A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide
by Michael Meyers, Scott Jernigan
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Book Reviews of A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide
Book Review: Great Read Informative to say the Least!
Summary: 4 Stars
Ive been building computers for years and ive taken my A+ classes in college back in 2001 and recently a job opportunity was coming my way and I needed to get some certifications and I decided to get A+ certified and knowing my luck the exam was just updated for some new 2003 objectives. So I was in a bind of needing to get some study material and since I had mike Meyer's network+ book I figured might as well get his A+ book since ive heard such rave reviews. So here's my review.The book is VAST and covers topics in great detail ( for example he has and beyond A+ section in the book that goes into advanced topics - though sadly not enough detail on those - such as the cipher command in windows XP which helped me with my MCSE 70-270 studies ) And will help keep you up at night as his writing always does. The operating system section has to be one of the best sections as well as a few others.
Now time to talk about the bad parts of the book.
Mike has a way of explaining things in a way that either you will get or you won't know what the heck he is talking about. What I mean is he comes up with these crazy analogies that make hardly any sense at all ( such as the section on the CPU ) I wont to learn about the CPU process I can do without an analogy of a little man in a box turning on light bulbs come on this isn't an elementary school class type of book its a college+ book!
Also the book doest cover all you really need to know in a way that clicks all you need for the A+ exam and takes the privilege of drilling into your head useless information that the exam isn't even going to ask about and skims over the topics the A+ exam cares about ( kind of like comptia read all a+ books and made sure no book covered half of the test! )
Also the questions are simple at best and the learnkey videos require internet connection to use ( I got dial up and sadly cant wait all day to view free movies =\ especially sad when I paid as much as I did for the book that I need to register some part to view a "FREE" video ).
However id be remiss if I didn't say that this book is a great reference book and anyone starting out in computers should really read it and take it to heart hence why im giving it a high score even though it doesn't include 100% of what you need to know to pass the a+ exam. If passing the exam is your prime objective id recommend getting exam cram 2 book ( doest cover all you need for the test and also drills in useless information that isn't covered on the test as it seems most all a+ 2003 books are doing ) because it is cheap and the preplogic tests are always nice. Then id recommend either class training or some training videos such as cbtnuggets videos by Christopher Rees he truly can explain this subject in granular detail, enough for the basic concepts to be learned anyway. As I feel you cannot even try and take this A+ test and not have worked on a computer or at least seen someone else work on one ( I mean why would you! ).
Bottom line this is a good book to read and for reference just not " all you need " for the a+ exam. ( and yes I passed both tests in 3 weeks of study time and I know that the topics drilled in my head by both books were a waste of time and the topics I skimmed passed were heavily focused on the exam - KNOW YOUR SCSI! ) And of course you can look on the bright side as you only need to score a 500ish score out of 900 which means you can still miss a whole lot!
Book Review: The Book Works
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok. There have been some negative reviews about this book and I wanted to add my 2 cents to this. It is possible to pass the A+ Certification exams using little more than this book. I should know, as I personally did it. It wasn't easy, it took a lot of studying, and my scores weren't the greatest, but I did pass using little more than the book and practice exams that came on the CD with the book. I got a 574 on the Core and a 619 on the OS. Not impressive, but I'm not saying this book will make you incredible, I'm just saying you can pass using very little besides this book.
My strategy went as follows:
1) Read the book staight through for about 2 weeks, reading 150-300 pages a day while TAKING NOTES. Writing the information physically on a sheet of paper helps a lot.
2) Memorize the notes you took. Ingrain everything you think is important into your brain. And this isn't just necessarily facts. Its the concepts behind the facts. This book did a really good job with those and because of it, I was able to correctly guess a good number of the questions on the OS exam that would have otherwise stumped me.
3) Read the Objectives off CompTIA's website! This will help you catch anything that the book missed.
4) Take the practice exams with the book. I left one exam for Core and OS until I felt like I was done studying and just wanted a confidence boost. Don't underestimate this. Attitude can make a big difference. Also, don't underestimate the value of the practice exams. They are about as tough as the real thing. Some questions easier, some harder, but overall about the same difficulty.
5) Retake those practice exams until everything you missed is ingrained into your mind. There were at least 6 or 7 questions on each test I ONLY got right because I remembered getting them wrong on the practice exams.
6) Find any practice exams or questions online that you can. I opted to use some free ones, many of them only being about 10 questions or so, but they gave me other perspectives and ways to ask questions that I hadn't seen.
7) If you can, get some hands on experience. If the book is going over the Recovery Console, do it yourself. If you can picture doing things on the computer in your mind, it will help when it comes to test time.
8) Good luck! The more info you can get, the better, but with this book and your wits, you should at least be able to do better than I did. It took me about a month total of solid studying, and this is from someone who one year ago didn't even know how to build a PC, and had only made 3 before taking the test.
So overall, I think this book is worth it. I can't say anything about the competition because I haven't used it, but for about 50 bucks, this book is well written and easy to read, tells you at least MOST of what you know while being a little entertaining at the same time, and will come in handy as a great reference book. I've given it 5 stars not because its the most amazing thing written, but that it did what it was supposed to: get me to pass the A+ Exam.
I hope this review is helpful to those of you considering getting your certification!
Book Review: 5 Stars for Mike Meyers!
Summary: 5 Stars
I highly recommend the All-In-One A+ Certification, Fifth Edition. I have been a computer teacher for approximately 10 years. I incorporated A+ Certification courses into the curriculum in June of 2000. The Mike Meyers All-In-One A+ Certification books have always been my first choice for text. I credit Mike Meyers for my own success in A+ Certification. I own every All-In-One A+ Certification book starting with the one published in 1998, some used for personal use, majority for in the classroom use. I only purchase quality.
