Customer Reviews

Having completed the A+ 4 Real book a week ago I can comment. One thing I never could figure out is why this and other of T-Cat and crew's books are on pdf. Personally i can't deal with Adobe trying to struggle through 400 or 800 pages. But I guess it's easy to purchase for the customer, its quick and easy to get. So I printed it, all 800 pages, got a couple binders and in it went. On the earlier guide of T-Cat's he suggested 10 hrs of studying beyond that particuliar book - he must mean the book and classroom time cause 10 hrs (to me anyway) would be a fast way to fail. So far I've read the earlier 400 page book, this 800 page book and a 300 odd pager from my "school". Many of the tests on passitnow.com I was scoring high 80's to mid 90's out of the starting gate, other tests i'd hit 55-60 off the bat. Some of the preplogic ones i'm mid 60's on. And I feel that I need a few smaller guides at this point. Having said all of that, I really like the way the book was laid out. I felt that showing the OS first prior to Core was a real good way of doing it - and if your going to take both tests on the same day, it just made sense. Most of the chapters are pretty thorough. And i'm not just saying this either - but Glister's chapters are very well done. Other chapters are not. For example after reading on the XP side - I felt like I was in a tour bus and not on what differs this OS from previous ones. The XP Command line felt thrown in like someone realized that they needed it - your eyes start to gloss over as every single screenshot looks almost identical to the one before. But it dives into Linux and Mac, but not so deep you wonder which course your studying for. - I havn't seen many that did that beyond a cursory wave to Mac OS. I do believe it will be a fact of our careers going forward. If you havn't played with Linux or Mac yet and no matter if you like Linux or hate it, or think its about time - we will see it and I think it's best to take a nudge at. The Hardware section was good as usual. In many spots you can see where material was taken from previous books by Tcat. But that *may* have consituted half. Theres a very deep section on MSDS, and Glisters part on SCSI went into more of the "how" than I've seen before. You don't just get ~Raid 5 is the optimum mix between redundancy,speed and space~ Personally I found the section on Basic networking terminology would have been better spent skipping it - because Maxim is a tough author to read. he sure knows his stuff, but whoa. Plus Ian in the networks section covers it in a great method. Having already passed the Core side of the A+ I didn't need to read it, but I wasn't happy with how I did - so I read on. And they cover Spyware and Spam. Man two areas we as IT folks will not see totally go away - we'll always be battling it and I for one was glad to see it in this book. I'd even suggest taking Virus, Spam & Spyware and give it it's own due chapter. All in all - I found it to be a heckova good foundation book. Interestingly enough - same as I did with TCat's Net+ book. Theres a reason I keep getting more of his material. The price is right, the foundation will be laid and you hone your skills with targeted guides afterwards. It's a tough test, and Glisters right it takes a different approach. This book will help you get started on the approach. " Woo-Hoo! ***VALIDATION** !!!
http://tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=955977&page=1

After almost a year of working previous versions of A+ 4 Real with real students in the classroom who have taken on the dueling witches of A+ 220-301 and A+ 220-302 (or should I say the Wicked Witches of the East and West ?) I am happy to say that the incredible team of subject matter experts has put together "The Missing Link" for doing battle and winning A+. I have created dozens of books, and almost 100 test sims in my career. This was the most difficult set of tests to conquer, ever. In the end... Don't thank me. Thank the team of SME's. With this entry, and hard work you Won't need luck! You have the answers. Tcat
aplus4real-authors.asp