Customer Reviews

CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Sixth Edition

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I spent over a week agonizing over which book to purchase to prepare for the A+ exam. I ended up choosing this because it seemed to me to be the most material for the money and because Meyers, the author, has a reputation for quality in the industry. After working through the book, I am fully satisfied, and passed the exam on the first try. This guide is extremely comprehensive, and laid out in a very logical and easy-to-use way. Meyers' writing style is very easy to read and engaging. Even dry subjects are quite readable. The included materials are also quite good, but I should mention a few caveats. The book advertises 8 practice exams, but that means two for each of the four tests. Because any one person will only take two tests (Essentials and one elective), there really are only four practice tests (however, there is so much overlap, I found taking all the tests to be helpful). Also, each practice test is only 50 questions, but the real test is 100, so each is only half a test. On the other hand, the practice tests are very accurate and the interface is just like what you'll face on test day. Also, if you purchase your exam vouchers from Meyers' website, you will not only save $30 on each test, but also get an additional two practice tests (100 questions) for each exam. Overall, I definitely recommend this book over any other you might be considering, and I plan to purchase the accompanying Network+ book to study for that test.

So I bought the book without reading the reviews. Not a good idea, but I saw the book in a store and thought I could get it cheaper here. I have no working experience in IT and this seemed to be the most comprehensive guide. It took me like 2 weeks to read the book, and I mean read the entire book and then go back and reread areas that I wasn't sure about. So I bought the vouchers for the test and went through the included practice exam for the 220-601 & 220-602 and failed them both. So I went back and looked at the areas that I missed on the practice exams and was finally able to pass them.

Next I figured I would come back here and look at the reviews to see what people thought the book missed and I got freaked out that there was no way I would pass these tests based on what the reviews said about the book. And low and behold, I got a 793 on the 601 and a 825 on the 602. I don't know what the other reviews were talking about but I have no experience working in IT and was able to pass by a good margin on both of my tests using only the book.

Mike Meyers did a great job with this book. It's written to where people of all educational levels can understand, and it's a very good refresher for those who already have a background in computers. It would also be a good "on the job" reference.
If you were to only use this book and the disk that came with it, then you should be able to easily pass the IT Technician Exam (220-602). I used ONLY this book and the included disk and I took the IT Technician Exam in March of 2008, and I got a near perfect score of 900 thanks to this book.
However, this book isn't enough to get you through the Essentials Exam unless you already have a vast knowledge of trouble shooting operating systems. I took the Essentials Exam (220-601) in March of 2008, and I would say that 90% of my version of the exam was about trouble shooting. They might as well have called it the "Trouble Shooting Operating Systems Exam". This book can't prepare you for how they're going to ask the questions on the Essentials Exam. I'm just lucky I have 10 years of general computer expericence and a 4-year bachelor's degree in CIS or this Essentials Exam could've been a complete disaster. You will be very disappointed when you see what this Essentials Exam focuses on. Instead of spending all that time reading this 1100+ page book and knowing everything in it from top to bottom, I could have just studied trouble shooting for about 4-5 hours. I took a lot of time learning all the technical aspects of every hardware component on a PC, and basically everything under the sun about the software side & operating systems and it seemed like only 10% of that was on the Essentials. To get prepared for the Essentials Exam all you need to do is focus on operating system trouble shooting, diagnostic procedures, configuring operating systems in general and for networks, and the command line interface commands. And the only commands they asked about were the commands that would help you restore and diagnose problems. They asked a lot about restoring and recovery of operating systems too.

Conclusion:
This book is great for the (220-602) IT Technician Exam, but if you don't have much experience in trouble shooting and preventive maintenance of operating systems, then to pass the (220-601) Essentials Exam I would suggest finding some supplemental sample questions off the internet and really focusing on installing, diagnostic procedures, preventive maintenance, and trouble shooting techniques for operating systems and networks.

I recently passed the Essentials exam with a 835 and the Remote Technician exam with a 850. This is the only book that I used. I highly recommend it.

I wish people would take the tests before rating these books.

