Customer Reviews

A+: Core Module Study Guide (Certification Study Guide 0)

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

 

 

The information in this book could be useful if the author had some sort of coherent flow of information. He jumps from one subject to the next, explains simple concepts with complex terminology. And I don't think I've ever seen an A+ text that spends almost 100 pages talking about networking when only 5% of the exam deals with the subject. He spends too much time, in my opinion, explain ancient history when it comes to computers. A technician does not really need to know how an 8088 processor handles its information. And the troubleshooting section deals with DOS! I think he should have saved that for the second book in his 2 part text. If you are thinking about buying this book along with the dos/windows book, please save your money and look elsewhere.

I was dissappointed after reading this book. Although I did learn some things, I realized after reading other books that there are quite a few inaccuracies in its content and also the book is also riddled with editorial errors, as if it was rushed to the Press. I think the author should apologise to consumers and rewrite this book.

Overall, an excellent book. But I don't feel that this book alone is good enough to pass the A+ Core exam. The section on the EP print process seems to differ slightly in the terminology used in other A+ Core books. For example, this book says that Step 1 is the "Charging" (Conditioning) whereas other books correctly say that the first step is the "Cleaning". Also, this book is a little light on the Portable Systems topic. And the tests at the end of each chapter are too easy and this may give one a false sense of confidence. I would not use this book as the sole study guide for the A+ Core Exam.

After attaining my CNA and MCSE I decided to embark on the A+ Certification and this book has made it awfully frustrating. As I have been reading I have found numerous errors throughout this book. I decided to check the Sybex web site and sure enough found a list of over 30 acknowledged errors for this book. Now, I find myself having to continually check other technical books to verify everything that Groth writes, because I cannot trust his accuracy. It appears to me that this author just took the A+ course objectives and then summarized the required information from other technical books without really understanding it. Besides this, don't be fooled by the misleading statement about the included Sybex Test Prep software CD. It's just a program with the exact same questions that are written in the book. The one strength of this book is that it is organized well and it covers the required objectives. I really hope DOS/Windows is better than this because I bought the set of two !

I found this book to be helpful to my taking the A+ exam. I passed on 7/7/98 with only missing two questions between both parts of the exam. The lady at the test center asked me "Are you sure you completed BOTH parts??", probably because I told her I was done in less than 45 minutes. This book had a lot of great info on printer repair, which was where I was lacking. Anyone who reads this as their only test prep should beware, though.. I had A LOT of experience hacking win 9x and DOS before I took the test. You should try to get some other books to cover all your bases. Back when I took the test, more than 75% of the questions covered printer issues, maybe that has changed.....
If you can't run a computer without a GUI, this certification won't help you much anyways......

Besides his propensity to talk about the history of things (which is fun reading), Doug does a great job in outlining things and setting you up. His insight on Printers helped me understand quite a bit.

This book by David Groth proved to be a good choice in my preparation for the A+ Core exam. It covered the subject areas very well and CD-Rom disks with questions and answers provided great preparation assistance. You can also get more exam questions but they will cost you. But best part is when you take the exam you get the 50.00 back with a voucher. I passed the A+ Core exam with a score of 85%. I recommed this book.

First, the good news. I passed both the core and the Dos/Windows exams by using these books. They offered very detailed information and presented it in an easy to read and generally understandable format. I would agree that the books' "intermediate" difficulty rating is accurate.

However, (You knew that this was coming) I would not recommend them as a good prep for the A+ Exams. My principal criticism is that the core module is riddled with flaws, errors, and innacuracies.(One can obtain a list of corrections, all three pages, from the Sybex website. The corrections are listed under "errata"). Additionally, because these texts are fairly detailed, they tended to include a lot of extraneous information that was not reflected on the exams. Examples would be the complete resistor color code, hexadecimal numbering system, lists of various manufacturers beep codes and error codes specific to a particular make or model. Also in the core text are chapters on networks & customer service, neither of which is even covered of the core exam. (O.K., customer service is covered but the answers are not scored and they do not count towards your score).

Dos/Windows...not much better. A lot of step by step by step on how to install windows 3.1 & Win 9x. "When the next screen asks for disk 4, remove disk 3 from your floppy drive, insert the disk labled #4...press any key or enter! See diagram below!)

I would look for a more concise text and then supplement it with internet resources like cramsession and its related links for a more complete test prep.

This isn't so much of a study guide as a beginners book on what makes a computer work. If I read just this book and got perfect scores on the "test"(I use that term loosely)questions included on the cd-roms(which by the way are exact same ones that are written in the book),I would have failed. Fortunatly, I borrowed a friends Microsoft Press A+ Training Guide and A+ Exam Cram which by themselves are by-far more superior books and I was able to pass both tests very comfortably. Dave Groth dumbs down the book a little too much and the books themselves are full with mistakes(who was editing these books anyways?) that could cost you. If know next to nothing about computers this might be of help but anyone else who is serious about this test you should say far away from this stinker. Get the Microsoft book. It may be more money but it is well worth it.

I studied this book and when I got 97% on the CD-ROM that's included with the book, I thought I was ready for the real test. Not so! I got 61%. Then I got the Exam Notes book by Sybex, did the test again and got 84%! This book includes quite a bit of extraneous material, and obviously does not adequately cover the test's objectives by itself.

On the other hand, there is a lot of good material in the book, despite its errors it's written in an interesting style- readable- and it has a wonderful glossary. Just make sure you get the Exam Notes as well- `