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Rating: 
Summary: Bad questions, but still useful
Review: Mcgraw Osborne is well known for excellent books in the IT industry. Mike Meyer's All IN one A+ Certification exam guide is probably the single best book out there for those preparing to take the test. I bought this book, based on my confidence in Mcgraw Hill/Osbrorne materials."Test Yourself: A+ Certification" seems like a God-send for those of us who are trying to better prepare ourselves to take the exam. The book is strictly practice questions, filled with more than 350 questions to be exact. These questions are broken into categories and based on the percentages that CompTIA says they apear on the test. The real power of this book comes from the fact that it not only has 350 questions, but has "in depth" answers. Not only will you find out if you were right or wrong, but WHY you were right or wrong - and this makes the book not just a useful way to gadge your current expertise, but a powerful study tool that will help CORRECT your weak points and drill those critical facts into your head. You also theoretically get a lot of practice with the types of questions asked on the exam, and a chance to spot common foul ups such as mgetting a question wrong because you misread one crucial point. The problem lies in the questions themselves. They feel much harder than those from similar materials. And in many cases the questions are just BAD questions. Too often the book gives you questions that are very arguabley subjective in nature, or more advanced that what the A+ exam might actually expect you to know. There are far too many cases in which questions are way too ambiguous, offering more than one correct answer and not being specific enough to give you any certainty when choosing your answer even when you know your stuff. There was also more than one occasion where I identified a question that was CLEARLY wrong. Also the answers ussually give decent information on why a certain answer was wrong or right, but other times I found them a little lacking. Bottom line: Despite it's flaws, this book can still be a valuable tool for your A+ preperation - helping you to both asses and improve your readiness - and it's higher level of dificulty may even be helpful. However, I would like to see the next edition have much clearer questions and more refined content, and it's absolutely IMPERATIVE that the editing of a book that will be used for a STUDY TOOL be top notch (least the poor souls using the book be studying the WRONG MATERIAL). Better editing and fact checking, combined with more focused questions would have made this a must have for any soon-to-be A+ technician.
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