Customer Reviews

A+ Exam Cram 2 & Upgrading & Repairing PCs, 15th Edition Bundle

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I have read numerous A+ books and even though they talk about everything you need to know, most don't piece everything together for you. If you are looking for a book that helps you memorize just the answers to the questions, don't buy this book, it's way more than that. If you want a book that burns a visual image of how everything works and the history of it all, this is the book for you.

And to all of you saying this book sucks because it has too much information, I really hope you never make it into the field because any computer tech that complains about learning more about stuff than they need to doesn't need to be working on people's computers. Sure you can pass the exams by just memorizing all the answers, but how do you expect to be successful when you refuse to learn past that?

I only read about 50 pages of this book so this is not a complete review.

The reason I didn't finish the book is that it is littered with small errors. I am sure the authors know the subject matter but the editing and proofreading of the book are so poor that it is impossible to know when a detail is correct.

If you are studying for the A+ Certification exam, you will want to get the details right so stick with a more reliable book like Michael Meyers' A+ Certification Exam Guide.

I am MCSE, A+, and CCNA certified and used this book as part of my preparation for the CompTia A+ exams.

This book features a cramsheet tear out that is better than most I have seen. It gives good reminders of the basics, such as: "serial cables usually have a DB9-9 pin connector." These tidbits won't get you through the exam, but do provide a quick review of the material. If you can't read and expand on a statement, such as the one above, then you need to study that particular area more thoroughly. The CD for this book includes practice questions that are also good for testing your knowledge of the material, but do not expect to see actual CompTia test questions here. Again, these questions are only good for measuring your progress.

I found the chapter format for this book refreshing and easy to read. Each chapter includes:

An overview of critical terms and concepts.
Plenty of sidebars and graphic illustrations.
10 question practice exam with good explanations of the answers.

This book overall presents an excellent overview of both the hardware and operating system exams and should be used in conjunction with Mueller's "Upgrading and Repairing PCs" classic (ISBN: 0789727455).

I took the A+ two months ago after roughly one month of self-study with the help of only two books, this Exam Cram 2 preparation book and the A+ Practice Questions that complement it. A short time after purchasing it, I noticed that the CD that was included was cracked, so I sent an e-mail to the publisher and another cd was promptly shipped to my address.

Exceptional service aside, the material covered is fairly comprehensive and with a disciplined reading regime, is more than enough to help you in obtaining the A+ in both OS and Hardware technologies. The practice tests are also an accurate indicator of what to expect on test day. If you are a complete novice to PC hardware and operating systems you may want to consider the A+ Study Guide (also by QUE) for more detailed explanation of each objective; otherwise, this is more than enough for anyone familiar with computers in general to pass the exam.

There are far more books covering the A+ exam certification than any other on the market and with over 500,000 certified technicians this explains why. When the Exam Cram books are release you can and should expect a quality reference manual covering the exam objectives in a clear and condense manner, which is both technically accurate and also technically up to date.

This release of the A+ Exam Cram2 manual is certainly testament to that policy. The authors have spent a great deal of time researching and developing the manual to make sure you have the best possible output there is and judging from the content they have succeeded.

Tackling one of the exams is a job in its self but this book cover both with tips and notes and highlights through out the entire text. There are well over 600 questions to practice with and if there was anything a little short the amount o of questions given would be it.

Overall for an instructor this book is a great tool and for the student this the perfect add on manual to complete the training cycle.

The A+ exam attempts to test everything about PCs, all operating systems from DOS through Win XP, and basic setup information regarding networks. To teach all this information in a single book would require at least a thousand pages, and more likely a two-volume set upwards of 1500 pages or more.

What we've chosen to do is to produce a real cram book for last-minute review. The inclusion of Windows XP, networking, and all the troubleshooting, meant reducing some of the teaching we were able to include in earlier editions, back when the latest OS was Windows 95.

Again: This book is meant as a cram book, not to be the only study source you'll ever need to pass the exam! Other books on the market focus on every question you'll encounter, then provide the correct answers for you to memorize. But none of those books provide much of a context for how all the technology fits together. We've found that having such a context is a great help when it comes to recalling information in the actual exam room.

Various reviews here show that the A+ Exam Cram 2, Second Edition is insufficient as a single, standalone book for passing the exam. This is true, and we intended it that way! But as a final review, when you've had the hands-on experience with computers and operating systems, we think there's no better book on the market. It's a "reality check" to help you ease up on some of the anxiety and pressure.

We're always interested in making the best book possible, and the first printing is under review for typos or minor errors. Que Certification maintains an errata Web site, and we expect to correct existing typos until the book is a clean as we can make it.

As many readers have said, here and elsewhere, this book will give you the underlying explanations of how PCs work, and point out the real "gotchas" you're likely to encounter on the exam. Use it to pull together all the details of IRQs, speeds, chipsets, and so on that you have to remember. The book is primarily designed to build a framework in your mind for better recall during the actual exam, without all the sweat and anxiety of using rote memory.

