Customer Reviews

CompTIA A+ Complete Certification Kit

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This setup saved me half of what the books listed for seperately. I had read PDF versions of the Fast Pass and A+ Complete books a few months ago and wanted to pick up the hard copies for a new employee. So far the "PC Technician Street Smarts" book is helpful as a Politically Correct (CompTIA standards) tutorial. The labs cover real world skills that a newly initiated employee would need in the first weeks and months of thier vocation. It starts out with installing memory and advances to installation of other internal components. It provides more complex lab guides as it covers PC maintenance, Networking and Troubleshooting. When I first picked this book up to glance through it, I was amazed at how much was in the little guy in comparison to the 900+ pages of the study guides. I believe this is one of the most real approaches I have seen on teaching the A+ skills for a beginner.

The "CompTIA A+ Complete Study Guide" is fantastic, not only is it full of more real world scenarios of what an A+ certified Tech should know, it comes with Flash cards! Flash cards have to be one of the most useful study aids there are and these are great. The CD that comes with the book has the full text in PDF format, the flash cards and practice exams. I highly reccomend the study guide over Mike Meyers', it cuts so much of the BS and teaches you using real world application.

The Fast Pass is great review of the previous 2 books and also comes with flash cards and 4 bonus exams.

In conclusion, this is a fantastic package for anyone who wants to pass the 2006 CompTIA A+ exams.

I purchased this set to study for my A+ certification and this was all I used for both the Essentials test and the Remote Support Technician test and I passed both. I mainly used the FastPass book that comes with this set but the Complete Study Guide was very useful as well. I can tell you that when I took the Essentials test, there was an answer to one of the questions that was the exact wording of one of the sentences in the book. This set was full of information and easy to read. I would recommend this to anyone studying for their A+ certification! It worked for me!

I studied using the two CDs in these books. I made sure I past every test with a 90% or better. I took the Essentials on Saturday and failed with a 630 where 675 - 900 is needed to pass. The questions on the actual test do not seem to resemble the ones in this book/CD. The ones on the test will give you a question like, " Which is MOST right?" when all five can work well. Another was "...(Select two)" when only one really seemed like the correct answer. Most of what I felt I got right was more from experience over from what I studied.

This week I am going to go to the book store and exam which books sound more like the test. I would carefully review the customers reviews on amazon. CompTIA has a list of qualified books, and this is one. Now it looks like I am going to need another author and publisher as well. $168 for a lesson in what am I getting into with certification tests! Here is some errata for you all too. Bluetooth is in-fact radio frequency, not infrared like one of the CD tests state. One CD states Class D fire extinguishers do not exist while another says they are for metals. They indeed are for metals.

Excellent. Very thorough and well-written except for some typos. Comes with "Complete Study Guide" as well as a "Fast Pass" summary of the guide's main points and a "PC Technician Street Smarts" book which presents ninety-four real-world scenarios. The two CD-ROMs feature the entire Study Guide in .pdf format, twelve practice tests (three per exam), flashcards, and a glossary. The purpose of the kit is to help you prepare not simply for the certification test but for employment as well.

Amazon.com sent me the package in less than two days and in excellent condition. At around $65, it was a bargain.

If you are looking to take the A+ 601 and 602 exams this is all you need. I took both exams today (29 May 08) and passed with plenty to spare on both exams. This kit gets it right on all fronts. The information is clearly presented, the flash cards, chapter tests and cumulative exams are all on the mark in the sense that the questions hit the right areas and are representative of the verbage/presentation you will see on the exams. Again, absolutely nothing else is needed. This one hits the nail on the head.

...it seems a bit outdated. Even though the publish date is 2006 it talks about the industry as it was in 2003... and that is the latest!
Don't get me wrong, this collection is extremely informative and helpful but it seems like the writer(s) didn't think technology was ever going to progress after they wrote it. I'll give you some examples that I can think of...
"AGP video cards are gaining in popularity"... seriously? This cram book mentions PCI-express... though it is VERY brief.
"The largest size for flash drives is 2gb"... wow this just seriously dates this book. Why did they write it like that?
"HDMi uses a D-shaped connector very similar to DVI"... we all know what HDMI connectors look like nowadays.
And I'm only about 1/3rd of the way through the cram book.

On the plus side, this collection is EXTREMELY informative in breaking down the A+ exam and showing you what you need to know. That is why I find it so helpful. I know how technology has changed but I'm not too familiar with slightly older architecture and other things that are sure to be on the test.

Oh, I have another complaint. The "practice tests" on the CD are good... once. There are about 4 tests and probably 100 questions. I assumed that it had a few hundred or more questions in there "test engine" and it gave you a random 50 for the practice test. WRONG. Same questions same answer choices in the same pattern EVERY TIME! And to make it worse, even though there are 4 test choices, there are really only two tests. The last three use pretty much the same test.

It still gets 4/5 for such a wonderful breakdown of what you need to know for the test. :)

These books do a good job of covering the basics of what you need to know for the exams. Keep in mind, they do not contain 100% of the knowledge you need to become certified, but no study guide can. Overall, the books are well written and entertaining and helped me become A+ certified.

I just passed the IT Technician exam today with an 832/900, after passing Essentials with 779/900 a couple months ago. These books were my original resource.

Some background: I have(had) a Networking degree but decided to get the degree first and certs later. I should have done both simultaneously, but oh well.

As for using this book though, I started studying over the summer. What I did was read the big book first, cover to cover. 800 pages took me a number of weeks, but the key thing was taking notes along the way on stuff I didn't know.

After I finally finished the big book, I read the Fastpass book cover to cover which was essentially just a review. Didn't take notes on this one.

Didn't touch the Street Smarts book since it seemed geared towards people whose Windows knowledge is very basic... I knew how to do most of the stuff in there already so that's why I didn't touch it.

Just make sure to put in at least an hour a day and you can be ready for each test in about a month. I chose to take longer but the important thing to me was that I passed, and now I can happily say that I am A+ Certified. Bottom line though, these books helped.

After reading these books, I had no problem passing 601 & 602 on my first attempt. I took the 2007 version of the exams in January 2009. Not sure why people are saying these books are outdated.The A+ exams are based on Windows 2000 and XP.If anything, the CompTIA certification is outdated.In my opinion these books cover about 95% of the exam.The only complaint I have is Way Too Much Information. I memorized a lot of useless data. I suggest using an additional study guide to narrow down what you need to know for the exam. I used Mike Meyers Passport.

Theese books rock! I bought the cert. library a few months ago and I passed just by using the main book! The Fast Passed is a stripped down version of the main one. I did not use the Street Smarts book.

The book is very comprehensive, but you will need the practice exams (Que A+ practice exams, 2008 ed). For the A+ Essentials, I found a lot of questions from the Que books!!

Even though English is not my native language, I passed mainly using the Emett Dulaney book! (Yes, I had to read the book 7-8 times).

Thanks guys, the book is excellent!

PS: To pass, make sure you read each chapter many times!