Rating: 
Summary: Fast, Effective and In Depth
Review: A great, well written, fast approach to A+ Certification.
Rating:
Summary: I passed today....
Review: Hey...I passed today the OS exam and pased the core exam a while ago..anyway, the book is really great and well organized and the practice tests are cool and good.
Kinan.
Rating:
Summary: This is the one you want
Review: I approached this certification with some self-taught expertise, but I am essentially a novice. The guide assumes this fact and leads you through a systematic, thoughtful, easy to follow road that should lead to certification. I found the author to be conversational without being chatty, the material to be effectively laid out and presented. The tables and charts were very useful. The pictures were readable, not grainy or overly dark. The final review is essentially an "exam cram", which is useful for that last minute review before the exam. I have taken and passed the A+ exam using this guide and Prep Logic exams. I bought the full Prep Logic because I felt like the samples included with this book were such good practice. Probably overkill, as you can most likely pass the test with just the text and the sample questions. I am now working on Network+ and am using Bird and harwood's Network+ guide by QUE, which I also highly reccomend. Hope this helps some and best of luck on your journey.
Rating: 
Summary: Very amateurish writing style and careless presentation...
Review: I bought this (4th edition) based on recommendations from reviewers of other A+ books, and I regret that now. I should have done more research. In fact I'm returning it to Amazon today.After reading the book for 30 minutes last night, I determined to return it because - the author writes passively, reducing not-so-exciting subject material into blurry facts - he introduces many acronyms without defining them. This is downright unforgivable. - he makes statements that cause me to ask more questions, which he does not answer. I recall specifically a statement about how plugging and unplugging "hot-swappable" input devices (mice, for example) can cause system instability, or even crashes. Why? He doesn't say. He doesn't address the apparent contradiction between hot-swappable and system instability. The whole idea of hot-swappable is that it doesn't affect system stability. - finally, the book is huge, almost twice as thick as the more complex Network + Training Guide from the same publisher. A big reason for this: the book is about 30% white space. If you want to pass the A+ without actually learning anything, then buy a cram guide with flash cards. But don't suffer through this book. I cannot recommend another book because I'm still searching, but I recommend you do what I'm going to do: go to your local bookstore and read a few pages from each. Remember, they all follow the same outline because they all address the same exam. And do yourself a favor and buy a comprehensive PC hardware guide to supplement the minimalist exam facts.
Rating: 
Summary: What a joke
Review: I just passed the A+ Oper Sys Technologies 220-302 scoring 637 (Passing Score: 505); and on 8 Mar 2004, I passed A+ Core Hardwr. 220-301 scoring 586 (Passing Score: 515). These new exams can be very challenging --CompTIA seem well-focused on raising the value of their A+ Certification, indeed. Charles Brooks' 5th ed. Trng. Guide, Marcraft A+ Cert. Concepts & Practice tests(ExamGear2), Measure-UP, and Prep-Logic exam simulators, and Jean Andrews' A+ In-Depth guide (used as a reference) all contributed to my success. It must be said that C.Brooks' trng. guide's Fast Facts + Practice Exam at the back of the book are excellent warm-ups an hour or so before the actual exam! There were, of course, 6% - 9% questions on the exam that were not in either stdy. guides, this is to be expected as CompTIA introduces, unannounced, beta questions on their A+ exam --beta questions do not +/- affect one's score; even so, I believe that if one were to use quality study resources, one should do good. The A+ Training Guide 5th ed. and J.Andrews' A+ IN-Depth are my newest references for some time to come. I'll give the nod to Brooks' guide for A+ cert preparation because it's closely aligned/keyed to each Domain objective whereas the other isn't. I also began work on my Network+ Cert. using the Network+ Trng. Guide (by Mike Harwood) which appears to be another winner. Que publishing seems to be on a winning streak with these two. Ps. Many people are failing this new A+ exam, so prepare well! It's virtually impossible to overprepare on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Update to my 25 Jan 2004 Review
Review: I just passed the A+ Oper Sys Technologies 220-302 scoring 637 (Passing Score: 505); and on 8 Mar 2004, I passed A+ Core Hardwr. 220-301 scoring 586 (Passing Score: 515). These new exams can be very challenging --CompTIA seem well-focused on raising the value of their A+ Certification, indeed. Charles Brooks' 5th ed. Trng. Guide, Marcraft A+ Cert. Concepts & Practice tests(ExamGear2), Measure-UP, and Prep-Logic exam simulators, and Jean Andrews' A+ In-Depth guide (used as a reference) all contributed to my success. It must be said that C.Brooks' trng. guide's Fast Facts + Practice Exam at the back of the book are excellent warm-ups an hour or so before the actual exam! There were, of course, 6% - 9% questions on the exam that were not in either stdy. guides, this is to be expected as CompTIA introduces, unannounced, beta questions on their A+ exam --beta questions do not +/- affect one's score; even so, I believe that if one were to use quality study resources, one should do good. The A+ Training Guide 5th ed. and J.Andrews' A+ IN-Depth are my newest references for some time to come. I'll give the nod to Brooks' guide for A+ cert preparation because it's closely aligned/keyed to each Domain objective whereas the other isn't. I also began work on my Network+ Cert. using the Network+ Trng. Guide (by Mike Harwood) which appears to be another winner. Que publishing seems to be on a winning streak with these two. Ps. Many people are failing this new A+ exam, so prepare well! It's virtually impossible to overprepare on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent source for exam study.
