The Complete Guide to A+ Certification [With CDROM]

by Michael Graves

Covers the information you need to know to pass both the Core Hardware Exam and the Operating Systems Technologies Exam of CompTIA's A+ certification program. This text examines basic components of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1418005665
• ISBN13: 9781418005665
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Delmar Thomson Learning
• Length: 1121 Pages
• Weight: 3.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 7.5" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Great book!

Explanations of complex terms are simple and easy to understand. Book is layed out well with multiple choice questions after each chapter and other questions and explanations for good comprehension. Definitely recommend this book as a great resource and prep book for A+ 4 stars because author could do a little better job at explaining some difficult concepts. Overall, excellent book.

Interesting Read

I have read about 20% so far and the author is amazingly undry for a text book. His writing style is light but packed with information and it reads fast. Unlike my other A+ book his history lessons are interesting and makes comprehending the material much easier. By far one of the best text books I have ever owned

What's so confusing?

I'll have to admit, I probably wouldn't have chosen this book at first blush simply because I had never heard of Michael Graves. However, since it was required reading for a class I'm taking, I had no choice. Unlike the other reviewer, I don't find it confusing at all. In fact, it's probably the most lucid book I've got on the subject. Sure, there are a couple of examples like the one he pointed out. What 1000-page book DOESN'T have an occasional dinger. If you were to nitpick Mike Meyers' book, your review would be longer than the book. Every page is riddled with that sort of thing. What I like about this book is that many of his explanations are accompanied by examples or analogies from outside the computer world to clarify what he's talking about. Meyers simply tells you an IRQ is an electrical signal that notifies the CPU there is data to be transmitted, and that an I/O address is the devices address. Graves points out that IRQs aren't used just by devices, but by the CPU, the OS and the applications as well. He then goes on to use an analogy whereas the IRQ is a doorbell letting the CPU know there is data to be sent (or vice versa) and the I/O address points out which door is supposed to be answered. Graves' writing style is much easier to swallow than ANY of the other textbooks I've got, regardless of discipline. I'm delighted to see that next semester's networking class is using one of his books there, too.

A great book for the A+ Candidate

I'm taking a class in PC hardware at a local college and this is the book they use. I also have Mike Meyer's book, which sucks and one by some lady named Jean Andrews, which sucks even worse. This one is the best. I think it's laid out better and I definitely prefer his writing style over the other two. I'm finally going to LEARN something. If you're doing A+, get this book.