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Introduction
Although this book was written primarily to help you prepare for Exam 70-331: “Core Solu-
tions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013,” it is also intended to be a reference that you can
refer to during your experiences with SharePoint Server 2013. In many cases, the steps to
perform a task are shown to help you feel comfortable with related questions on the exam
as well as provide a reference on how to perform the task in a real-life situation. The level of
detail in this book will often exceed what is required on the exam because it is an advanced
solutions exam. This does not mean there will not be specic questions about steps required
to perform a task or requirements needed to install a service application. It does mean that
you do not need to focus on being able to spell out a command correctly or know exactly
what parameter to pass it. You should focus on the concepts, the overall steps involved with
a task, and the components needed for a solution. If you focus on these concepts and go
through the tasks in this book, you will be well on your way to passing the exam.
This book is generally intended for exam candidates who have four or more years working
with SharePoint Server and related technologies such as SQL Server and Windows Server. The
candidate should have hands-on experience with a multiserver SharePoint farm in the capaci-
ties of planning, implementing, and maintaining. This includes but is not limited to the areas
of high availability, disaster recovery, capacity planning, and exposure to SharePoint Online.
Despite having multiple years of experience with a multiserver SharePoint farm, it is doubtful
that exam candidates will have experience with all the technologies covered by the exam, and
they should focus on the areas in which they have the least exposure. Also, any feature that
has been added to SharePoint Server 2013 will likely receive additional coverage on the exam.
This book will help you prepare for the exam, but nothing can take the place of real-life
experience. In an effort to make the exams closer to measuring knowledge of the product,
they are going more and more to case studies and getting away from simple multiple choice
questions. You will still see a number of traditional multiple choice questions, but you will also
see questions in which you have to place steps in order and questions in which you have to
choose the right set of items from a large list of possible answers. In these cases, practicing
the actual implementation of the functionality covered in this book will help you far more
than just trying to memorize what is involved.
This book covers every exam objective, but it does not cover every exam question. Only
the Microsoft exam team has access to the exam questions, and Microsoft regularly adds new
questions to the exam, making it impossible to cover specic questions. You should consider
this book a supplement to your relevant real-world experience and other study materials. If
you encounter a topic in this book that you do not feel completely comfortable with, use the
links you’ll nd in the text to nd more information and take the time to research and study
the topic. Great information is available on MSDN, TechNet, and in blogs and forums.