Customer Reviews

A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, 4th Edition

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I love this book. It covers everything you would need to know to pass the A+ exams, and covers even more in great detail. Even if you are a complete newbie, you can learn everything by reading this book. A lot of people complain that there is too much information in this book, but I think it is a good thing, as it helps you gain more understanding of what really is going on under the hood of your PC.

This is not just another exam cram book. In fact, I recommend this book to everyone, from total newbies to experienced technicians. even if you are not planning on becoming A+ certified, you will learn a great deal from this book.

If you are planning on becoming A+ certified, this book outlines the subjects that will be covered on the tests, and includes many practice tests that will let you know what areas you need to study.

For those totally new to computers, you cannot just read this book (or any single book) and expect to pass the exam. I recommend reading this book thoroughly, and then doing at least 6 months of hands-on work with PC hardware / software. Then, read the book again.

For those that are experienced technicians and power-users, who have installed memory and hard drives before, or even build PC's, I recommend you just read this book completely to brush up on some details you might know completely, then take the practice tests. When you consistently pass the practice tests, then go take the real exam. You will pass I guarantee.

Over the past 14 years there are several people who I have come to trust to produce exam material that will more than cover the exam. Mike Meyers is the premier name in the A+ certification arena and this book has new updates and coverage of both A+ exams and more.

Nothing short of amazing is the amount of detailed and technically accurate information presented in this book in the over 1100 pages. One thing I was impressed with was the Pre-Test that starts this book, this gives the candidate a more accurate account of the skill set required to pass the exam.

Breaking down the book is the first 8 chapters covering hardware, while chapters 9 through 12 deals with DOS, Windows 9.X and 2000, I think NT workstation should be included, but this does not detract from the book whatsoever. Chapters 13 through 19 are more hardware and finally chapter 20 for networking.

As I have come to expect there are review questions with each chapter, which far and away tougher than the actual exam. The book is well organized and documented making this the perfect study tool for both self study and classroom teaching.

The cd included has a number of tools and utilities, plus over 1 hour of training videos, 500+ questions in adaptive format to work with as well as 6 full practice exams. With everything include about the only thing it doesn't do is take the exam for you.

If you have been tinkering with computers for a few years and want to gain an A+ Certification, this is the book for you. The author begins with an introduction and pre-test that helps you see clearly what areas you need to focus on so that you can create your own unique study plan.

Most chapters begin with a section called "Historical/Conceptual". This section contains interesting information that is not specifically part of the exam. I urge all readers to read this section because it makes subsequent sections easier to understand. Each chapter ends with review questions so you can check your progress frequently. The book is organized into twenty well-defined pages. Even though this book is over 1100 pages long, it is easy to find any topic you need to review.

The book includes a CD with several practice exams. Each question includes an explanation for the correct answer. When I took the real exam, I was surprised at how many questions seemed exactly like the practice questions.

The book has many practical tips and tools that will help PC technicians with their day-to-day work. One example is the list of files to put on a Windows boot disk. This book will stay in my office as I expect to refer to it often.

In summary, this book is very readable and is designed for a wide range of experience levels.

The A+ certification exam is not easy. Using this book will help anyone pass. Michael Meyers has a great way of making topics that many would consider difficult easy. His style of writing does not make it boaring neither.

The first chapter gives an inside look of the PC. He quickly goes through the basic components. The second chapter on microprocessors is very good. He gives an explaination of how processors work and also the differences between each modern processor. In the third chapter he talks about RAM history and how it works. The fourth chapter gives a detailed explanation of the motherboard and the system BIOS. Chapter 5 is an excellent introduction to the expansion bus. This chapter is very important to understand. Chapter 6 - 8 are about power supplies, floppy and hard drives. These chapters give detailed explanations on each of these devices.

He then takes a break from hardware and jumps into software. Chapter 9 on DOS is excellent. It gives an overview of DOS commands and also explains the structure of DOS. The chapter on Windows 9x describes many parts of this OS and how to install and maintain it. The Windows 2000 section describes the differences of the Windows 9x and Windows NT operating systems. It also showed how to troubleshoot and maintain this OS. I felt the Windows 2000 information was a lot lighter than the other operating systems. Chapter 12 on memory managment will give the reader a very good understanding of how memory works in a PC.

