Good
This book helped me prep for the 70-442 exam. I managed to pass it the first time, it dose not mean its sufficient, we need to read more books and search for other materials because no book available in market which covers everything, this book covers most of the part. I recommend Transcender Practice exams with this book.
Covers all.
This is a good book that covers all you need to know for this exam.
Highly recommended exam preparation resource
Having studied similar material by both Sybex and MS Press for other Microsoft's SQL 2005 exams, I found this particular book a good preparation guide for the 70-442 exam.
As you would expect, it covers the appropriate material and presents its material in an easy to follow and relevant manner. Having just sat the 070-442 exam today, I can strongly advise that just reading this book alone is not enough preparation. Having a thorough understanding of the different locking mechanisms, Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS) and transaction isolation levels, as well as using the supplementary material frequently quoted in this book (website articles, practice lessons and the companion CD included) are an essential must for anyone planning to sit the 070-442 exam.
The companion CD included contains practice questions, a PDF version of the book (great for searching), as well as excerpts from the other four MS Press Inside/Programming SQL books.
Having prepared by also studying other SQL material (namely the Inside-SQL series), I kept forgetting this was the official Microsoft exam guide - the style and format is less like a classroom/lab and more like an informative text with hands on examples. As a negative, the end of section review question are very light on, and the one scenario question at the end of each chapter is also extremely brief and not at all indicative of the exam. But that's precisely why you need the companion CD to fill the void.
Another negative - there were some exam questions on topics that never received a mention in this study guide: "Begin Transaction WITH MARK", and using "savepoints" as examples. That alone prevents me from awarding 5 stars.
Overall, this is an excellent resource, but supplemental study on the sections that emphasize "This is on the exam" is definitely required, as well as the areas mentioned above.
Much More Than a Practice for the Test Book
This book is the training manual for taking Microsofts 70-442 certification examination on SQL Server 2005. And like other training manuals, it gives an excellent introduction to the exam and provides the information that you'll need to pass the test. It includes sample tests, a time limited version of SQL Server 2005 to help with the examples, all the usual things.
This book, however, goes beyond the normal cram for an exam book in that it provides descriptions and explanations that go well beyond what will be asked on the test. This provides a basic understanding of SQL Server that goes well beyond what will be asked on the test.
For instance Appendix B runs for 70 pages and covers the internal architecture of the SQL Server product with special notes as to its operation on the new multi core CPUs, the use of CLR programming techniques (part of the .NET environment) and a lot more.
This is a book aimed at the expert. The SQL code examples are way above the trivial level. You may find that you'll need another book on SQL programming for the 2005 product to help explain what this book is covering fairly briefly.
