Rating: 
Summary: Near Useless
Review: I just passed my A+ Certification and this was the book that I chhose to purchase to assist me in my studying. What a waste. The question and answer format was not like the test. There were no graphics in the book like on the test. This book covered all the areas equally vice weighted like the test. If you need study or test questions to prepare for your test I recommend that you look elswhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Its great to review for practice
Review: I used this book to prepare for my A+ exam. I found it very useful. I also found it useful as a supplement to my classroom teaching
Rating:
Summary: Not Like The Test At All!
Review: I was hesitant when I purchased this book but not having worked in the IT industry before, I wanted to get as much help as possible. The questions in the 2nd edition could be insightful and helpful to some folks, but this book did nothing but frustrate me. After a few months of studying other books and material from several web sites, I was seeing material in this book for the first time. And guess what! That material was not on the exam! Save your money and stick with the A+ For Dummies and Mr. Meyer's A+ Certification books.
Rating: 
Summary: An essential and outstanding study guide.
Review: I've read them all, and this was by far the best. Hundreds of carefully worded questions covering all the issues covered on my August 24, l998 exam! The answers for each question instruct and clarify. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Do you want to be paralyzed by fear?
Review: If I could, this book would get 0 Stars. Their style of writing and answering the questions was inconsistant at best, and downright deceptive at worst. Some questions ask for multiple answers, others that need more than one answer do not indicate it. If your real desire was to be paralyzed by fear that you may leave out a possible answer on the test, then this is the book for you. By the time that I got to the last tests in this book, I was so afraid of not checking enough answers, or checking too many, that I just flipped to the answers and looked it up. There are a whole slew of practice tests out there. Pay to unlock that questions on the CD in the Michael Myers book, or find another resource. You will learn more, and have more confidence.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK
Review: If you are studying for the A+ Certification, than this is NOT the book to buy. The questions poised are ones that would indicate to us the author wanted to pad his bank account. He says that they are the "type" of questions found on the exam....WRONG. The questions are non-sense, and stupidly worded. The real test ONLY asks for one answer per question. Shame on the author! We passed the exam yesterday BUT not because of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great practice exam source
Review: If you don't mind using a book instead of an exam software package, then this book is for you. This book had around 800+ helpful practice questions for the A+ exam. If you pass these questions then you should pass the real exam. Less expensive that other A+ practice exams on the market
Rating:
Summary: This book has dozens of errors - Buy a different one!
Review: Need I say more? How can you study in confidence after you have spent $70 on the box set, and find dozens of errors and inaccuracies throughout the book. I wonder how many mistakes I didn't catch and will get wrong on the exam. I feel like I should be paid as the technical editor of this book. Do yourself a favor and search for something similar from Ziff-Davis or IDG.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a very impressive effort
Review: On the plus side, there are 1,052 questions in the text. They're also harder then the actual A+ exam questions, in that they use the 'choose all that apply' multiple choice format. You really need to know your stuff to do well on these questions.On the minus side, the answers are often plain flat Wrong! And this is compounded by explanations that have obviously been dreamt up on the spot by the authors, who apparently would prefer to resort to BS and bafflegab then pause to look up the correct answer. An example: the questions insist that the location of an IDE drive on the cable is crucial to determining whether or not a drive is a slave or master, while the master/slave/carrier select pins are not important. In fact, the M/S/CS pins are all important, and the location of the hard drive on an IDE cable has no bearing on whether its a master or slave. (Only floppies are arranged in this manner). Another example: the book insists that SRAM (static ram) uses less power then DRAM (dynamic ram), because SRAM contains 6 capacitors which need to be charged much less frequently. In fact, SRAM contains 6 transistors, and NO capacitors. Although horribly expensive, it is unbelievably fast, which is why SRAM is used in L1 and L2 caching. That is the primary advantage of SRAM. Yet, the book would have you believe that the primary use for SRAM is in low power applications. These were only two examples, drawn from the first 72. I expect that there are many more. Nonetheless, you CAN profit from this book. The way to do it is answer all the questions. When the book agrees with you, you're right; when you don't know the answer to a question, well, you've targetted an area you need to study more thoroughly; and when the book disagrees with you, check your sources, make sure you're right, and curse those authors and publishers who allow such misleading material to reach the trusting public. Under NO circumstances should you use this book as a study guide; under NO circumstances should you trust these answers. For a spectacular study guide to PCs in general, check out Muellers' "Guide to PC maintenance and repair", 11th edition. This 1600+ page book is staggeringly great, and a solid testament to the fact that it is possible to write a really, really good book on computers. Had the authors of"A+ Certification Test Yourself Practice Exams" read the Mueller text, their own book would have been vastly improved. Charlie Worton, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE
Rating:
Summary: Not a very impressive effort
Review: On the plus side, there are 1,052 questions in the text. They're also harder then the actual A+ exam questions, in that they use the 'choose all that apply' multiple choice format. You really need to know your stuff to do well on these questions. On the minus side, the answers are often plain flat Wrong! And this is compounded by explanations that have obviously been dreamt up on the spot by the authors, who apparently would prefer to resort to BS and bafflegab then pause to look up the correct answer. An example: the questions insist that the location of an IDE drive on the cable is crucial to determining whether or not a drive is a slave or master, while the master/slave/carrier select pins are not important. In fact, the M/S/CS pins are all important, and the location of the hard drive on an IDE cable has no bearing on whether its a master or slave. (Only floppies are arranged in this manner). Another example: the book insists that SRAM (static ram) uses less power then DRAM (dynamic ram), because SRAM contains 6 capacitors which need to be charged much less frequently. In fact, SRAM contains 6 transistors, and NO capacitors. Although horribly expensive, it is unbelievably fast, which is why SRAM is used in L1 and L2 caching. That is the primary advantage of SRAM. Yet, the book would have you believe that the primary use for SRAM is in low power applications. These were only two examples, drawn from the first 72. I expect that there are many more. Nonetheless, you CAN profit from this book. The way to do it is answer all the questions. When the book agrees with you, you're right; when you don't know the answer to a question, well, you've targetted an area you need to study more thoroughly; and when the book disagrees with you, check your sources, make sure you're right, and curse those authors and publishers who allow such misleading material to reach the trusting public. Under NO circumstances should you use this book as a study guide; under NO circumstances should you trust these answers. For a spectacular study guide to PCs in general, check out Muellers' "Guide to PC maintenance and repair", 11th edition. This 1600+ page book is staggeringly great, and a solid testament to the fact that it is possible to write a really, really good book on computers. Had the authors of"A+ Certification Test Yourself Practice Exams" read the Mueller text, their own book would have been vastly improved. Charlie Worton, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE
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