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MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-448): Microsoft SQL Server 2008-Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance: MCTS Exam 70-448 (Self-Paced Training Kits) |  | Authors: Erik Veerman, Teo Lachev, Dejan Sarka
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Category: Book
List Price: $69.99
Buy New: $43.43
as of 3/9/2010 16:38 CST details
You Save: $26.56 (38%)
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Seller: best_bargain_books3
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 14517
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Pages: 688
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7.4 x 2
ISBN: 0735626367
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.7585
EAN: 9780735626362
ASIN: 0735626367
Publication Date: April 15, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Ace your preparation for the skills measured by MCTS Exam 70-448—and on the job. Work at your own pace through a series of lessons and reviews that fully cover each exam objective. Then, reinforce and apply what you’ve learned through real-world case scenarios and practice exercises. This official Microsoft study guide is designed to help you make the most of your study time. Maximize your performance on the exam by learning to: - Create SSIS packages; troubleshoot data flow and control flow
- Configure, debug, and deploy SSIS solutions
- Develop SSAS cubes for OLAP and data mining services
- Implement custom logic with MDX
- Optimize storage design and query performance
- Create SSRS reports; enable interactivity; write custom code
- Manage the report environment
- Configure security features for SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS
Assess your skills with the practice tests on CD. You can work through hundreds of questions using multiple testing modes to meet your specific learning needs. You get detailed explanations for right and wrong answers—including a customized learning path that describes how and where to focus your studies. Your kit includes: - 15% exam discount from Microsoft. Offer expires 12/31/13. Details inside.
- Official self-paced study guide.
- Practice tests with multiple, customizable testing options and a learning plan based on your results.
- 200 practice and review questions.
- 180-day trial of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition.
- Case scenarios, exercises, and best practices.
- Fully searchable eBook of this guide, plus sample chapters from related books.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 1/3 of the way through the book February 12, 2010
Kenneth Lee (Newcastle, WA USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am not getting full value from the book because my laptop will not install the included software. The included disk to install SQL was defective with multiple files being unreadable. It does have a link to download and install the software so I do have a valid copy, just not on my machine's OS.
The steps to follow for each exercise are clear and self-explanatory, however I have no way to review its accuracy.
Having 3 authors means having 3 points of view. Sometimes diametrically opposed and sometimes obviously wrong. I get the feeling all 3 authors are very knowledgeable on the subject, but sleep deprived while writing it, and any reviewer was asleep while reading it.
This book requires knowledge outside the scope of the book. You can get this knowledge on-line, but I have to wonder if you have deep understanding and used dimensional modeling why you would want to purchase this book in the first place.
There is no doubt this book would prepare you for the Exam which is its only goal. I am disappointed that SQL 2008 is so dependent on the OS and the utilities built into it. Based on the web traffic, hundreds or thousands of people have hit the same problem. ("The MOF compiler could not connect with the WMI server." is my error. I haven't found a solution for my XP Home OS.)
 good book for exam preparation September 20, 2009
Jurgen Muljana
This book provides a good preparation for MCTS exam. It concisely addresses topics examined in the exam. It successfully avoids the temptation of going into too much details but covers everything necessary to be succesful in the exam. It is absolutely a good book to get the certification.
Pass the 70-448 or use it toward the upgrade exams. September 6, 2009
Engelbert Gal (Akron, OH United States)
I am glad this book is available as it is one of the few sources of information for the 70-448. I personally used this book to use to study for the upgrade exams where I could not find specific books for the test.
I enjoyed reading the book and it suited my needs well. I recommed that any person interested in BI start with this book, create a good foundation of knowledge, build best practices and then progress to individual books based on their focused are of study. For example WROX SSIS 2008 would be a great companion as a reference guide. I am disappointed that the MS exams do not focus on each specific technology, but that is a complaint of MS certs, not this book. This book is a wonderful guide for the information contained in their exams. For a newbie to SSIS SSAS SSRS, or a person seeking information for an upgrade exam, no other book comes close.
 Solid coverage of the exam material July 27, 2009
Leslie Self (Birmingham, AL USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Great book. I thought the layout was well done and flowed very logically. The examples, if studied carefully, provided good insight to the concepts and the functionality that is available in the BI stack. There is a lot of material on the exam and I'm impressed at how much was able to be packed into the 600 or so pages. One definitely has to work the examples to get the full understanding, though.
I do have to say that, to me, one of the drawbacks of the book was the set of practice exam questions that was included. I thought the questions were good enough, but the explanations were lacking. There wasn't enough detail as to why the answers were right or wrong. I've always used the Transcender exams to supplement any written material so that may be causing some of the bias, but I thought the explanations could have gone deeper than they did.
(Side note: I also purchased the Transcender exams for this exam. The combination of book and exam prep worked well for me. Passed the exam on the first try!)
I would definitely recommend purchasing the book. It not only met my expectation of an exam prep book, but it will also stay on my shelf as a reference book.
Get Educated June 25, 2009
R. R. Jacobsen (Seattle WA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book is a wonderful comprehensive review of the key components used for SQL Server 2008 certification (exam 70-448). It covers SSIS, SSAS and SSRS in such a manner as to provide great background alongside some basic hands-on exercises to perform.
There is a practice exam disc included with the book which really helps in terms of studying for the exam and another disc with an evaluation copy of SQL Server 2008. All of this can take you from doing what I would call "cowboy SQL work" to a more professional, well founded, and optimized approach towards working with BI tools used with SQL Server.
The authors provide some good practical real-life recommendations on how to apply some of the techniques covered which helps round out the training. Collectively, this text has opened my eyes to more features and functionality in SQL than I did before picking it up and offers a way to actually apply the learning material -- albeit at a simple, high level. Just the same, one can always go deeper and experiment with some of the techniques. In the first chapter alone I learned of a technique that solved a problem which a consulting firm I worked with had an allergic reaction towards solving. I'm thinking the consulting firm might have benefited from this book.
I'm grateful that a careful reading of the exercises does allow one to complete the the vast majority of exercises and not have to deal with a problem so often faced in similar type texts -- nobody proof-read the thing to make sure the commands were accurate and actually worked! Seems like a pretty basic concept but this is so often not the case.
My only warnings to readers is that initial installation of the SQL Server evaluation software and setting up the DB's used as examples can prove tricky (but this is a MSFT issue, not one with the book or the way in which the conveys information). Why is it that sample DB's and installation of same cannot be made easier as it was with SQL 2005 early on? And I have a bit of a bone to pick regarding the Measure Up practice exam which has some out of synch references to the materials in the book. For example, the exam references Chapter 1 Lesson 5 yet the book has only 3 lessons in Chapter 1.
Finally, in the back of the book is a coupon code for taking the exam -- practically worth the price of the book. Your biggest investment will be the time necessary to study for the exam but in today's economy that would be a great investment to make.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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