Customer Reviews

CompTIA A+ Certification All-In-One For Dummies

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Waste of money, waste of time. I'm sorry to say it because I normally love (and trust) the "Dummies" series of books. But I'm a pretty computer proficient person already, and I knew a TON of the material was just useless and obsolete. To confirm my suspicions, I downloaded the official A+ 2009 exam objectives, and sure enough, about half of what this Dummies book covers isn't even covered at all. Who uses ISA slots or Pentium 2s these days, come on?!

They tried to update the book by throwing in new hardware types and such, but it was such an obvious copy and paste job. You might be reading a paragraph, talking about how new and prevalent X hardware is, only to read a recent paragraph addition about how new and prevalent hardware Y is. Guess what, only one of them is (e.g., X went out of style years ago, everyone uses Y now). This is very common.

Updating a book--especially something so technical--should involve more than pasting in some new material. It should be deleting the useless stuff, and giving the reader a true sense of what's the dominant hardware type and what's going out of style. Reading this, you might have no idea if you didn't have prior knowledge. Plus, there are blatant inaccuracies (e.g., AMD's new AM3 processors have 938 pins, not 941 as written in the book).

Sorry, but I can't recommend this book. Comprehensive, yes. Accurate, up-to-date, and relevant? Not by a mile.

The book seems to be packed with information. I've only read the first 200 pages so far but it seems very thorough. The only thing is that there is so much information that it is extremely hard to retain, but that's not the books fault that's just that there is so much to computers. It's probably best, if you're aspiring to learn something about computers, you should start now, because in a few more years there will be so much information that you'll have no chance at ever retaining all the information, that is if it is even possible to do so now. But anyway the book is a great learning tool. The things I like the most is that it has quizzes and a cd that comes along with it with exercises so that you can really get that stuff into your head. Plus the book will go over things not just once but a couple of times, so that helps get things stuck in your head also. FYI, there are billions of acronyms in computer world so have a pen and paper handy so you can write them all down as you go through the book, so you have a quick reference for later. Good luck on your path to more knowledge.

With this book I passed the Comptia A+ practical application exam on the first try in 35 minutes and got a score of 825 out of a possible 900. If you plan on buying this invest in some old used computers to practice on.

This book is not for a dummy. I'm sorry, but the title is misleading.

I have a heavy electronics background from the US Navy, with five years experience in the fleet and one year of electronics training. I have 15 years of ALL aspects of residential low voltage design and repair including satellite, cable, networking, telephone and such. I am also literate.

If ANYONE should have benefited from this book, it would be a student like me.

I DID learn a smattering of things from the book, but what was grossly omitted were the basics necessary to comprehend the later information.

I understand that the book is intended for the student to pass the Comp TIA Certification Exam, but this book is written in such a wise so as to omit enough to cause a gap in understanding of some critical areas - meaning, perhaps one will pass the exam by study of the book, he may not necessarily gain any competence by study of the book.

I gave up reading it about half way due to the volume of misunderstood words and objects for which I either got tired of searching for, or could not find in any glossary, dictionary or the internet.

Regardless of my experiences as above, I am quite sure that it is impossible for a dummy to study this book and pass the Comp TIA Certification Exam.

The title should be changed to: "Comp TIA Certification for People Who Already Know a Great Deal About Computers." It would be more accurate.

Length:: 0:05 Mins

Okay, so it does have good information, but it seems to leave out a lot! I'll get back to that in a moment. There are a lot of typos and formatting errors, which drive me up the wall!! This author's editor should be shot, and then the author should be shot. Doesn't anyone proof read anymore? The biggest disappointment was the practice questions following each chapter. Many times, the answer to a question will not have been addressed in the text. At all. I wish I kept a record of all of them. Other times, the wrong answer will be listed. The explanation is right, but the letter (multiple choice) is flat-out wrong. Or maybe the explanation is just really confusing...

Here's an example from pages 1004/1006, question/answer 18.

Question:
You want to share the data folder as a resource to be used only by network administrators. How should you do this?
A) Hide the share ...
B) Don't share the folder ...
C) Set up the share permissions ...
D) Share ... and don't set any permissions.

Answer:
A) The best way to be sure that no one except network administrators can access a shared resource is to share the resource and set the proper permissions. When you share the resource, though, it may be best to hide it from the network by making it a hidden share so that no one tires to sneak into it.

I've always used a combination of A & C, as the answer explains, but you can only choose one answer. So which is the best, Glen? You said "best" twice in your explanation.

This book has a lot of good information.
I wish I were a speed reader who could remember it all.

The dummy books are always easy to read. In this book you will find quizzes that help you learn your material and prepare you for your A+ test.

This book is a great. I got it to study for the A+ certification test. I haven't finished it yet but i'm confident with this book I will pass. Like all the "for dummies" books I have read, the information is put in easy to understand terms. At the end of each chapter there is a review quiz to make sure you understand all the info from that chapter.

I do wish the CD was more interactive. It has some good practice tests on it, but you have to print them out. I wish I could just take them on the computer.

Over all tho, I would recommend this book to everyone.

I brought this book after I purchased A+ certification for Dummies, it was the recommended companion book for the previous A+ certification for Dummies. This book is 9 in 1, more in-depth than the other, still making everything understandable and easier to learn. And way thicker then normal "Dummies" books. Thank you

The author includes sample test questions so that you can get a real feel for the exam. The book is very detailed and well organized into comprehensive sections that cover both certification tests. I'm finding it to be very helpful and it seems like a bargain.