The author then jumps back to hardware describing SCSI and the changes it has gone through over the years. The next few chapters go into some basic PC devices (CD-ROM, Sound Cards, Video Boards, Modems). Chapter 18 talks about Laptops. This chapter mostly talks about how laptops handle power management and PC cards. Chapter 19 on printers talks about printers ranging from dot matrix to laser printers. The chapter on networks could have been a bit longer and some of the protocols should have been given more detailed discussions.

The book is very good and the layout is perfect. The book is not structured as the test is (Hardware / Operating System). It goes into hardware then operating systems and back to hardware. This layout works because understanding some of the OS information will help the reader understand the setup of hardware devices like video and sound cards.

If you want to understand the PC or want to pass the A+ exam this book is an excellent choice. It is a great tutorial and reference. For even greater practice get the Lab Manual as well. With these two books you will pass.

#Well to begin with ... the book covers 8 out of 10 question from the A+ exam directly or indirectly.
#Remember one thing the current exam number is 220-221 and 220-222, and the book covers it
alot of books available are for 220-201 and 220-202(old).
#The Book is written for humans who are looking to enter into IT industry not for technical nerds(ie. it is simple and funny)
#The book includes a simulation of the real adaptive test.
#Make sure to take the test with the book on the cdrom over and over again as it changes every time you take it.
#The books gives you hardworking Mike's personal hardware experience put together with a lot of hard effort.
#When you read the book make sure that you read each and every word.
#Most of the questions that came were from the book, but the content was put too casually

I read this book and learned a lot about PCs and operating systems. Perhaps the best thing about the book is the many diagrams that guide the reader through the concepts. I was weak on the hardware side of PCs, but this book filled in the gaps in my knowledge.

Unfortunately, the book is huge. It is hard to study for the exams because it takes a long, long time to study a book of this size. I forgot some of the things from the first part of the book by the time I got to the last part of the book. You might want to consider using a short study guide to prep for the exam after working through this book.

My advice for the A+ exams: Be sure to pause after the hardware stuff, prep for the exam, take the hardware exam, and then move quickly into studying for the OS stuff. Break it up, otherwise the amount of information can become overwhelming. (I think you have 90 days to take one exam after passing the first).

A great book to learn from. A bit overwhelming because of its depth.

If you are a total beginner, this is the book for you. The author explains the concepts in excellent detail. If you're not too familiar with what is covered on the A+ you will be after reading this. That said, if you already have some experience in the field this book tends to seem long winded and boring. My recommendation would be to take a look at the A+ outlines on cramsession.com (there's an online version you can check out for free) and then if you feel like you need to go over anything, pick up this book.

The other thing I found very useful was the CD that comes with it. It has a lot of practice tests with questions that closely mirror what is actually on the A+ test. It's great practice (especially the "adaptive" version that acts like the real test). If you can consistently pass these you're sure to pass the A+.

Overall a good buy.

Nice book for those who already know something about computers and want to get certified. Software that comes with it is somewhat buggy. Watch out for what edition you get. Most listings don't sat what edition. Latest one as of this writing is 4TH. 3RD edition doesn't cover Pentium 4 or Windows XP.

This is the one to get. Don't bother getting any other books. In the end I used this book alone (didn't use any other practice exams except the ones included with the book/CD). I took both tests back to back the same morning and passed.

I did purchase another book to use as well, A+ Certification for Dummies. However, I stopped after reading the first 2 chapters because I realized that the A+ Dummies book was a joke (I had already started reading Mr. Meyers book so I knew what I was missing). Unless you've had a good deal of previous knowledge/experience with the subjects covered on the exam, it would be very difficult to pass the A+ exam using just the Dummies book. It is just way too incomplete.

Kudos to Michael Meyers!!!

This book will take you head first into the world of A+ Certification. The book will tell you everything that you need to know about A+ Certification and then some. That's perhaps where the problem comes in. The book gives a lot of admittedly unnecessary information. All of this information is good though for an A+ Certified Technician to know and really makes you look like you know what you're talking about. The book is very high quality, includes many pictures and examples. As a result of this book I am now A+ Certified. Although I think the book has too much information I recommend it to anyone looking for a good study tool for the two exams that make A+ certification. The author has a unique sense of humor that makes studying a little more enjoyable than it normally would be.