pcs

If you are preparing to take the A+ exam, then the "All in One, A+ Certification Exam Guide" by Michael Meyers is definitely worth your while. Why only four stars, then? Well, to be honest, I was hoping to learn practical techniques that would make me a better potential pc technician. In this regard, the book falls short.

Looking back, I now realize that I was somewhat naive about A+ certification. Having only had personal experience with computers, installing cards and drives, I truly believed that in the process of studying for the A+ exam I would gain the knowledge and troubleshooting skills necessary to become a professional technician. What a joke.

After passing the A+ exam I thought, "Great! Now I'm ready!" I quickly realized, though, that none of what I had read in this book, or had been tested on, had anything to do with real-world troubleshooting. I simply encountered problems that I was in no way prepared for (missing .dll files, PCs that wont start, PCs that will start on the occasional full moon, plug-n-play devices that neither plug nor play). I felt like an idiot. It has taken me a couple of years to REALLY learn what I needed to know in order to fix these more common software problems.

The bottom line is this: if you already know what you're doing (unlike me) and are just looking to earn A+ certification for the heck of it, then Meyers' book will prepare you for the test. But, if you think that you're going to study this book, pass the exam, and then be ready to take your first service call, then you've got another think coming....

I've been teching for a long time (10+ years) so most of the A+ topics were stuff I already knew. This book did a great job of keeping my interest while going over material I was familiar with, and explained the stuff I didn't know in a very clear and concise manner. I found some of the illustrations a little cutesy and grating (computer components talking to each other via little cartoon word balloons) but thats probably just me...

As others have mentioned, the CD is not nearly as impressive as the book. The instructional video is interesting, Myers does a good job of going over the fundamentals of hardware, but it moves kind of slow. The sample exam questions were just bad. I had to download a patch from the TotalSem website before they'd even run on my Win98 machine, and even then the graphics were so bad I often had trouble determining which answers I'd selected.

Still, I was able to nail both exams with just this book and about 25 hours of study time. I'd recommend it highly whether you're a computer newcomer, or an old hand who just needs to fill in the gaps.

Before purchasing the book you should access www.totalsem.com/support/errata/aplus5.htm
This webpage show errors and give the corrections for errors in the Fifth Edition of the All In One A+ Certification Book.