A+ Sybex e-trainer CD-ROM, Boxed-Set

The CD-ROM consists of two basic parts: training and assessment exams. When you start up the software training mode, you are asked to take an assessment exam, which determines where your weak points are and suggests which courses you need to take. Sybex has assumed that you'll be the only person studying, though--there are no options, passwords, or logins to support multiple users.

Instruction consists of clear and authoritative audio narration accompanied by PowerPoint-like slides, using graphics and pictures (but not animations) when necessary, which explain basic computer concepts in ways that should be easily understood by novices and PC experts alike. The screen text that accompanies the audio is fairly sparse, is usually made up of phrases or sentences taken directly from the narration, and generally adds nothing to the audio information--in fact, it's quite boring. And sadly, you can't look at anything else while you're using the e-trainer, since a minor glitch switches the audio off if the A+ software isn't in the foreground. (So you can't, for example, listen to the quality audio narrative in the background while surfing the Web.)

The graphics are slightly grainy but well-photographed, though some might be confusing to the novice: particularly the section covering computer architectures, which uses pictures of PC cards to show the different types of buses--without an explanation that the cards are manufactured to fit into the bus slots. And given that so much of the PC can be explained visually, the producers could have easily included animations to both clarify some of the more boring topics and liven up the bland screens.

Pre-tests before every major topic check your knowledge before you proceed, and you can take randomized tests made up of questions from any (or all) of the three main areas (hardware, software, and customer service). There are impressively few (only 12 out of 120) repeat questions in the four 30-question tests from the "software" section. That means there's a lot of replayability in the sample tests. The questions themselves are wide-ranging and well-written, although they tend to err on the easy side. One major weakness, particularly for the A+ exam, is that there seem to be only a handful of questions dealing with IRQ, DMAs, and memory addresses--critical questions that almost invariably come up on the A+. If you buy this package, make sure you do some outside studying on these.

The software stumbles badly in the post-test analysis. You're unable to scroll through just your wrong answers, or even mark them for future reference-- instead, you're presented with a screen full of answers, without the slightest reference to the questions that may have confused you. If, as most people do, you actually want to look at all of your missed questions with the correct answers to see where you went wrong, it's a painful process. You are forced to click on the wrong answer for every question you want to look at, drill down to the question screen, and then exit out and scroll back down to get to the next question. Doing this 10 or 20 times on a 60-question test quickly gets annoying. However, the questions are plentiful and worth the package alone--and there's instruction galore to be found here. If the pitfalls described sound like kvetching and carping to you, this is definitely a package you should pick up. William Steinmetz

Topics covered: A+ training in three main areas of study, each mapping to an exam objective--hardware, software, and the oft-missed customer service. The depth of topics covered in each of these sections is considerable, with 72 subtopics covered in the "hardware" section alone; unlike many computer training courses, this one provides more than enough bang for the buck.