Sample-examination software
Last month I began a series of reviews of MCSE computer-based training (CBT) self-study materials with an introduction to the world of MCSE self-study choices. This month I'll examine four popular self-study sample-examination programs. These programs include IBID Publishing's Interactive Test Guide: MCSE Core CD, LearningWare's The Edge Tests, PC Age's MCSE TestMaster, and Transcender's MCSE Suite #6. Each program helps you prepare for your MCSE certification examinations by testing you in advance. You can then use the test results to identify areas in which you need further study.
Interactive Test Guide: MCSE Core CD
Two products in IBID's interactive test guides product line target MCSE
certification: a core CD-ROM helps you study for the MCSE core examinations, and an elective CD-ROM helps you study for the MCSE Systems Management Server (SMS) and TCP/IP elective exams. For this review I evaluated the core CD-ROM.
The core CD-ROM contains preparation material for nine MCSE core
examinations: NT Server 3.51 and 4.0; NT Workstation 3.51 and 4.0; NT Server, Enterprise Edition (NTS/E); Networking Essentials; and the three Windows client exams--Windows for Workgroups (WFW), Windows 3.1, and Windows 95. The CD-ROM preparation material mirrors IBID's hard-copy study guides on the same topics.
Installation of the software is a snap. Simply insert the CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive and the autorun task will begin installation. On my home-built American Megatrends MegaRUM dual-processor NT 4.0 Workstation system with a 24X CD-ROM drive, the installation took slightly less than a minute. You must keep the CD-ROM handy, because you'll need it to execute the program.
After you launch the program, you can study for a particular examination or
take a sample examination. The study guide feature uses an interface similar to
Microsoft's InfoViewer. You navigate through the study guide using command
buttons to move to the next or previous pages. Pages might contain only text or
text mixed with graphics (usually screen shots) to illustrate vital information.
Each examination's study guide contains several chapters, and each chapter
comprises several sections. The Activities page of each section displays a
list of review topics, as Screen 1, page 88, shows.
When you're ready to take a sample examination, you exit the study guide
and select Begin from the Interactive Test Guide's main window. I found the
sample examination portion of the program disappointing. The test software does
not simulate the examinations you must take as part of the certification
process. Rather, each exam category contains a fixed number of questions, and
you program the software to present any number of questions to you. However,
instead of selecting questions in a way that would resemble an actual MCSE test,
the software selects questions either sequentially or randomly from its question
pool. After you've answered the questions, you receive a report on your score.
You can review your answers, and you can program the software to automatically
display the correct answer to any question you answer incorrectly. The ability
to review your answers is the most useful feature of this product. However, a
drawback to the review process is that, given the small size of the question
pools, you can end up learning the correct answers but not why the answers are
correct.
The Interactive Test Guide is a useful product. However, the structure of
the testing component needs work to make it more similar to the Microsoft
certification tests. Serious MCSE students might want to supplement IBID's
product with a product from another vendor that more closely parallels the
design of the Microsoft MCSE examinations.
The Edge Tests
LearningWare's The Edge Tests offers an interactive learning system
comprising four subject areas: Networking Essentials, NT Workstation 4.0, NT
Server 4.0, and NTS/E. Thirty examinations prepare you for the Microsoft MCSE examinations. Several of the program's examinations are learning-based,
which means that as you take one of these exams, you can use the interactive
Show Help and Show Info buttons to receive help in answering a question or the correct answer to the question.
Installing The Edge Tests CD-ROM is simple. After popping the CD-ROM into
the CD-ROM drive, I answered a few installation questions, let the program copy the necessary files, and was ready to begin using the program. After
installation, you launch the program from a program group on your Start menu's Programs option.
When you launch the program, a list of options displays on the right side
of the screen. You'll find a basic tutorial about how to use the software, then the exams for each of the four subject areas. Among the topic exams are
several learning-based exams and several final exams. When you take a final
exam, you cannot receive help or correct answers.
The product's exam questions concentrate on the material you must know to
pass the MCSE examinations. The program presents several question types: single
answer, multiple choice, and scenario (in which you must deduce the correct
answer to a problem a particular situation presents). As you move through the
questions, the software indicates whether you answered each question correctly.
When you complete an exam, a summary screen shows you how many questions you
answered correctly and what your problem areas are.
Perhaps the best part of The Edge Tests package is the Tracker feature,
which lets you monitor your progress. As you take the tests and answer
questions, Tracker stores the data in a special database by username. Tracker
will display the information in several report formats: For example, summary
reports display your performance on each examination, and detail reports display
your answers to individual questions.
Overall, I find The Edge Tests disappointing. The product's graphical
interface has a Visual Basic (VB) beginner's look, with arrow icons for moving
forward and backward through questions, as Screen 2 shows. The product
literature announces that The Edge Tests incorporates interactive answers, page
references, more graphical exhibits, and multimedia sound and graphics. However,
the interactive answers and page references are little more than one-line
answers to test questions with references to third-party study guides. The only
graphical exhibits I encountered were pop-up boxes that read "not quite."
And the multimedia sound and graphics are simple sound effects the program
produces whenever a user answers questions.
You can purchase a CD-ROM-only version of The Edge Tests; a version with
several study guides in addition to the CD-ROM is available at a higher price.
The CD-ROM product has the feel of an advertisement for the study guides, rather
than being a true sample-examination program. This program's most serious flaw
is that it targets only four core MCSE examinations.
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