Review: 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+ Training Guide, Fifth Edition by Charles J. Brooks (this book)
A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide by Michael Meyers, Scott Jernigan (please see this book on Amazon for my review)
I really liked this A+ Training Guide because it was very detailed and it presented most of the material in concise tabular format. This made it easier for me to compare and study various items side-by-side. It included VERY helpful and clearly documented exam tips in each chapter, comprehensive study questions for each chapter and numerous tables of related data were provided for comparison. I found the two preplogic exams, which were also included in this book, to be very valuable preparation as well.
I read this entire book one/two chapter(s) at a time over a period of time. 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 both preplogic exams in the back of this book. I was careful to study the items and explanations which I missed on the practice tests. I then went back through each chapter, studied the Exam Tips items more comprehensively, and took detailed notes relating to each exam tip item.
This was my favorite book to use for studying because of the direct, concise, tabular layout and format. This is purely a personal preference thing; however, I believe that both books 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.
Rating:
Summary: Worth Every Penny....so far; Superb.
Review: I started preparation for the 2003 A+ exams using "A+ In Depth" by Jean Andrews along with the included Measure-Up testing software. But, decided to turn to an additional study guide by the 3rd or 4th chapter only because of a recurring frustration: some end-of-chapter review questions didn't correlate with the coverage, they had to do with information and concepts not yet presented. I became distracted, perhaps annoyed. So, I decided to turn to Charles Brooks' A+ Trng. Guide, 5th Edition, as an additional resource after doing some research. I am glad I did. I've only uncovered one(1), maybe two(2) inaccuracies in the 7 chapters I've covered so far. Let me just say that the author knows and understands the hardware concepts extremely well, and he does a good presentation for the intended audience. I am now using both books as complements because Ms. Andrews' is very in-depth as the title suggest, and equally interesting with a different approach. I rely more on the C.Brooks' chapter review questions though which are consistently relevant. All in all, both study guides along with the Measure-Up(J.A.) and PrepLogic(C.B.) testing software ought to sow an enduring seed way beyond the A+ certification exam.
Rating:
Summary: Worth Every Penny....so far; Superb.
Review: I started preparation for the 2003 A+ exams using "A+ In Depth" by Jean Andrews along with the included Measure-Up testing software. But, decided to turn to an additional study guide by the 3rd or 4th chapter only because of a recurring frustration: some end-of-chapter review questions didn't correlate with the coverage, they had to do with information and concepts not yet presented. I became distracted, perhaps annoyed. So, I decided to turn to Charles Brooks' A+ Trng. Guide, 5th Edition, as an additional resource after doing some research. I am glad I did. I've only uncovered one(1), maybe two(2) inaccuracies in the 7 chapters I've covered so far. Let me just say that the author knows and understands the hardware concepts extremely well, and he does a good presentation for the intended audience. I am now using both books as complements because Ms. Andrews' is very in-depth as the title suggest, and equally interesting with a different approach. I rely more on the C.Brooks' chapter review questions though which are consistently relevant. All in all, both study guides along with the Measure-Up(J.A.) and PrepLogic(C.B.) testing software ought to sow an enduring seed way beyond the A+ certification exam.
Rating: 
Summary: I want you to pass
Review: I took the hardware portion of the A+ certifcation test just a few days ago and passed. It wasnt by a big margin, but nevertheless I want you to pass so I'm writing this. I think this is a good book. One reason I bought it was because it was recently published(2004), however it's now 2005. I think they still use the 2003 objectives. One thing I like is that this book repeats concepts throughout several chapters. The practice test questions on the CDROM (PrepLogic)were good help to. I made sure I went through all of them. When you buy the book you get a discount on test vouchers when you purchace them through Marcraft (sp). Marcraft also sends you their own practice CD test questions which helps even though they are very similar to the ones on the PrepLogic CD which comes with the book. I have had some expericene with computers, but I really havent had on the job experience so thats why I wanted to get certified. The book goes into depth on a lot of stuff that I proabably have forgotton by now. There are a couple of test questions on the test that I dont recall seeing anywhere in the book. If you really buckle down you can pass. I guess like everyone else I would reccommend another book, although I just used the book and 2 practice cd tests.
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