My scores are 810/900 and 840/900 for Essentials and 602 respectively. Passing scores are 675 and 700 with 100 being the minimum.

I bought this book and Mike Meyers' A+ Certification Passport, Third Edition (Mike Meyers' Certification Passport) by the same author. I also bought the exam vouchers from them which came with 300 practice questions. Both books come with practice questions both in the books and additional ones on the accompanying CDs. However, the CDs and the downloaded questions were mostly repeats and nothing like the actual exams (same goes for the books).

I have over twenty years of tinkering with computers. I was an aerospace engineer and an Oracle database programmer. I just wanted to get this Certification for kicks. There is a lot of fluff in both books which has nothing to do with the exams. Neither book really tells you how the actual exam questions are like. Actual exams are generally much simpler and test you mostly on your broad knowledge rather than the fine details (the exams does not ask which socket Pentium II uses, but it does ask what does a series of long beeps mean after you boot up). If you know the basics and understand the logic, you will pass. You still need to know some details, but they are not the hard ones. There has to be better book out there.

Even though I already knew 80% of the subject matter, I studied real hard. There is more stuff in the other book worth knowing though (not for the test). But personally, fluff puts me to sleep. Just keep it brief and to the point and pertinent to the test, that's what the books are selling.

If you buy these books, make sure you already have some experience in the field and that you really study these books like a text book.

I studied this book for four months and I nailed the exam. I coupled this book with going to school, but I realized all I needed was this book.
My school books for A+ are still in plastic wrapping, they have never been opened. The best thing about this book is the practice exams it gives you on the CD. Taking the practice exams prepared me alot, because the questions are very similiar to the real CompTIA exams. If I new what this book was all about before going to school for A+ I could have saved $1500 bucks. Oh well for that I guess. You don't know what's good for you until it smacks you in the face.

I have learned alot about computers from the help of friends and on my own. This book has some chapters that may be a bit insulting to those who are very familiar with computers, and some chapters that will open your eyes like never before. If you are a true computer enthusiast, this is the place to start for your knowledge, and if you retain it, I don't think there is any reason why you couldn't attain a certification and begin a career (after proper experience is achieved that is) I loved it, it answered all the questions I was wondering, like how do those magic boxes work and gave me a very basic knowledge to work with, I was already repairing PC's on my own as a part time job, but now I have so many more useful tools to make my job more thorough and efficient as a PC technician. Don't expect to find out the secrets to being a genius engineer in this book, rather an advanced user and beginner at troubleshooting. I can't keep my head out of this book!

MY OPINION:
All books (especially pertaining to drab computer info) can get long and boring sometimes, but I was able to pass both tests (Essentials & 602) using only this book and the practice exams. I though about using other programs where they give ya 600+ exams questions, but stuck to the book. I did read over this book twice as I failed the 602 once. There were about 10% of questions on the 602 where I didnt remember anything they were asking in the book. Now, every question in the essentials test was in this book.

Book was easy to read, not too mundane, Mike did a great job at explaining the information. Knowing what I know now, I recommend buying this book and picking up another popular book to go along with it, always good to hit the studies with more than one reference. My next cert is N+ and I will probably use more than one reference.

I just needed the A+ certification ASAP. I took 220-601 (Essentials) and 220-602 (IT Technician) and the book was a good help. My score was 710 and 800, just good enough to be certified. The sixth edition is updated and covers all I needed to pass.

Also bought the vouchers with practice exams from Meyers and many questions were pretty similar.

I studied the material, reading 3 or 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, in one month. I recommend complement the study with wikipedia or whatever quick source of consultation and of course the practice tests

Conclusion: The book and the practice exams are the perfect combination to pass the exams, but you need at least six months of experience in the "Real world" because you find some answers in the field.

I got the book as a Christmas gift and was A+ certified January 4th, 2008. I read the book from cover to cover, took practice exams, and scored in the low 800s (exams 601 and 602.) There are tons of A+ books out there and this is one of the best. Weighing in at over 1,100 pages, you'll find enough information tucked between the covers to pass the A+ exam even if you only have ten days to study.