CompTIA A+ Exam Cram (Exams 220-602, 220-603, 220-604) (ISBN 0789735644)

Horrible Guide:
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! Alot of misinformation. Mac OS based on LINUX? (3.0 question 7) Uh...no...its UNIX...thanks for playing though. That would be an easy question on the A+ exam that you would have missed right there because of this book. Why would you use FAT32? A normal tech would would do that if they were trying to support an older OS's on a dual boot(which was actually one of the choices), but the writer gave some other nonsensical reason like the primary drive being smaller than 1 GB (which is smaller than the required size for XP or 2000 to even be installed at all BTW). Completely ridiculous. This is just BASIC stuff that any tech should know, and this book, many times, gets it completely wrong. Not to mention wiping down LCD monitors with soap and water instead of alcohol based wipes (not even an answer)....wow. Yeah, nothing ups the resale value of your shiny new notebook like internal water damage. Some of the questions were so outlandish that they were impossible to answer properly (ie "write it down in the paper security log" (the right answer BTW) WTF?). It also completely stomps all over the idea that the simplest solution is typically the correct one, which is stressed in every other guide and on the test itself. The author would have you trouble shooting all sorts of bizarre printer problems when you really should be looking for an empty paper tray (also one of the choices). Wrong...wrong...wrong. One of THE worst study manuals I have ever read, if not the worst. Some stuff was good, but unless you already knew it, you wouldn't be able to tell which was the good stuff, and which was flat out wrong. Get the Testout software from the library and buy 'Jean Andrews A+ 2006: In Depth' (which you should have as a desk reference anyway), and you will be golden.

One great book:
It covers the material for the cert exam very well. This book is a must for final review for the test. This book takes the objectives and covers them very well. The notations for what is needed for the exam is an added bonus. I highly recommend the ExamCram series.

Decent Study Guide:
PASSED 2/22/2008 I used this in conjunction with the ExamCram practice questions book for about a month before I took the test. Passed with scores of 770 on Essentials and 860 on IT Technician. This book points out specific facts that have appeared as previous test questions titled EXAM ALERT. PAY ATTENTION TO THEM! Many appeared as test questions. The Practice Question book, which can be purchased separately had questions almost word for word as they appeared on my exam. I would highly recommend using BOTH of the EXAMCRAM books to study. You will pass! My only compaint is that the books are made somewhat cheaply. Several pages weren't glued down properly. Also, the CD that comes with this book is not nearly as good as the one that comes with the book of practice exams. But even it had a couple of errors.

Good prep book:
I used this book to help me pass my A+ ceritifications. Just a warning though... if you have the MeasureUp CD from another source, the questions in this book are the exact same questions. The MeasureUp CD does come with this book so that is very helpful. The answers to the questions for review are very detailed and informative to help you understand why the answer you gave is incorrect.

Beware of misinformation!:
This would be a great book to help with reviewing for the A+. It includes a lot of information on the test objectives, and also includes a lot of specifications that would be good to know, but not necessarily needed, to pass the A+ exam. Another plus are useful detailed diagrams. In that sense, it is very good. However, the deal breaker here is the presence of misinformation. Like a previous reviewer mentioned, MAC OS X is NOT based on Linux. The 802.11g specification does NOT operate in the 5.0 GHz spectrum, etc. Furthermore, as of this day this review was written, I could NOT find any sort of errata file which might have saved this review. The closest I came to was making an account at InformIT (partnered with Que Publishing) that "maybe" offered an errata file, but didn't, and didn't offer any means to close the account I made. If you are considering this book as an introduction to study for the A+, I urge you to look elsewhere. Buy this as a reference to information YOU ALREADY MAY KNOW, to the point where you can point out errors while reading. Otherwise, you may learn information that WILL HURT YOU on the exams.