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D**O
A 51% review
According to Kindle, I'm 51% of the way through the book, so I figure i'll give my initial impression of the book now, then update my review once I'm done, and maybe again after I take the exam.First, let me say that sometimes procrastination pays off. Back in January, my employer required that I choose a certification to complete by the end of the year. At the time, there were NO published books on Exam 70-346. I procrastinated on studying for the exam until last week, when I looked again for books, and voila! here was a book published in July 2015.A bit of background about me. I've been working on a SharePoint implementation for the past two years as a collateral duty. I started the project knowing what SharePoint was, but without any experience using it. My SharePoint site collection was set up for me, so my administration is limited to the helping-users and setting-up-sites flavor. The content covered by 70-346 is clearly in the IT Department's scope, which I do not share in my role as a software application development management role.The book starts off well, providing an overview of the content to be covered by the book. It does a pretty good job of explaining concepts as it goes along, but it chooses weird places to take you through the procedure of how to do something. I'm, not anticipating that the exam is going to ask me what step #3 of setting up an Office 365 custom domain is, so I'm not quite sure what the point of these step-wise procedures is. They don't, in my opinion, enhance the concepts and general information you'd need to know about how to do things.Fast forward to chapter 3, and you end up with two hours of reading about PowerShell commandlets. Not about concepts, but straight descriptions of the various commandlets you might use in an implementation or transition. They appear to have been largely copied and pasted from MSDN with little added to them, so it is onerous to plod through that content. There are SO MANY of them covered that if Microsoft's exam requires that I remember what they're called vs. recognizing them in a multiple-choice question, I'm doomed. Fortunately, they're named well enough that it's fairly easy to figure out what each does, so I'm hopeful that i will have gleaned SOME value out of having read about scores of them.The book assumes a fair amount of experience with Microsoft-based network design, especially in the area of Active Directory. It doesn't preface the book (that I can recall) with a prerequisite that you understand these concepts, so I'm a bit put off by some of the things that it talks about with the assumption that you know what the book is talking about. I had to search for more than a few minutes to find out what a "Service Principal Name" is and what it is used for.That's my review so far. I'm putting the recommendation at three stars, but will change it, if appropriate, based on my experience with the latter half of the book.
M**N
Good Supplemental Reading
The book is a pretty good starting point for studying for the exam, but it doesn't get you all the way there. I took the test just yesterday so the material is still pretty fresh on my mind. There were quite a few things on the exam that wasn't mentioned in the book or wasn't explained clearly enough to be able to answer any questions. Then, there were some things that were in the book but not explained well, it seems to assume that the reader is knowledgable about certain topics beforehand. One example I can think of was the explanation of the TRIPP test and what it's used for. However, it doesn't really explain how somebody would access this tool or how to use it. Is this tool a downloadable one, or is it a test you run from a web interface? I don't know, because the book didn't explain it!It's definitely worth picking up. You're not going to pass with this book alone though, you will need to do a lot of other research through Microsoft's documentation online as well. That might not be necessarily the book's fault, there were a few questions I encountered on the exam that I don't remember seeing anywhere else either. For example, I remember encountering quite a few Powershell commands that was never mentioned once during my reading so maybe the exam might have changed since the book was published or something.But, the book is definitely a good supplement to any other study materials you have for the 70-346 exam.
C**.
Buy the Kindle. "Just Do IT"
I failed this exam but here's why: First, I don't like these Exam Ref books due to their inconsistency in providing depth. I knew this going in and read this first and not expecting much; it was and is a quick read. I then dived into Pluralsight and CBTNuggets and Anderseid's blog and SharePointArron's. I read it all. I read the ADFS section in MOC20412D - well worth it. I have my own tenant and experimented on that.I failed mostly because of DIRSync and that's my fault. While prepping and leading up to the exam I used this ref book but skipped the section on DIRSync. I instead focused some on AADConnect and not much else due to MS updating the tool. When I went back and read this chapter those questions were answered in the book.I think this is the first Exam Ref book that's worth it for a frist read and the days leading up to the exam. Read it cover to cover and understand what's going on and you may pass. I'm to eschedule and I'll pass that retake - I just have to perform exactly the same.If anyone is curious this isn't my first my exam. I'm A+ and MCSA 7/8 certified. Though I should have checked the exam criteria a little more closely. Goodluck!
J**H
Close but no cigar. This book is not enough.
Using this book, in combination with very light online documentation reading... I went on to take my exam and scored a 658. Close... but no cigar. This book is not enough, it is certainly out dated. Doesn't contain nearly enough powershell explanation, and the powershell it does discuss, while relevant, is out dated. These examples use the MSOL instead of the AzureAD prefix on the cmdlets. It also doesn't cover Azure AD connect very well... I found myself frustrated during the exam as there were a number of topics that were not covered in the book. While it did provide a base structure.... it ultimately fell short. Microsoft really needs to revamp its Press ASAP.
A**R
Necessary, but insufficient criterion for the exam...
I didn't pass the exam based on this book, but it was helpful. I don't like the new format of explaining a given topic in a chapter, then put a link to an MSDN article stating "To read more details on <X topic>, see <link>". The exam revealed that those links were not put there for fun: Several questions had their answer hidden somewhere in the tree structure of topic matter conveniently tucked away in links like that in the book. Really off-putting!
M**I
Good start but you will probably need more info to pass the exam
This book does go into each required exam topic, but it only touches the surface of each subject. Therefore, it's a very short book; it's a good start to your studies but you will need to visit the suggested web links to study further if you're planning on passing the exam.The web links could be presented in a better way (for example with shorter URLs) as they're all very long and quite easy to mistype.
M**N
Passed 70-346 using this book.
I passed 70-346 exam with this book as my primary guide. Of course I also used Kaplan - selftest software. I also had to build my own Azure Lab using these series of labs:http://www.msexchange.org/articles-tutorials/office-365/exchange-online/deploying-exchange-2013-hybrid-lab-environment-windows-azure-part1.htmland spent hours and hours with powershell but the book was a major help. Excellent!
A**R
Will help with exam but you will need more information
I recently took and passed the exam, this book is helpful but you will not pass the exam with just this book. It doesn't cover the topics in-depth enough and beware there are a couple of errors in it. There is plenty of free material and training videos out there. What I found useful was to run through the requirements from the Microsoft exam site in detail and with specific tools such as AAD Connect and ADFS research their current and previous versions.
A**R
Beware of the Edition, please buy second edition not the first edition
Exam Ref 70-346 Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements is older edition, some of the topics are outdated for exam, please buy second edition not the first edition. Exam Ref 70-346 Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements
Z**A
Five Stars
Brand new condition, delivery was quick