for one final test. What's missing? ODBC Error information. No specific error messages are covered in this book. I got a list of them from the Microsoft website and would STRONGLY recommend you do the same before writing the exam. You also need a good deal of hands-on experience with IIS or a simulator.Overall, a very strong effort. I recommend this book, and would buy another one written by Iseminger.

I am preparing for the MCSE IIS exam, and even though i didn't have a copy of IIS on hand (or on computer), the book was an excelllent material since it was talking about the exam, not about the IIS in general.