A+ All-In-One Certification Exam Guide [With CDROM]

This third edition of "A+ All-In-One Certification Exam Guide" is one of the first (and currently one of the very few) A+ Exam preparation books that cover the new 2001 exam.In case you are not familiar with the name Michael Meyers, he is major name in PC hardware book authoring. He has a wonderful writing style that makes concepts easy to understand. This book uses excellent analogies and illustrations to further clarify and explain concepts. While the book may appear daunting at 1260+ pages, keep in mind that much of that length is due to the heavy use of illustrations, photos, tables, and screenshots. Remove these extremely helpful and virtually essential items, and I would suspect a book of one-half to two-thirds the size would be the result.Each chapter concludes with review questions and their answers. While not enough on their own to serve as the only practice exam as part of your exam preparation, they do help considerably to solidify the concepts presented in the chapter, and test your understanding.One of the major benefits of this book is that is not solely aimed at A+ Exam preparation, but on PC's as a whole. While presenting the material, Meyers identifies and breaks it up into three categories (as explained in the book's introduction):1) Historical/Conceptual: Material not on the A+ exams, but it is knowledge that will help you understand the material that is on the A+ exams more clearly.2) Test Specific: Topics that are on the A+ exams.3) Beyond A+: More advanced issues that most likely will not be on the A+ exams (but would be beneficial additional information).This categorization of the material makes the book an excellent textbook and subsequent study guide.This book can easily help anyone learn and understand the material needed for A+ Certification. You will find Myers to be knowledgeable and an easy to read author. I highly recommend this book as your choice for an A+ Exam preparation book.There is, however, one caveat: The enclosed CD-ROM, which contains practice exams published by Total Seminars, has some bugs. The most prominent one is that the software will (currently) not run on Windows NT or 2000. This fact and other bug related information is available at Total Seminar's web site.... Once you get around these bugs, the testing software is pretty good. Even without the enclosed software, the book is well worth the price.

When I took my A+ tests I used the second edition of Mike Meyers book. This choice was based on a recommendation from several people and I was certainly glad I did. Now that I am a technical instructor there is no doubt as to what I will use on the classroom to help the students pass the newest exam - the third edition.Mike Meyers is the master of the A+ exam and this book is loaded with more than enough information to pass the exam. After reading through the book I can now understand what made this book one of the most anticipated books, the author simply covers everything in great detail and makes sure you are fully prepared for the exam. About the only thing this book doesn't do is take the exams for you.Updated to the newest exam, this 1260 page book starts with the breakdown of the pc, moves on to microprocessors, ram, bios and motherboards, buses, power supply, modems, printers, portable computers, storage systems, cd-roms, sound and video.Thinking you might be done, not even close. Meyers then breaks down operating systems starting off with DOS, and then to Windows 3.X and 9.X. Excellent coverage for NT and 2000 are also a major part of this book. Finally you have coverage of the networking side of things and the information goes far beyond the A+ arena. Normally this would be enough material and information for anyone, but what separates Mike Meyers from the rest of the pack is the other things his books include. There is review Questions, information beyond the A+ objectives, pictures, figures, tables, screen shots and even a pull out poster of the motherboard. Every section is detailed yet easy to follow and understand and comprehend. The book includes a cd-rom that has 6 practice tests, if this is not enough you can go to the Total Seminars website and order more. There are video clips, tools and utilities for technicians completing and rounding out what I would say is probably the best and must buy for every technician on any level.

Before I started studying for the A + exam with this book, I was a bit leery about it because of the fact that I had very limited hardware experience. I had questions like "how realistic is going for this certification when I don't have experience?" and "Will I be able to understand the material because I don't have the experience?" Thanks to Michael Meyers, the answer to that second question is YES. I am writing this for all the people out there like me, who are unsure whether they will be able to learn all of the information necessary to pass the exam just by reading this book. Meyers made all the material in the book very easy to understand. Instead of throwing a ton of technical jargon at you, he explains things throughout the book in a very simple, concise way. One of the criticisms I saw in a few other reviews was that he spent too much time talking about old, obsolete equipment. I personally liked that. Because the older equipment is simpler, it makes it easier to understand concepts(especially address busses)and apply that knowledge to newer, more complex computers. To get to the point, even if you aren't a tech right now, if you read this book you WILL understand it and you will pass the exam. I got a 87% on the core and a 90 % on windows/msdos and more importantly, when I do get a tech job, I am confident that I will be able to apply the knowledge without a problem. as highly as I reccomend this book, it is still good to take alot of practice exams.

This book is excellent and very informative. It spends a whole chapter on SCSI drives. It not only prepared me for the exam, it helped me with my own PC. This book tells you everything you need to know to build and fix PC's. It is not just a "learn the test" book. I plan on buying his Network+ book next!

I work with TeraTRAIN - an Information Technology Training program. We highly recommend the Meyers book to our students. This book does an excellent job of giving detailed information on a wide variety of topics and does so in an INTERESTING WAY! Meyers makes it easy for anyone to understand and learn. In addition, Meyers uses more pictures and illustrations than any other A+ book that I have seen. Errors are a BIG problem in many technical books. Meyers does an excellent job of paying attention to the details and giving CORRECT information. This book is a great reference even AFTER you pass you certification test, or if you aren't even interested in taking the test. You can't lose with the REAL WORLD knowledge that he puts out. Hats off to Meyers for the best A+ book in the business.