Each of the four books (each with a separate author) covers the published requirements of a single exam. Coverage tends to be text-heavy--even procedures rely mostly on text and use few screen shots. This goes to reinforce the fact that these are serious books for people with a pretty good idea of what they're doing already. Chapters typically begin with conceptual coverage of their subjects (using diagrams to illustrate the relationships among network entities in many cases) and move on to illustrative procedures to try. Chapters then conclude with carefully considered discussion questions. The answers to the questions appear in an appendix, complete with explanations of why the correct answers are what they are. --David Wall

Topics covered: The published exam requirements for the MCSE/MCSA core exams: "Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Environment" (70-290), "Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure" (70-294), "Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure" (70-291), and "Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure" (70-293).