Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Exam 70-461 Training Kit

by Itzik Ben-Gan

Your 2-in-1 Self-Paced Training Kit Exam Prep Guide Ace your preparation for the skills measured by Exam 70-461 and on the job. Work at your own pace through a series of lessons and reviews that fully covers each exam objective. Then, reinforce and apply what you learned through real-world case scenarios and practice exercises. This official Microsoft Study guide is designed to help make the most of your study time. Maximize your performance on the exam by learning to: Write queries and work with database entities using T-SQL Choose the right data type for your database structure Create, modify and delete tables using T-SQL Implement aggregate queries and XML schemas Modify data by using Insert, Update and Delete statements, Identify performance issues and optimize query execution. Exam Prep Guide Assess your skills with 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 you studies

Genres: Technical, Programming, Nonfiction, Reference, Technology, Computers

1625 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 22, 2012

About the author

Itzik Ben-Gan is a Mentor and Co-Founder of SolidQ. A SQL Server Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) since 1999, Itzik has delivered numerous training events around the world focused on T-SQL Querying, Query Tuning and Programming. Itzik is the author of several books including Microsoft SQL Server 2012 High-Performance T-SQL Using Window Functions and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 T-SQL Fundamentals. He has written articles for SQL Server Pro, SolidQ Journal and MSDN. Itzik's speaking activities include TechEd, SQLPASS, SQLU, SQLTeach and various user groups around the world. Itzik is the author of SolidQ's Advanced T-SQL Querying, Programming and Tuning and T-SQL Fundamentals courses along with being a primary resource within the company for their T-SQL related activities.

Itzik Ben-Gan is a co-founder of Solid Quality Mentors, a technical education company, and is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP.

Reviews

[Nicholas Emond · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is okay, but there was so much more details in the book for the exam 70-433 MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-433): Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 - Database Development: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database Development. So, if I can suggest something before you go studying for the 70-461 exam: Read the 70-433 book and then learn the new SQL Server 2012 features in the 70-461 book.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a textbook it's very readable, which is always a plus. However, there are a few bits where I found myself thinking, "What's that?" when something was mentioned in passing (and didn't seem to be earlier in the text). Mainly, though, taking points off for the fact that the actual exam is much more difficult than the examples or the practice tests on the accompanying disk - they will lure you into a false sense of security!

[Loretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me 3 months to plow through this pretty big book. I typed up a lot of organized notes using OneNote as well. Overall, it was worth it! I came in a novice and finished feeling more grounded in the material. I'll continue on to other training material in preparation for certification but this was a great introductory book for me. It's extremely detailed - at times convoluted. I appreciate the large amount of examples and additional practice material at the end of every chapter.

[Mohammad Elsheimy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent for exam preparation, however, there are a few things to mention:
1. The order of chapters is somewhat strange! For instance, I don't know why somone reads about Full-Text and XML support before DML!
2. The writer didn't mark lots of differences between ANSI SQL and TSQL (although he did in first chapters).
3. More real-world examples are required especially in optimization lessons.

[Quinton Baran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I completed a portion of this book, and it helped me to write better SQL queries, and to understand the structure and reasoning of SQL server processing.

[Sergey Kochergan]

practical t-sql snippets,
helpful to prepare for exam

[William Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview book for learning how to use T-SQL. You are going to learn a broad range of topics that corresponds to what is on the 70-461 exam, but it is not a test prep a la an SAT prep book where types of questions and test taking strategies are discussed.

I have read reviews complaining that the practice test that comes with the book is way too easy compared to actual exam questions, but I don't think this book should be considered as an exam prep book.

Now as for the book review, some chapters were obviously written with a lot more energy and insight than others. If I had to guess, it would either be different writing styles of the different authors or it would be that some of the chapters were outside the area of expertise of the authors. I suspect the latter as this is quite common in academic books like this that attempt to cover huge amounts of material that there will be topics that the authors are familiar with but they are not experts on in the field.

With that said, there are certain chapters that will "turn on the light bulb" for you and there are others that operate as more of reference chapter without much insight.

Overall, the book is excellent and definitely should be a part of your training for the 70-461 exam.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no nice way to put it--the book is awful. The parts written by Ben-Gan are great, thorough, and clear, but they are few, taken nearly verbatim from his other books, and deal only with the basic stuff. As soon as the book moves on to more advanced topics, it completely falls apart. The writing is choppy, the examples are either too primitive or too complicated (with no sufficient explanation), and the questions at the end of each chapter are a complete joke, rephrasing random paragraphs from the chapter in the form of a question. Some chapters are so bad that they manage to make a subject you thought you understood less clear, and most others are not doing their job of explaining the material at all, often simply referring the reader to the parts of the SQL Server documentation. The only thing this book seems to be good for is using it as a checklist of material you'll need for the exam, but there are certainly cheaper ways to do that. I, for one, am happy I didn't have to pay for this book, or I would have felt totally ripped off!

[Vera VB · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hope this book, together with T-SQL fundamentals, will get me through the exam. There are a lot of simularities with T-SQL fundamentals, also written by Itzik Ben-Gan. This one has some extra chapters about XML, error handling, performance and indexes. I'm preparing for the upgrade exam 70-457 but I except this book will cover the basics that I need. The book contains examples, tests and cases to work on. It's not something you read in a few days, do it in chunks and then you get there.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presented a decent overview of the structure, considerations, mechanics, and performance tuning of queries in SQL Server 2012. I'm reading for information and not planning to actually pursue certification, so I found the coverage adequate. I'm not sure how well the book prepares one for the test.

[Fsdfsd]

dsfsdf

[Geoffrey Humphreys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has a few errors... a bit wordy in places... needs more DCL coverage... reads like a medical textbook... taking the test next Wednesday.

[Rofiqul]

uyikiu

[Cosmic Hero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helped me pass the exam but still not the greatest.

[Anton Spirin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-structured and easy to read book. For those who want to understand the basic principles of working with databases in MS SQL Server.

[Maryam Al-sharief · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is very useful.. It helped me in my SQL learning and also enabled me to pass the exam. Excellent book.