I find the All-In-One A+ Certification, Fifth Edition, to be the best book yet. Mike Meyers presents easy to understand analogies that even the most beginning student can understand and apply toward the computing. The students appreciate the easy to read format of the book and find the examples such as "the man in the box" to be very helpful (if you really want to understand CPUs and registers you really must become acquainted with "the man in the box"). The All-In-One A+ Certification, Fifth Edition clearly presents learning objectives, illustrations, notes, tips, and warnings as well as areas that are historical and conceptual, test specific, and the areas beyond A+. I have found both personally, when I was studying for A+, and for my students that this type of format is invaluable.
No book is going to be the perfect book. I find the All-In-One A+ Certification, Fifth Edition to be as close as you are going to get to a perfect study guide. I do not understand those who complain about this book. A+ Certification test preparation takes effort. The All-In-One A+ Certification, Fifth Edition provides an excellent study tool. If an individual takes time to read the book and put their own effort into assimilating the material presented they should have no problem passing the test. Those who I see fail, want everything handed to them - they want to memorize questions and answers. They do not really want to actually learn the material. The computer field is very inductive/deductive and you must be able to think for yourself. The All-In-One A+ Certification, Fifth Edition book aptly covers both core hardware and operating systems A+ topics, as well as providing an excellent overall picture of the computer field, that provides the serious computer student or technician the perspective needed for success. The test questions at the end of the chapter tend to highlight important learning objectives, and the CD included with the book provides test questions that are excellent representations of A+ test questions.
After incorporating the All-In-One A+ Certification, Fifth Edition text book in January 2004, many students have returned to report that they have passed both A+ tests and that they couldn't have done it without the Mike Myers All-In-One A+ Certification, Fifth Edition book. I say this success speaks for itself. I highly recommend this book, and as the rumors start to circulate about new Comptia A+ test changes I look forward to Mike Meyers All-In-One A+ Certification, Sixth Edition.
Book Review: Good source for exam preparation.
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this book to use for a+ exam prep (2003 objectives) after conducting a lot of research on Amazon.
My background: 8+ years of application development, technical troubleshooting, production support and PC/server maintenance experience.
My story: I am working on filling out my resume with more hardware and networking training. Before my a+ studying I was very weak at hardware related topics but somewhat proficient in Microsoft Windows OS topics. Now I am stronger in both areas.
I used two books for a+ test preparation.
A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide by Michael Meyers, Scott Jernigan (this book)
A+ Training Guide, Fifth Edition by Charles J. Brooks (please see this book on Amazon for my review)
I found the A+ All in One Exam Guide valuable for the historical and conceptual material it offered on the included hardware and os topics. The author writes with some interest and humor just like the reviews stated on Amazon. The book has a real-world feel. It is detailed in many sections and provides tips to note for topics which may be covered on the exams. This book also included 2-3 practice tests for each exam (hardware and os). I found the practice tests to be VERY valuable in studying and preparing for the exams.
I read this entire book one/two chapter(s) at a time over a period of time. I then went back over the book chapter by chapter taking notes and as I covered each chapter, I worked through the practice questions at the end of each chapter making sure to understand the details surrounding the ones which I missed. Once finished with this I took all of the practice exams in the back of this book. I was careful to study the items and explanations which I missed on the practice tests.
I would state that another book should be used with this one in order to practice and prepare for the a+ exams (2003 objectives). I believe that both of the books which I used helped my exam preparation and ability to learn the actual topics in different ways. Both books contained numerous practice questions, for study and for the exams, and the more questions you can use to learn the material the better off you will be in preparation for the actual tests.
The only complaint I have for this book (the reason for 4 stars) is that it condenses most of its information into textual descriptions rather than tables of items for direct comparison. I liked the A+ Training Guide due to its concise tables of data which allowed me to see the various comparisons of topic items such as microprocessors for example.
Book Review: Good if you put into it what you want out of it
Summary: 4 Stars
I find alot of the previous reviews extremely negative towards this book, and I have to disagree with them. I will admit there were a couple of questions that I had no clue how to anwser, but I would state that at least 90% of what I saw on the A+ test could be answered straight from the book.
I studied the book throughly, then began taking the practice exams, once I completed them I went to the author's homepage [...] and purchased test vouchers/practice exams. Basically you get 1100 more A+ Cert. questions and both of your vouchers to take your exams for less than the list price of the exams.
Now before I started taking the additional test questions I thought I was a week away from taking the test. However I found myself blown away the questions, but as I would study out the questions after I completed the test I found all the correct answers in the book, but those just didn't stick to my brain or weren't as highlighted as they probably should be. However once I was aceing the tests I signed up and passed both A+ exams the first time with 750+ scores.
I didn't study any other materials for the test. However I do get to do some PC repair with my job (but it isn't my main duty).
BOTTOM LINE:
1) BUY THE VOUCHERS/TEST QUESTIONS FROM [...] - most the questions on the extra test questions are more difficult than what you will see on the real test. And when you finish the test go back through it question by question see what you got right and find out why others were wrong (reference back to the chapter and re-read the page or two about that specfic topic)
2) GET SOME HANDS ON TIME - if you don't get to repair PC's for a living then go out and pick up some junk garage sale PC, you can usually find them for less than $25 (it's ok if it's outdated and you never plan to use it) walk through some of the book's examples, tear the thing down and build it back up. Most of the A+ material covered older or extremely generic PC components anyways.
I believe if you do what I stated anyone should be able to pass the A+.