The thing that honks me off is that the Microsoft books don't even prepare you totally for the test exams in the back of the book, let alone what's actually on the test! Between the exams in the back of the book, testking, and the real exam, testking was closer.
I agree that you are cheating yourself if you just memorize the answers and don't understand the concepts but let's be real, people. When teachers get upset that students when students ask "is it going to be on the test?" Well, teacher, why are they asking that? Maybe because the grade is the only measure of their understanding of the material? If the test is the be-all and end-all of learning, why wouldn't they be focused on that to exclusion of all else?
As for these IT certs, I enjoy learning the material but the tests really don't accurately reflect the real world. They're sort of like how Olympic events were based on real world military skills and ended up becoming abstracted and removed from the practical application. When you can know the material and still fail the test, that's when you know you have a bad test.
Anyway, that's just my personal little rant on the issue.