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Title: Excel 2000 MOUS Study Guide by Gini Courter, Annette Marquis ISBN: 0-7821-2513-1 Publisher: Sybex Inc Pub. Date: August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.9 (10 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Doesn't Stand Alone
Comment: While I successfully used their Word 2000 Study Guide to pass the Expert exam (with a few, manageable quibbles), the Excel guide leaves much to be desired. They're good at mapping out the exam objectives but you'll have to refer to a decent third-party manual to unravel their explanations of arrays and lookups, among other things. Aside from the typos and misinformation--very confusing when discussing a programme like this--Courter & Marquis appear to be assuming that readers bring an already advanced knowledge to this study guide. Only useful as a springboard for further research. Like their other guides, the lack of practice documents wastes a considerable amount of study time while you try to mock up their "Hands On" exercises, for which they don't even provide solutions. The MOUS exam itself will provide sample documents, why C&M don't is a mystery. They assume you already have a hard disk full of workbooks and worksheets packed with financial data at your disposal--rather wrong-headed for a study guide. The meager download at the Sybex website is absolutely baffling. A professional study guide is supposed to highlight valuable information and make efficient use of your time. This one just doesn't deliver. For advanced users only, but then, advanced users wouldn't need it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Easily passed the Expert exam...
Comment: Many thanks to the authors of this well-written study guide. I was completely overwhelmed by some of the other MOUS study books as I thumbed through them at the bookstore. No way was I going to strugle through 900 pages just to pass one exam!
This book was very managable - straight to the point with examples and exercises that helped me practice new concepts. And I wasn't stuck typing a ton of information, either. I downloaded the exercises from the Web site and immediately started crunching numbers.
The exam seemed almost easy after working through the book. If you're preparing to take the MOUS exam, or even if you're not, I'd highly recommend this book. I was able to put many of the excel concepts to work on the job too.
Rating: 4
Summary: Slightly Flawed But Very Useful
Comment: One gem you learn right away from the book is that the MOUS exams are hands-on. During the exam, you must complete concrete exercises while using an actual version of Excel. No multiple choice questions, and no skipping questions and returning to them later. Once you complete an exercise, you're done with it, and you can't return to it. So you need to know your stuff and use your time wisely. (I took the exam in November, 2002, and there were 30 questions/exercises with a 45-minute time limit.)
If you're a complete beginner to Excel, this book will help you learn, but by itself it may not be sufficient to impart true competence and understanding. But if you already have Excel experience, this book gives an excellent and focused summary that enables you to prepare efficiently and effectively for the Expert exam.
The book itself is concisely organized around giving you no-nonsense procedures and practice in those hands-on situations. It introduces concepts, gives examples, and then provides exercises to try on your own.
Some other reviewers have commented that the book doesn't distinguish between the MOUS Specialist and Expert objectives (corresponding to the "Core User" and "Expert" exams). That's not entirely true, at least for my copy. The inside cover provides a handy reference for all exam objectives. It gives two lists of objectives, one list for each exam. And each objective is cross-referenced to a specific page number in the book. You can't ask for much more than that; after all, Excel is a single, integrated product.
Caution: The book contains one piece of obsolete (and hence dead wrong) information: You may no longer use MS Excel's online help while taking the actual exam. The book states that you can, and that was probably true when the book was published in 1999. I found that out only when I took the exam. In spite of the rude surprise, I still passed the Expert exam on the first try with flying colors.
I give it five stars as an exam prep guide, minus a star for the absence of an accompanying CD (you have to create your own spreadsheets to practice), and for its obsolete info about using online help during the exam. Thus four stars, but it's still an excellent value and I highly recommend it.
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Title: Word 2000 MOUS Study Guide by Gini Courter, Annette Marquis, Karla Browning ISBN: 0782125158 Publisher: Sybex Inc Pub. Date: July, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: MOUS Access 2000 Exam Prep by Lisa Friedrichsen ISBN: 1576104796 Publisher: Coriolis Group Books Pub. Date: 19 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
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Title: Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Microsoft Office User Specialists Cheat Sheet by Doug Klippert ISBN: 078972118X Publisher: Pearson Education Pub. Date: 18 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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Title: Microsoft Office 2000 User Specialist Study Guide by Gini Courter, Annette Marquis ISBN: 0782125743 Publisher: Sybex Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: MOUS Word 2000 Exam Prep by Carol Cram, Jennifer A. Duffy, Marie L. Swanson ISBN: 1576104818 Publisher: Coriolis Group Books Pub. Date: 19 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
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