We've also included a lot of strategies for figuring out correct responses when you're not sure of the answer. The Exam Cram series doesn't intend to provide hundreds of sample questions. Rather, it's designed to give you a single practice test, as close to the real exam as possible. However, Que has included an addtional CDROM with many additional practice questions.

No other book gives you help where it comes to figuring out the psychology behind creating questions. This book gives you that kind of help, and also helps you to make sense out of the massive amount of information you've learned. We highlight what you'll be tested on as a way for you to prioritize what you should remember.

Most A+ preparation books are just that: preparation. Only the Exam Cram series is designed to summarize all that preparation into a unified whole, before you go in to take the exam.

Three weeks ago I read the reviews of this book on Amazon.com, which were mixed, and decided to give it a shot. Oh cruel fate, why me? Why didn't you warn me, faithful reviewers? And why did I open the enclosed software, making it impossible to get my money back?

This book is awful. Number one problem: It's simply too long and has too much useless information. I'm talking 50% - 75% useless. The history of what company invented which cable and what lawsuits they had and why they invented the cable and on and on and on and on and IT NEVER STOPS! Dozens of paragraphs start with the phrase "you won't need to know this for the exam..." Worse still, dozens of paragraphs END with phrases like "you won't be expected to memorize any of this for the exam." Well gee, why did I just read it then?

The second problem is the author's use of analogy to explain concepts. So the parallel port is the yellow brick road, and the data bits are Dorothy and her pals, and the bus is like the gateway to the emerald city, and the port is like the evil gatekeeper, and the CPU is the wizard of Oz ... Are we supposed to rent the movie so we can understand this or what?

The book is darned clever. Oh my it's clever. The author is a regular Dave Barry. I've read dozens of technical books, and sometimes it's nice when the author breaks up the monotony by surprising you with a "zinger." But every page? Quite annoying.

The book has trouble deciding who its audience is. Sometimes it points out the painfully obvious. ("Alcohol is a liquid that evaporates" - No kidding!) Other times the book drifts into obscure acronyms and jargon which even someone with a degree in Computer Science (like myself) would have trouble following.

To be fair, the information seems fairly up-to-date and complete, and the book seems well proofread. If I was just doing this for a hobby, and I had lots of time to read amusing anecdotes and side notes, this book would be great. It would also be good if I was maybe a high school kid who didn't know much about computers.

I'm betting 99% of you out there are like me, you probably know half of this stuff already and you just want to pass the test. And you're going to hate this book just like I did. You have been warned. :)

I took an A+ class several years ago and I build computers and repair computers ( not the ones I just built! =P ) several times a month. Im pretty much the go to guy for anyone who knows me. However I had no piece of paper saying im good with computers or building them and most employers don't trust computer repairs to anybody so I decided to get my A+ and I bought 2 books ( this one and mike Meyers A+ which is AMAZING! )

First Amazon says this book is 500 some pages ( normally Amazon exaggerates the page numbers that's not the case here ) it's really 1000 pages. But the book covers in a lot of detail about computers and the sections on the boot up process in the operating system are really worth reading.

All that being said I have to rate this book a 3 out of 5 for some very compelling reasons. If this is your only book and your trying to take the test as the book would instruct you will spend many many nights memorizing IRQ's and DMA conflicts and less time studying about scsi or other import aspects of the exam which you are actually tested! I must note that the memorization techniques are great ( the one about the laser print process for one ) but doesn't really help you for the exam or real life.

Also their are several typo's ( calling things wrong as well ) which means I have to take off some points.

All in all this would be ok if you have taken an A+ class and feel you need to study some more before you take the A+ test and don't wish to read mike Meyers huge ( but amazing! ) book.

I just barely passed my A+ harware certification, technically using only this book (I've dabbled in computers for years, also took 2 college classes). The low price attracted me, but I wish I got something more comprehensive (or clearer).

Cons: I found this book very frustrating. For a "cram" there sure is a ton of (useless) background information and laughablly verbose and complicated explanations. It simply took me forever to piece together what they were saying. It was only when I turned to the internet to supplement the concepts did I finally see how much clearer certain things could be explained. Also after taking the exam, I felt the book prepared me to understand the questions, but not necessarily be able to know the right answer.

Pros: I appreciated the occasional humor that helped wake me up after a dry discussion. After scoring an 85% on the book practice test (which assures "if you can get through our test, you'll have no trouble with the real exam") I scored a 55% on the real exam. Not reassuring, but I did pass, so I give it 3 stars.

Perhaps it was my inexperience, so this book may make more sense if you are already familiar with the concepts. For me, I've already bought Sybex's A+ book to help pass the OS test. I passed hardware, but I would definitely recommend a supplement (or replacement) for Exam Cram.

If thirty pages into it you're rolling on the floor laughing at all the errors and halfway through you toss it in the trash then you're ready to take the exams.

The Preplogic practice exams included seem a bit more difficult than the real exams (at least I scored a little lower on the practice exams)--they're the only really decent thing in the book IMO but there are other practice exams available for less.