Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: This Book is excellent, I recomend anyone pick up this Book. Even if your not going into the IT industry and are just interested in computers. You will learn so much from this book in just the first few hours of reading it. I am studying in Conjunction with Mike's "A+ Certifcation Passport," another Excellent book to buy. Get this book to Learn the Material, when your done Reading this one Read the Passport. When your done you will pass the Test!!! I Passed the Hardware just reading this book, taking the second test this coming wednesday.
Rating:
Summary: Un libro muy ameno, tecnico e ilustrado
Review: Acabo de concluir con este libro, la verdad es que me parecio muy interesante por diferentes razones:- Esta lleno de ilustraciones de todo tipo, el autor realmente hizo un buen esfuerzo al respecto, es elogiable.
- Su contenido tecnico es de muy buena calidad, cubre los temas relacionados a la certificacion y a la vida diaria con detalle.
- Los temas de la certificacion son cubiertos adecuadamente y cada capitulo posee un extra donde el autor incluye informacion que considera importante en la actividad tecnica, elogiable pues no solamente se preocupa en la aprobacion del test sino tambien en brindar consejos de utilidad.
- Esta lleno de humor, reiras bastante mientras estudias. El unico problema que he hallado en este libro es un par de pequenas contradicciones en cuanto a procesadores. En dos diferentes partes del libro, el autor menciona diferentes parametros para el mismo procesador. Lo descubriras facilmente. Este libro vale la pena. Saludos.
Rating: 
Summary: CD could be much better
Review: The overall book is OK; the chapters are broken down into specific subject areas and are informative. One of the main reasons I purchased this book was for the tests on the CD; there are only 45 test questions on the entire CD! This was extremely disappointing and a rip-off. If you're looking for a good CD supplement, DON'T buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not all you need
Review: There's no doubt about it, this book will help you prepare for the A+ exam, but do not use it exclusively. I liked the conversational style, and the historical/conceptual information aids in understanding present technology. Some of the explanations helped me to better understand concepts which my other main reference (Jean Andrews, "Enhanced A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC)did not always elaborate on. This book also contained information which my other book did not. What I didn't like? Some terms/concepts are introduced prior to their explanations. This could potentially confuse a reader if s/he has had no prior exposure to this term/concept. In some cases, the explanation can be found a few pages later. Also, once into the test specific section in each chapter, what really is on the test is not clearly designated. I guess I was a little spoiled with the Andrews book (even though it is not perfect either), because test specific material is clearly marked along with its corresponding objective(s) for the exam. Furthermore, I could not get the CD to work without ripping out some registry entries, though I think this was my system because it did work on other PCs. It is interesting that one reviewer found that reading this book and passing A+ did not prepare him to be a PC technician. I would fully agree with this, but this is not fault of this book. Meyer's book merely prepares you for the A+ exam, which validates your skills as an entry level technician. No book could or should ever claim that it could develop the type of skills that are gained through the actual day to day experience gained by working with PCs. In nearly any career, experience is gained by doing, not by reading or studying alone. The book does a good job in helping prepare for A+, but experience can only be gained through real world application of what you've learned. Use this book along with a few others, as many practice tests as you can find, and by all means get a computer or 2 you can potentially dispose of and starting tinkering!!
Rating:
Summary: Great, great book!
Review: I have been a computer tech for some time now, but I finally decided to make it official by taking the A+ exam. Looking for a book that would help me see how the exam would be like, what types of questions would be asked, etc. I must say that I was very surprised at the quality of the book! The author goes into detail on everything you need to know about the exam and about the profession of techs in general. It's obvious that he knows what he's talking about! The text is excellent, the test questions are very similar to what was on the exam, so I highly recommend it. About the only semi-sore spot was the weird software that came with the cd, as the practice exams on it would only install on one of my five computers, and on that system it tended to crash a lot. But the video that was on the cd was great, even if he (The author) was a bit over-enthusiastic with the subject matter. =) This book now sits above my main system for easy reference, and I use it for that purpose more times than I would have thought. You can't go wrong with the book!
Rating:
Summary: All in one is all you need.
Review: This is a fantastic book. I will use it on the job forever and cannot believe it is 1200 pages long because it was a breeze to read. Combine this with...... A+ questions and you are guaranteed to pass. I tried everything in the book Mike suggests and it all works.
They should spend more time on debugging the cd however and an electronic version of the book would put my review over the top. Every good tech should own a copy of this and it should be the bible of computer technicians. I wrote the A+ exam and scored 900+ on each exam and i have just bought his N+ book and it is equally as good. Good luck to all your cybergeeks out there and grap a copy of the best book out there for A+ certification. Cheers.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: I was really disappointed with this book. I have the impression that it is the result of a quick update to its older edition without being focused on the newer material on the A+ exams. Lot's of history and cute drawings, but also lots of errors. I also used Ron Gilster's A+ Certification For Dummies, which I felt did a better job in actually getting me ready for the tests.
Rating: 
Summary: A+ all in one.. Not quite
Review: I bought this book hoping that it would help me vastly in getting my A+ certification. I read the book cover to cover and did all the practice exams many times. I took the core hardware part of the test and passed. I read the book's O/S part over and over again until i couldnt take it anymore and went up for the test. None of the questions in the book matched up to the real A+ test. So i just figured i didnt study it enough and pick up enough so i read it all through again and again until i could practically recite the book from memory and i failed again. This book goes into details about topics that it does not need to and it just a waste of you time when it comes to the O/S part. It helped somewhat on the hardware part of the test. Do not just use this book as your primary means of studying for the A+ exam.
Rating:
Summary: Contrary to Cover Statement, Book is NOT "All You Need"
Review: I bought this book in part because of the reassuring statement on the cover that it '...is All You Need'. The A+ exam, which I just passed, has a hardware component and a software (Windows) component. This book, and a little tinkering I had done at home, was adequate preparation for the hardware exam, but the software exam covered far more than is in this book. I would go ahead and receommend this book, but don't stop here - find a better reference source for the software exam... or risk spending over $100 just to fail it. Other irritations about this book: 1) The publisher was in such a hurry to get this to press, that it was printed with DOZENS of important typographical and content errors!!! They don't tell you in the book, but before you begin reading it, you need to go to the publisher's website to get the lengthy list of corrections! 2) The included CD flat out would not work. Fortunately, the publisher mailed a new one for free - but still, it's another unwelcome hassle. For [price], I would have expected not to have to face these problems.
Rating:
Summary: Great Guide
Review: I thought I had a detailed backgroup in IT Support and a solid knowledge of PC hardware and OS systems. I read this book cover to cover and used it as a study guide, I was impressed with all the little finer things the book was able to clearly explain. If you are a n00b or a IT buff looking to brush up your skills or go for the Comptia A+ cert. I recommend this book as a great aid to assist you.
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