A+ Certification Test Yourself Practice Exams (Paperback)

by Syngress Media (Author), Duncan Anderson (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This unique self-testing tool features more than 1,000 NEW exam-based questions, PLUS detailed answers from the experts. Special features include "How to Take the New A+ Exam" section and "Exam Watch" icons which identify the most often-missed questions--and how to answer them correctly. The ideal supplement to A+ Certification Study Guide, Second Edition.

From the Back Cover
Don't let the real test be your first test! More questions--more content: the best self-testing program available. Based on CompTIA's newest A+ exams. Covers all official A+ exam objectives for the Core and DOS/Windows Exams. Comprehensive coverage features more than 1,000 challenging and realistic practice exam questions. Special "How to Take the Exam" section is designed to give you an advantage. "Exam Watch" warnings point out the trickiest exam questions and teach you what you need to know to get them right (as shown in example below). Exam Watch: Make sure you note the file load order to start DOS (IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, CONFIG.SYS, COMMAND.COM, and then AUTOEXEC.BAT). The CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files are optional to load DOS, whereas the other three are required. Put your skills to the test using this comprehensive and current self-testing guide for A+ candidates! This easy-to-use, self-paced book features more than 1,000 exam-based practice questions to test your knowledge--and detailed, instructive answers from the experts to expand your understanding. Best of all, the book is based directly on CompTIA's A+ Core and DOS/Windows exams, so it contains the most relevant, up-to-date Q&A material. Highly effective when used alone or with the A+ Certification Study Guide, also from Osborne, this book is an excellent preparation tool for serious candidates.

Product Details

• Paperback: 697 pages
• Publisher: Osborne Publishing; 2 Sub edition (August 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072121319
• ISBN-13: 978-0072121315
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,001,637 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a very impressive effort, January 5, 2000

By	Charles Worton (edmonton, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

On the plus side, there are 1,052 questions in the text. They're also harder then the actual A+ exam questions, in that they use the 'choose all that apply' multiple choice format. You really need to know your stuff to do well on these questions.

On the minus side, the answers are often plain flat Wrong! And this is compounded by explanations that have obviously been dreamt up on the spot by the authors, who apparently would prefer to resort to BS and bafflegab then pause to look up the correct answer. An example: the questions insist that the location of an IDE drive on the cable is crucial to determining whether or not a drive is a slave or master, while the master/slave/carrier select pins are not important. In fact, the M/S/CS pins are all important, and the location of the hard drive on an IDE cable has no bearing on whether its a master or slave. (Only floppies are arranged in this manner). Another example: the book insists that SRAM (static ram) uses less power then DRAM (dynamic ram), because SRAM contains 6 capacitors which need to be charged much less frequently. In fact, SRAM contains 6 transistors, and NO capacitors. Although horribly expensive, it is unbelievably fast, which is why SRAM is used in L1 and L2 caching. That is the primary advantage of SRAM. Yet, the book would have you believe that the primary use for SRAM is in low power applications.

These were only two examples, drawn from the first 72. I expect that there are many more.

Nonetheless, you CAN profit from this book. The way to do it is answer all the questions. When the book agrees with you, you're right; when you don't know the answer to a question, well, you've targetted an area you need to study more thoroughly; and when the book disagrees with you, check your sources, make sure you're right, and curse those authors and publishers who allow such misleading material to reach the trusting public.

Under NO circumstances should you use this book as a study guide; under NO circumstances should you trust these answers. For a spectacular study guide to PCs in general, check out Muellers' "Guide to PC maintenance and repair", 11th edition. This 1600+ page book is staggeringly great, and a solid testament to the fact that it is possible to write a really, really good book on computers.

Had the authors of"A+ Certification Test Yourself Practice Exams" read the Mueller text, their own book would have been vastly improved.

Charlie Worton, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many Errors, June 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A+ Certification Test Yourself Practice Exams (Test Yourself (Berkely, Calif.).) (Paperback)

This book was my last addon book to study with. Exam Cram,Dummies,and Dali software got me a 90/core,95/Dos-win score on the test. I had the first edition of this book and it was loaded with errors,had to spend time going to web site and finding each question that was incorrect and then updating to the correct answer...this should have all been done b4 this book was sold.A few ques hit where other books hadn't, but lots of others were not helpful at all, especially some of the ambiguous multi-answer ones.There were still some errors that werent even in the error log. Too much money and fix it time, not enough help to make up for it. Jett

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Like The Test At All!, October 2, 1999

By	F. Ferrer (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A+ Certification Test Yourself Practice Exams (Test Yourself (Berkely, Calif.).) (Paperback)

I was hesitant when I purchased this book but not having worked in the IT industry before, I wanted to get as much help as possible. The questions in the 2nd edition could be insightful and helpful to some folks, but this book did nothing but frustrate me. After a few months of studying other books and material from several web sites, I was seeing material in this book for the first time. And guess what! That material was not on the exam! Save your money and stick with the A+ For Dummies and Mr. Meyer's A+ Certification books.