Rating: 
Summary: Great book!!
Review: Just passed the A+ hardware exam earlier today. I passed the A+ OS a few weeks ago. This book is fabulous. It goes into some pretty good detail without giving you too much. Granted I used some study questions (NO BRAINDUMPS!!), but I tell you this book played a great role in preparing me for the exam.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Review Book for Experienced Computer Techs
Review: Mike Meyers' A+ Certification Passport is mostly useful for experienced computer technicians who know the information already but need to refresh their understanding of certain topics or memorize specific information before taking CompTIA's A+ exams. That said, this book only covers the very basics of computer hardware and software as it applies to the A+ exams. For a more in depth understanding of the subject matter refer to Mike Meyers' All-In-One Certification Guide. Good Points About the Book:
- Short to the point chapters that can be read and understood within an hour's time.
- Alerts and sidebars that inform the reader to issues stressed or not stressed in the A+ exams
- Easy to read, conversational style relation of the material that helps move the reader along from topic to topic.
- No overblown explanations or analogies of any topic.
- Included CDRom that contains practice tests for both the software and Hardware exam. (Many online resources are also available via the Internet. Just do a search for "COMPTIA FREE TESTS" at your favorite Internet Portal to find them. Careful, some sites are much better than others.) Bad Points About the Book:
- Useless travel theme that does nothing to aid the reader.
- Objectives of the CompTIA test are not laid out for the reader within the chapters as one might expect from a "Cram" book like this. (Go to CompTIA's web sit for more information about exam objectives)
- Unless you are an experienced computer tech this book will not prepare you for the exam.
- No cram sheet included with the book for last minute preparation. Why? Again, I am awarding the 4 starts because it is a good refresher for an experienced computer technician, newbies should look more in depth books and get lots of hands on training before attempting the real tests. If and when you are confident that you are ready for the actual tests, take the provided practice exams. If you can score 75 to 80 percent correct the first time you take both practice tests you will very likely pass the real exams. Notice I wrote the first time. If you fail the practice tests the first time you take them, be sure not to review the answers to the questions. If you failed them, you were not ready to take the tests so reviewing the answers will ruin the effectiveness of the practice exams for when you need to come back to them. Good Luck
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: Reading Mike Meyers' Series of books have helped me in my adventure to A+ certification. Including the A+ Certification Passport, which is a marvolous short book filled with tons of info to know. Passing the A+ certification exam is not easy. Studying is the key to knowledge. By using the passport, Mike Meyers All-In-One Certification book and A+ Lab Manual will help you towards victory.
Rating:
Summary: All the best material in one place.
Review: So any interested in COMPTIA certifications, the A+ has undergone a revision and leave it Mike Meyers to once again lead the pack in creating a great prep tool for the exams. The Passport series is great addition to the material needed to pass the exam. If you are looking for the go to book this is not that book, what this book does is cover each objective by giving you a good overview of the material and pointing out the finer details of the exam. The book is made of the person who is in need of material to make sure they have covered everything before taking the exam. The book has over 625 pages filled with explanations and pictures, I think that some of the pictures could have been in color to give the reader a better understanding of the material, but it does not detract form the overall presentation of the information. The book is divided into 2 sections, first is the Core hardware and the second is the Operating Systems. The material is technically accurate and up to date so there is no need to worry about studying the wrong information. There is a cd included has practice exam material for the final preparation tool. Couple this book with Mike Meyers All In One Guide and you have the unbeatable combination. Overall since I have been teaching A+ Mike Meyers is the name to trust and this makes studying a whole easier.
Rating:
Summary: Meyers never cease to amaze me - a great product once again.
