Product Description

Mike Meyers, the industry expert on professional certification, brings you this concise, affordable, and portable study tool for the A+ certification exams. With an intensive focus on only what you need to know to pass the tests, plus practice exam software on CD, this Certification Passport is your ticket to success on exam day.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1283662 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 450 pages

Amazon.com Review
Software developers make their programs ever more graphical; interfaces become ever more slick. But underneath the buttons and sliders, PCs are electronic systems comprising power supplies, logic processors, and specialized circuitry for such functions as video and sound. When the machine grinds to a halt, someone has to know how to identify the problem and get it straightened out. That's the function of the CompTIA A+ certification, and this new edition of Mike Meyers' A+ Certification Passport will help you earn it. Meyers combines reams of detailed information about IBM-standard PCs (which is to say, those running Intel, AMD, and Cyrix) with rock-solid troubleshooting advice. Look here for electronic details of the IDE and SCSI interfaces, as well as strategies for figuring out whether a problem is in a drive or in its controlling electronics.

Meyers has organized his book around the two A+ exams, which means you'll find excellent coverage of the subjects CompTIA includes (hardware from early days through the Pentium III era, and Microsoft MS-DOS and Windows operating systems through Windows 2000). Inversely, you'll find no coverage of potentially useful subjects that CompTIA doesn't test (Linux and Microsoft Windows XP, most notably). Updated coverage--of new USB and FireWire standards, as well as memory specifications--meets the high standard of the previous edition. This book will help you prepare for the A+ exams; it and a couple of supplementary texts will get you ready for the job site. --David Wall

Topics covered: The electronics of IBM-standard personal computers (motherboards, processors, memory, disk drives, video cards, network interfaces, and so on), and strategies for safely and efficiently troubleshooting and repairing them. Later chapters explain how to do configuration work in Microsoft MS-DOS, Windows 95/98, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 Professional.

From Library Journal
Meyers's clear-cut guide is tailored for test preparation: the accompanying CD includes two interactive practice exams (on hardware and operating systems), review questions conclude each chapter, and handy exam tips are scattered throughout. A useful purchase for all public libraries; those owning older A+ guides should upgrade.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover
From the #1 Name in Professional Certification

Get on the road to becoming an A+ certified professional with this concise, affordable, and portable study tool. Certification training guru Mike Meyers and Tracey Rosenblath will guide you on your career path, providing expert tips and sound advice along the way. With an intensive focus on only what you need to know to pass the test, this Certification Passport is your ticket to success on exam day.

Inside:

• Itineraries--List of official exam objectives covered
• ETAs--Amount of time needed to complete each lesson
• Travel Advisories--Expert advice on critical topics
• Local Lingo--Concise definitions of key terms and concepts
• Travel Assistance--Recommended resources for more information
• Exam Tips--Common exam pitfalls and solutions
• Checkpoints--End-of-chapter questions, answers, and explanations
• Career Flight Path--Career options mapped out to maximize the return from your IT journey

2 Practice Exams on CD powered by ExamWeb

About the Series Editor:
Mike Meyers is the best-selling author of three editions of the #1 A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide and several other computer books. He is the president and founder of Total Seminars, LLC, a major provider of PC and network repair seminars for thousands of organizations throughout the world and a member of CompTIA.

About the Author:

Tracey Rosenblath has authored computer books, instructor manuals, and student materials and contributes regularly to popular IT certification Web sites. She owns and operates a computer/networking consulting business.

Customer Reviews

Decent Overview of test
I am MCSE, A+, and CCNA certified and used this book as part of my preparation for the CompTia A+ exams.

This book presents a decent overview of the CompTia A+ exam objectives, but lacks sufficient detail to actually pass the test without supplementing the material. I have provided 2 recommendations at the bottom of this review.

The book covers both areas of the exam (hardware and OS), and provides a CD with tice tests. I noticed the review questions at the end of each chapter lacked worthwhile explanations, which necessitated searching through the text to figure out why you may have missed a particular question.

This book overall presents a decent, but minimal, overview of both the hardware and operating system exams and should be used in conjunction with Mueller's "Upgrading and Repairing PCs" classic (ISBN: 0789727455), and Exam Cram's book (ISBN: 078983043x).

Good Review Book for Experienced Computer Techs
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

Smaller Because It Covers Less
After being disappointed by the "A+ Complete Study Guide" book (see my review there), I picked up this book. Immediately I saw in it the answers to three questions I had missed when taking the hardware exam for the A+ certification, such as the cable required for the latest EIDE hard drives. This book is definitely more up to date.

It didn't take long to cruise through the well written chapters on operating systems technologies. It was very pleasing to feel that I was ready to take the second part of the A+ exams so quickly. I scored an average of 86 on the end of chapter practice tests, reviewed all the chapters again and then scored higher.

Then, I pulled out the includeded practice exam CD and took the test there. I scored a 56%! What happened!

Here's what happened, most of questions asked weren't covered in the book. Or, it appears this way. I can't tell for sure since the book's index is weak and there is no searchable copy of the book on the CD. Here are a couple examples. Yes, the book talks about MEM.EXE and it role, but says nothing about its options. Nor does it talk about the FDISK options available. Yet, questions about these options are on his practice exam. More importantly, I found these types of questions on the A+ test.

Did I pass the test? Yes, scored an 804 (600 is passing). In order to do so, I went into the web and took every practice exam I could find. These exams give answers and often explanations. I doubt just taking the exams themselves would enable anyone to pass the test as they do not provide the foundation knowedge needed that the book provided. However, the exams will bring to light all the smaller things that the book just breezes past. I spent as much time on these exams as I spent in reading the book. That is what it took to get me to the point where I was scoring decently on the exams.

The book just does not cover the material in the depth required.