Customer Reviews

The Ultimate A+ Certification Exam Cram 2 Study Kit

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

 

 

I used three books to prepare for both Hardware and OS certification exams - this set and A+ Complete Study Guide, Third Edition (220-301 and 220-302) by David Groth.

I used the same technique to prepare for the exams:

1. I read the Hardware chapters of David Groth's book, do all the tests;
2. I read the Hardware chapters Exam Cram 2 book;
3. I did all the tests in the Exam Cram 2 Practice questions book;
5. I did all the test on the PrepLogic CD;
6. Quickly review the Cram Sheet;
7. Take the exam.

Same for the OS exam.

Overall - the Exam Cram books are not easy to read and include some advanced topics not necessary for the exam. I believe that you can just skim through those sections and you still are going to be OK.

Many of the test questions in these books are exactly the same as those on the actual exam.

I have also reviewd the A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide by Michael Meyers and Scott Jernigan and found it useless.

This book is a quality book to review for the exam and help you pass on your first try, which i did. But the one thing that has to be made perfectly clear is that this isnt an amazing book, it isnt a reference book really, its a review book. It gives you the general topics, some review questions, and some general knowledge you'll need to know. NOTHING COMPARES TO REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE!!! If you haven't worked on a computer, haven't built one, haven't installed an OS, don't expect to buy this book and pass the test, in all actuallity, don't buy any book and just expect to pass the test. Infact, if you haven't done any of those things, why would you want to get certified? To each there own I guess. Bottom line, if you have done what I listed, have a good knowledge of computers, this book will help you review what you'll need, touch on a few things you might not of thought you needed, and will help you pass.

I just passed Hardware/OS. I didn't have so many years of experience in pc troublshooting so this package helped me.
On the other side I WOULD NOT RELAY just on THIS BOOK, you must use at least TWO different sources to be more confident during exam.
Keep in mind there are some question in exam you wont find in this or other books. Good Luck !

I took the Core test today and past it with a mid-600's score. I took some onlined practice tests, which really helped and I used these 2 books. I'd given it 5 stars if it wasn't for the inbetween stuff that you don't need for the test. It does give you alot of detail in history though.

I have been working on PCs for a few years now and it wasn't until recently that I decided to get certified.The test was easier that I though, I'd been craming and updating my skills for the past 3 weeks. The only things I had problems with were the CPU's and their slots. I'd recommend drilling those in. Some other items on my test were IRQs, PCMCIA Card types, and Printers. If you don't know basic wireless technologies, read up on them and know at least the basics. (ssid, types b and g, etc.), also cable types and connectors. Most of the questions were scenarios and there was lot of "...it could be either one" type of questions. All in all, if you have at least 1 year's experiance with computers and read up on at least 2 sources, you should have no problem passing this part of the test.

The materials in this Study Kit is very detailed compared to some of the kits out there. There were one or two questions that had 3 answers when they state to "select two", and vice versa, but they were few. As long as you study and know your materials, you'll do great. The Exam Cram 2 book does make you understand technical materials by using other real world examples and a great sense of humor. Pay attention to the Alerts! The Practice Questions book bombards you with questions on given exam Domains, and that's great! Shows your weak areas to work on. You should not rely on just these Study Kit books. They didn't appear to have some information on Operating Systems that the A+ Complete Study Guide, Third Edition (220-301 and 220-302) book had, and it wasn't as well organized. Definitely get both sets of books. Where one lacks, the other one makes up for it. Thanks to using both set of books (this Study Kit and the above named book), I passed both A+ exams (220-301 and 220-302) with high marks on the first shot. Good luck on your exam(s).

Great book - easy to comprehend. Going through this book once and going through the included practice test book once I was able to easily pass my A+ certification tests.

THIS ARE THE BOOKS YOU NEED TO PASS A+ EXAMS. VERY HELPFULL. LITTLE EXPERIENCE NEEDED BEFORE GOING TO EXAMS.

This is a great book set. I havn't finished it yet, and from what I've read in the questions they do infact cover a good amount of the actual test content. Of course, not word-for-word but subject-wise, a lot of the questions are similar. While a lot of the content dealing with the A+ test is basicially garbage since computing today doesn't require knowledge of the IRQ of a floppy drive. In my opinion, this "Garbage Content" is a bad reflection upon CompTIA. Anyway, James Jones has made this book's information clear and concise to coincide with the test, and he has done a great job of it. James Jones A+, CompTIA C- (At best).

Would have been nice to know that the test was changing and this material was utterly useless in the interim. Failure is always an option with this set of books.

I initially purchased the purchased the A+ Complete Certification Kit, which I felt stuck to the points of the exam. After reading the A+ Complete Certification Kit, I purchased the A+ Cram Exam thinking that it would literally "Cram" all the information that I needed to pass the exam and maybe additional information that wasn't covered in the aforementioned book. However, I found that the book to be very wordy. At times the author used confusing analogies. If you are looking for information on the complete history and development of PC's, this is the book for you. The author also covers a lot information that he even states would not be on the test, but he felt you should know. More times than not, he could have left most of this unnecessary information out of the book. Instead of clogging the book with analogies and unnecessary information, he could have used those pages for more diagrams and or real life examples. Some folks like myself like to see visuals whenever possible. I was expecting precise information regarding the A+ Exam, hence "Cram Exam".

However, on a positive note, the author pulls no punches on the self-exams. The exams do make you think, and as the author put it, if you pass the self-exams, you shouldn't have any problems passing the A+ Exam. I'm planning on taking the test within the next month. I just don't want to pass, I want to score the highest possible score.