MCTS 70-431 Cert for SQL Server 2005

Zambia

Hi

I am hoping to take this exam next year , however in my costings for it I was thinking it may be prudent to get hold of some previous tests. These seem a bit pricey for what are essentially past papers.

https://www.ucertify.com/collections/createacollection.html?buy=70-431 £55
http://www.measureup.com/catalog/product.aspx?vid=5&cid=MCTS&tid=6&pid=1680 $55

So can anyone who has done this exam tell me are they worth the cash?

Plus any info on this exam would be helpfull. Indeed if anyone has any idea of where I could see past papers online without forking out cash please let me know.

Ginger

You would get a better response in the IT Certification forum (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=882)

The sample tests are handy .. MeasureUp is a certified provider, uCertify according to MSL were selling real questions and got a smack on the botty and I think are now providing sample material...

To play it safe use MeasureUp..

What the sample tests are good for is..

1) Getting to see the format of exams
2) The wording of the questions which is MS exams is 90% of the exam as it can sometimes be an exam on comprehension and decryption of the terminology. A lot of the questions hinge on a single word.
3) Simulations are a big part of 70-431 so you will need a testing engine as well as sample questions
4) Giving you an idea of whether you are ready for the exam

You can also look at Transcenders.

From Sept 1st you will only be able to use Thompson Prometric to do MS exams

HTH

Evil Phil

I'll move this over to I.T. Certification now.

Zambia

Thanks Ginger , I looked more closely at the matierial I was budgeting for and it appears the measureup tests are included in the books I am purchasing on the CD. So in the end it does not affect the costing at all.

If anyone finds this thread I would be interested to hear how you got on.

Ta
z

Zambia

Evil Phil wrote:

I'll move this over to I.T. Certification now.

Thanks evil

seamus

I passed this a couple of weeks ago.

I had taken the two MS courses (so had their books too), but I also got my hands on the Sybex book:
http://www.sybex.com/WileyCDA/SybexTitle/productCd-0470025654.html

Which was probably the most help as it goes into quite a bit of detail. I only found it lacking on XML, but didn't encounter much XML on the test. The MS courses go very deeply (too deeply if you ask me) into XML.

I'd taken MS tests before though, so I'm familiar with the format and the odd/catchy wording that they use. So as Ginger pointed out, you may need another book to give you examples of that.

For simulations, just download a copy of the developer or evaluation editions of MSSQL from download.microsoft.com and install it on your own machine. If you're used to SQL 2000 Enterprise Manager, the SQL 2005 Management Studio is massively different, but you can get used to it very quickly.

Ginger

Did you get the 70-431 MCTS book from MS Publishing. Not a bad book. You may need to supplement it with some work on the GUI and command stuff.

Make sure to get a copy of SQL 2005 Express Edition to play with it. Also take a look at all the new features that SQL 2005 supports.

One of the things I found with MS exams is they cetainly promote their products in their exams. If its a choice of old tech vs new tech .. new tech nearly always is correct (for the exam!)

Keep in mind that the book only provides a grounding for the exam, on its own you probably wont pass it. I know when I did it, I had spent 3 months up to my eyes in SQL, SPSS and .NET 2.0 so I was very familiar with it and all the concepts. I am also have an MCDBA cert (and the MCITP: DBA in SQL 2005 now) so a lot of security concepts where ok for me.

The exam matrix is very handy http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-431.mspx

You should be comfortable with T-SQL, security on objects, new features of SQL 2005, upgrading and understanding different RAID models from both name and number ie RAID-1 = Mirroring and know the differences in performance of each.

Also basic windows principles. And the principle of least permissions to do a specific task

seamus

Ginger wrote:

You should be comfortable with T-SQL, security on objects, new features of SQL 2005, upgrading and understanding different RAID models from both name and number ie RAID-1 = Mirroring and know the differences in performance of each.

Also basic windows principles. And the principle of least permissions to do a specific task

Indeed. I would go as far as to say that you should have at least one major Win2k3 Certification under your belt, and a good few months experience with MSSQL before even attempting the exam.

Zambia

that's all excellent stuff.

I have a deadline of January to have all this done.

I already have MS SQL 2005 Express along with the management Studio up and running.

Hopefully all the course matieral will be approved otherwise my pocket will have to cover it.

Cheers lads I will keep an eye on this thread over the months.

seamus

I would recommend getting a copy the Developer Edition or Trial edition of SQL 2005 instead of the Express Edition. These have the same capabilities as the Enterprise Edition - failover, mirroring, snapshots, etc etc. If you can get your hands on the hardware, try to set yourself up a test environment using a pair of virtual servers. MS even supply the virtual machine images free for you

Ginger

Probably the best idea.. get the VMs working it will give a good handle on permissioning etc.

DB mirroring, HTTP endpoints and log shipping are big topics