Rating: 
Summary: The Blind leading the Foolish
Review: This book had a Gross Amount of Errors Wich will leave you confused and angry that you baught this book you will have to re learn everything From another book It is Not recomended By Comptia, and the Guy Gives a Half effort to try and make it hummorus
DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!
Rating: 
Summary: Beware!!
Review: This is not intended for anyone that has less than 3 years of tech experience. The book does not teach you anything. It is intended to get you to pass the test. The big problem with this book is that this book is about 90% hardware and 10% OS. If you look at the table of contents, you'll see for youself. Out of a 500 page book, there are about 80 pages of win 9x, NT and win2k. This book only touches the OSes. If you want to do good on the hardware part of the test, you're all set, but wait until the OS test comes up and you're pounded with NT. I'm kicking myself for using this as a studying guide. I should have listen to all the A+ web sites out there. Not one of them promoted this Book.
Rating:
Summary: This is not a Good Study guide if you want to pass
Review: This book does not contain all the information needed to pass the a+ exam. I admit it is a good reference for a pc technician, but it simply does not contain all the necessary information needed to successfully pass the a+ exam. i wish i had know that when i took my test :)
Rating: 
Summary: A+ Certified thanks to this book!
Review: Don't get me wrong here, it's not the be-all end-all of books. I did take a college course and have had field experience, and simply decided it was the right time to challenge the exam to show what I know. I used this book as a primer for the exam. That combined with some experience made it a no-brainer, and I managed to score 928 and 902, respectively, on the exams. It makes an excellent review, and it's an easy, fun read. I recommend it to experienced techs for an entertaining review, however, for someone looking to get into computing and IT, I would strongly recommend looking elsewhere as it does not make up for actual hands-on or classroom lead instruction. I also own the Network+ for Dummies and was able to successfully challenge it. I plan on using other Dummies books as they become available to complete the MCSA cert.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Study Guide
Review: I am somewhat of a newbie to PC hardware, but this book showed me just what I needed to know for the A+ exams. Using this book as my pretest study guide, I was able to focus on just the information I needed for the exams. I liked the fact that the book doesn't include the entire history of PCs and focuses on just what you need to know for the exams. I used one of the doorstop books (Myers) for my first attempt at the exams and learned a lot about PCs, but unfortunately didn't pass. However, using this book, I was able to focus on just the information I needed for the exam and passed with no problems. Mr Gilster presents the information in a very entertaining way and this book is an easy read.
Rating:
Summary: Good for a review.....but seriously lacking in most aspects
Review: I bought this book and the A+ book written by Micheal Meyers to study for the A+ exams. I started reading them at the same time. I got about 1/4 of the way through the Dummies book when I quickly began to realize it's lack of significant content and accuracy problems(compared to Micheal Meyers' book and based on my own experience/knowledge). I shelved it and devoted the rest of my reading to Micheal Meyers' A+ book. I read all of Micheal Meyers' A+ book, took both exams back to back the same morning and passed them both. If you're serious about the A+ exam and actually want to learn something instead of just maybe squeaking through, do yourself a favor and buy MICHEAL MEYERS' book. I would recommend the A+ for Dummies book as a reference only and not as a serious study/learning tool.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't make this your sole study guide
Review: I took the A+ exam two years ago when the software objectives covered Windows95/DOS, and had unwisely used Ron Gilster's "A+ Certification For Dummies" as my sole preparation material for the test. I barely passed the core exam and had to re-take the software portion, which was no surprise given the treatment (two cursory chapters) it received in Gilster's book. In preparation for my second stab at the software exam, I purchased Sybex's study guide for the A+ certification, crammed for about a month or so and passed the test easily. I decided to read the latest revised edition of Gilster's book, curious to see if he had made any amendments (aside from the new exam objectives) since the last time. One of the major drawbacks of this book's previous edition was that it lacked detailed illustrations of most major hardware components, unlike Sybex's study guides. To his credit, Gilster has provided better illustrations of the motherboard form factors, PROM, EPROM and EEPROM chips and other hardware components than the previous edition. Other than that however, he hasn't really added anything new to the core part of the book, aside from what passed for new processors at the time of the book's publication date. When I took the core exam, the first question concerned EMI (electromagnetic interference), which I answered incorrectly. Neither this edition nor the previous one contain descriptions of what EMI is. Bottom line: if you're serious about passing the test, your best bet is to purchase Sybex's study guide for the A+ exam. You'll pay an arm and a leg, but you'll get all the info you need, plus color illustrations. This book is extremely useful for people interested in learning how the various components of a computer operate, not for prospective computer technicians looking to pass the A+ exam.
Rating:
Summary: Leaves a LOT to be desired
Review: A mistake or three is expected in any publication, no matter how well it has been edited. This book, unfortunately went for broke on how many mistakes it could have. Within the first three sections I found over 20 mistakes. The worst were a couple of questions in the back of a section whose answers didn't even square with the material in the section! Just an all around bad attempt at a "for dummies" book. If people wanting to get certified rely on this book, they truly will end up with the label of dummy. Go with the Mike Meyers books, please!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Good teaching for whats in it.......
Review: With the a+ practice test that came with it after reading the book cover to cover, I made a 950. But I just got back from a vica computer maintenece competition and on thier newer a+ test I got a 560. The book is good if you are taking the a+ from five years ago. In the book they say that in the near future they might have 200-300mhz computers. THATS HOW OLD IT IS.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this book without knowing your stuff first
Review: I passed both exams but it was definately NOT because of this book. I went into the test confident because I knew the material in the book and did great on the practice exams at ... , but left my testing session certified but humbled. Both examcram's practice tests and this book did NOT cover what was on the test. Not even close. Had I not known what I was doing before I started studying, I would have failed miserably. Perhaps this book was good before the updates in 2001-2002, but now spend your money elsewhere. I do not know a good book, but I purchased my Network+ book from a different publisher, it was the Network+ Certification Study Guide. I will rate it upon completion also.
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