Thanks, Mr. Wharty. I always value your input.
Yes. You are right. The same thing happened with the MCITP 70-64X series of exams (70-640, 642, 643, etc.). Microsoft started testing on the updated Server 2008 R2 material not long after the release of R2, while all the study texts then in print were written
for Server 2008. Students started getting surprises in the exam room, and they were not happy.
Unfortunately, since it may take over a year to have a revised edition of a text book printed, and Microsoft’s new exams are changing so rapidly, the text book publishers don’t stand a chance.
I have a partial solution for myself. I normally buy my MS Press texts from Amazon (highly discounted). Then I go to O’Reilly’s website, register the text, and purchase a digital version of the same text in mobi format for my Kindle (highly discounted again).
Because it is far quicker and cheaper to update a digital version of a book than the physical printed text, updates can be made more quickly to the digital version, and this is what some publishers do.
O’Reilly offers free lifetime updates of their digital books, and they notify me when an update is available. I then replace the old version on my Kindle with the updated version, and I’m good to go. Currently, the updates are generally only errata, and
minor changes, but more substantial revisions might be included as well. For example, that’s how I got the reprint edition of the MS Press 70-680 text for free.
Of course it still takes time to revise a text, even if it’s only published electronically, but at least we won’t have to wait for printing as well, which takes additional time. Digital-only updates are one way that publishers can try to keep up with Microsoft,
but they will still always be behind the curve.
