Customer Reviews

Complete Guide to A+ Certification

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

 

 

Please note that I have just started to read the book(on Chapter 3 now), but with only 1 review listed, I figured it would be helpful to others who are looking for an A+ guidebook.

About me: I am someone who is well versed in computer hardware(I build computers as a hobby for friends/family), but have never taken any courses that would give me the "paper" necessary that jobs require now-a-days to get into the tech world. I was looking for a book that was written recently so it was not out of date(Michael Meyers' book looked promising but was written in 2003 and there are some recent negative reviews that turned me off on that one).

It is clear that the author knows his subject and the conversational style is easy to read through. It is also clear based upon the comments he makes that this book is not merely a bunch of one-off chapters glued together to make a quick buck. A lot of work has gone to make the book easy to work through and it shows. There is also a ton of reference material in the appendix of the book. The beginning of the chapter lays out what A+ Objectives are going to be discussed and the chapter ends with a series of questions(short answer, multiple choice, etc..) and a collection of important terms previously sprinkled through the chapter discussion.

However, there are times where the author does not thoroughly discuss a topic enough or uses confusing terms. I have had to hit the internet(wikipedia, about.com, whatis.com) for information/clarification a bit more than I would like.

One example would be his definition of a "thread" and a "process" for Operating Systems:

Quote:

"A thread is any particular series of instructions that must be run from beginning to end."

"A process is simply a single grouping of code that must be run from beginning to end."

End Quote.

He then states that for the exam you should really know the difference between the two. Which would be fine, but those definitions are almost exactly the same. Granted all I had to do was type "difference between thread and process" on Google and read the first result, but it still is a bit frustrating.

Based upon the numerous reviews I've read about the various A+ books for sale and now my experience with this text, I don't think there is a single text that is going to satisfy all of your studying needs. I *do*, however, think that this book combined with a number of online info sites(again Google will help greatly) will get you to where you need to go.

Given my criticisms, I'm still glad I purchased the book. It's an excellent foundation for learning more and it's more up to date than any other book I've seen on Amazon.com.

I will update this review once I have completed the text and taken the OS and Hardware exams.

I'll have to admit, I probably wouldn't have chosen this book at first blush simply because I had never heard of Michael Graves. However, since it was required reading for a class I'm taking, I had no choice. Unlike the other reviewer, I don't find it confusing at all. In fact, it's probably the most lucid book I've got on the subject. Sure, there are a couple of examples like the one he pointed out. What 1000-page book DOESN'T have an occasional dinger. If you were to nitpick Mike Meyers' book, your review would be longer than the book. Every page is riddled with that sort of thing.

What I like about this book is that many of his explanations are accompanied by examples or analogies from outside the computer world to clarify what he's talking about. Meyers simply tells you an IRQ is an electrical signal that notifies the CPU there is data to be transmitted, and that an I/O address is the devices address. Graves points out that IRQs aren't used just by devices, but by the CPU, the OS and the applications as well. He then goes on to use an analogy whereas the IRQ is a doorbell letting the CPU know there is data to be sent (or vice versa) and the I/O address points out which door is supposed to be answered.

Graves' writing style is much easier to swallow than ANY of the other textbooks I've got, regardless of discipline. I'm delighted to see that next semester's networking class is using one of his books there, too.

When I decided to go for my A+ certification, I searched for helpful books and noticed that they were all huge (and expensive), so I wanted to find the ONE right book. In short, this was it.
Having now passed the A+, I can recommend this book. It's not perfect, but the author's approach is to over-prepare you. It not only prepared me for the test, I learned a lot. His sense of humor was welcome during reading, though I would have him can the attempts at humor in the on-CD test questions; when sitting for a practice test, I want it to be as realistic as possible. The editors should have made sure the index and glossary were more complete.
Other reviewers of A+ books often complain about how authors dwell on old technology. Know this: The A+ asks many questions on what you and I would probably consider obsolete gear and operating systems. I was surprised by the extent of questions on ISA, NT & SIMMS.
I searched Amazon, looked through some books at Borders, and then ordered two from my library. I could not locate this book locally and even had to request it via inter-library loan. I'm glad I did. When it came due, I ordered this book through Amazon. I was surprised by how vapid some books are. They're counting on the covers to sell them. I judged them by comparing each books coverage of RAM memory, a common topic. What a HUGE difference there was. Also, some books have only about 1/4th devoted to the operating system portion of the test (which I later found to be the more difficult part.)
The organization of the book made it easy for me to pace my studying. I began in early October, took and passed the hardware test around Thanksgiving, then took and passed the OS portion just before new years. This (and Wikipedia.org!) were about the only resources I used.
The videos on the CD were the best of those I saw, but frankly all of the books just put these in for marketing purposes. On a CD, you can only fit minutes-long videos of topics that need hours. If you learn best by listening to someone talk, take a class.

I'm taking a class in PC hardware at a local college and this is the book they use. I also have Mike Meyer's book, which sucks and one by some lady named Jean Andrews, which sucks even worse. This one is the best. I think it's laid out better and I definitely prefer his writing style over the other two. I'm finally going to LEARN something. If you're doing A+, get this book.

You certainly should know that the included practice tests are just MS Word docs, in a format that does not match the actual test, with incorrect answers. And the movie clips are useless. So factor the CD out completely when you consider buying this book.

You should also know that the index and Table of Contents are not perfect. When I was double-checking the inaccuracy of the aforementioned test I discovered dead references, thus thorougly undermining the book's usefulness as a reference work. It does have extensive tables that would be useful for reference, but when you can't count on a book, it loses a lot of credibility.

On the whole I thought it covered the subjects very well. There were a few that seemed rather scantily covered, especially toward the end of the respective books (this volume is basically two separate books on the two parts of the A+ test). Some of the organizational problems seem to stem from hastily mashing two books together, and I suspect the weaker subject areas (optical storage devices, networking), which come toward the end of the books, were rushed over.

I can't recommend this book, but after seeing the complaints about the other books in the field I don't know if it is any worse than the others. At any rate it is not so bad that I seriously regret buying it. I haven't taken the actual test yet, but it brought my score on practice tests (online, from other providers) up by 20%.

Explanations of complex terms are simple and easy to understand. Book is layed out well with multiple choice questions after each chapter and other questions and explanations for good comprehension. Definitely recommend this book as a great resource and prep book for A+

4 stars because author could do a little better job at explaining some difficult concepts. Overall, excellent book.

Although readable and well organized, there are lots of careless errors. I am surprised that neither the publisher nor the author maintains an online errata sheet for this book. Given a well-maintained errata sheet, I would prefer this book to the Michael Meyers book. But since there is no errata sheet, I would have to recommend the Michael Meyers book.

I have read about 20% so far and the author is amazingly undry for a text book. His writing style is light but packed with information and it reads fast. Unlike my other A+ book his history lessons are interesting and makes comprehending the material much easier. By far one of the best text books I have ever owned

Michael Graves' book, "The Complete Guide to A+ Certification", is an O.K. book. The hardware portion of the book was excellent. The software portion of the book is good, though not as much as hardware. The author's writing style is easy to understand. However, there are some sentences in the book that seem a little vague.

My only real complaint about the book is that some areas seem out of order. For example, the section on hardware could have been placed in the hardware section of the book, rather than in the software section.

I found so many mistakes in this book that I just couldn't trust any of the information in it. They only give you the answers to the even questions and I don't understand the way the author transitions from one topic to the next. For instance, in the first chapter it explains what a computer is then jumps into decimal/binary/hexadecimal conversions then goes onto discussing "the buses" of a computer using some really really bad analogies. Some people seem to think this book was great, for me it was absolutely terrible.