Review: The A+ Exam has changed since I took it about three years ago. Since there is a need for each technician to make sure they are current with exam new books are required. Also if you are in pursuit of the certification it is a good idea to have a book that can help you out to give you that final prep you'll need. Either way this may the book to get a hold of. Mike Meyers is the most respected name in the A+ Certification arena and this is another example of how he has taken the opportunity to help you out. The 500 plus page manual starts of with the Hardware exam covering topics like COM/LPT ports, keyboards, mouse, video, audio, NICs, modems, USB and SCSI. From there you'll covers exam objective like ESD, and Safety, EMI and hazard material, motherboards, power supplies, memory, buses, processors from the Pentium to the Pentium 4, although I think coverage of the older CPU might also be helpful. Different types of RAM such as DRAM, SRAM, EDO and FP, IDE and SCSI hard drives, I/O Addressing, IRQs and finally DMAs. Installation, configuration and troubleshooting, portable, printer and networking round out this section. In the Operating Technologies section DOS, Windows 9.X, NT Workstation and 2000 Professional are given their coverage. Again adding Windows 3.X could only help but does not subtract anything by being left out. Networking and troubleshooting finish out this section as well. There is also a cd included with 2 practice exams and overall this book does cover each objective very well. Used with Mike Meyers All in One Certification guide you may just have the unbeatable combination.
Rating:
Summary: I Just passed both A+ tests - This book REALLY helped!
Review: The Mike Meyers' A+ Certification Passport book is the best one I've read. I purchased four other books and found this one the most helpful. I have other books that were far more exhaustive, yet this one quickly got to the heart of the matter without skimping on the best parts of the material for both tests. I found the Win2k info quite helpful. ONE NOTE: I recommend anyone who takes the A+ certifications (two tests) to not just buy one book. While I found this one the best, different authors focus differently on certain areas. THIS ONE IS THE MOST LOGICALLY laid out book - and all the 'exam tips' - they are great indicators on what areas to really study. I studied this book until I felt VERY familiar with the material and I passed the A+ first time. I found the hardware portion VERY helpful, Because of my previous experience as an NT4 Server sysadmin, I only skim-read the OS portion . What I read in this book of the OS portion (Win2k) was a great help. The hardware portion of this book was fantastic. I highly recommend this book and will also keep it as a reference.
Rating:
Summary: Simply great!
Review: This book does a wonderful job of telling you exactly what you need to know for the exam. I wouldn't use just this book as you really need to know a bit more about the theory behind the technology to be a good tech. Use this along with the All in One book by Meyers and you'll be set.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Enough Information, even for its own exams!
Review: This book doesn't provide enough information. Even with its own online practice exams, there are many questions that you can't answer after reading the book. For example: The definition of dot pitch is ______ D. The diagonal distance between two phosphours of the same color. This question was on its own practice exam, and it pointed to Chapter 9. Yet after scanning all of Chapter 9, this term "dot pitch" didn't appear anywhere! It's also not in its own index! And this is just one example. Many other questions are the same. If you are studying for this exam, don't rely on this book alone. Use a more thorough book. This book is alright for reviewing critical information, but isn't exhaustive enough.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for both exams
Review: This book has all you need for the two A+ exams. It's written very clearly and thoroughly. I liked the "passport" approach - it broke items into clear pieces. The book was well organized and clear. The exam on the included CD had a couple of answers that were wrong, but overall, this is a great way to learn the subjects, for the price. I took the two tests on the same day - 30 minutes total, for both tests, and I passed. If I were to recommend only one A+ book to friends, this would be it.
Rating: 
Summary: Fairly concise and easy to read
Review: This book is a study guide for the A+ Certification exam. Like the exam, it is organized into 2 parts, hardware and operating systems. The text is quite easy to read compared to other technical guides of its type. The book is clearly a study guide, and would not be very useful as a guide for fixing hardware or software problems. The chapters and information are quite concise and geared towards letting the reader know what kinds of topics and questions might appear on the exams. Nevertheless, Meyers does include comments based on his own experience with computer work that seem quite useful. Each chapter identifies exam objectives and includes exam tips as well as sample questions and answers. The book includes quite a few high quality photographs that are very useful for clarifying information. The accompanying CD-ROM has two sample exams, one for hardware and one for software. Users can choose to view answers and explanations for the exam questions. I had no problems installing the exam software on my computer in Win2000. Overall, I found the book somewhat useful, but not perfect. There were a few areas where I needed more information that goes beyond the simple review format found in the book. In several chapters, at least one of the review questions covered material from another chapter. I wasn't sure, but it seemed that the topics of a few of the questions from the CD-ROM exams weren't mentioned in the book at all. If you already have pretty good knowledge about computer hardware and operating systems and you are looking for a concise A+ test review guide, this book may help you. But if you are looking to learn more about how hardware works and how to upgrade hardware yourself, it might be better to look for a book with more in-depth coverage.
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