Obscure Mania

This is the best book available for the Network+ N10-004 exam. Make sure you get the right book for the exam you’re going to be taking. The old exam is still being administered and books on the old exam of course are still out there. The new 2009 Network+ exam has been updated and concentrates on general network topologies, cabling, tools, protocols, the OSI model and other networking stuff. While the older exam asked questions about AppleTalk, Netware and some vendor specific networking.

The book covers some Cisco stuff but I didn’t have any Cisco protocol or router questions on my exam. I only used this book to study. I take that back a little, I ordered some practice exams from somewhere else at the last minute because I was panicking about not being ready. Don’t waste your time or your money, all of the questions and answers are in this book. While there may have been some other questions from the other place, the answers were still in this book. Even though I’m not thrilled with how the chapter and practice exams work, I would have bought extra questions, but the practice exams Sybex were selling weren’t for this N10-004 exam.

Todd Lammle (the author) must have access to the exams because the questions in the book were almost e same as the real exam. The only problem is the errata page. There are some practice test questions that give the wrong answer, but go to the website and get the corrections and you’ll be fine.

I really liked this book. I’m in the process of selling all of my textbooks and have decided to keep this one. It’s filled with great information. This is the first edition and they may have been corrected in later editions. In any case, ensure you log on to the website in the book and get the corrections.

The hardest part of the exam for me was trying to memorize all of the hardware. What cable goes with what network and how fast and how far they are spec’d. There were a lot of those questions for me and most were guesses. Everything on the test is in the book, read memorize, how ever you study. I tried a new technique for me – I used my RCA Voice Recorder reading parts and notes from the book, transferred to my PC, converted them to .wav then imported into iTunes to listen on my iPod while I’m walking the dog. I’m not sure if it helped or not, I should have concentrated more on the different cable specs, but I passed. There’s no score on your certificate but you have to pass with about 80%. I was getting a solid 80 or above on most of chapter and practice exams I was taking from this book.

Link: CompTIA Network+ Study Guide: Exam N10-004

Just took and passed my two tests from CompTIA and now have an A+ certification. After going through the prep classes at the college here, it was about six months later that I took the tests. Only using the original textbook, the practice exams on the included CD, I did pretty good. Since CompTIA doesn’t show you what you missed, I don’t know exactly what I got wrong on my two tests.

I took 601 and 602. Essentials and IT Technician exams. There were some questions in common from the two, but since I wasn’t sure I got them right the first time, hopefully I got them right the second time. If you have to retake a test, the only guide of what you missed is a summary of the “areas” where you got one or more questions wrong.

I looked everywhere I could for practice test questions, but they are few and far between unless you want to pay. The practice questions that come with the book were good but there were a lot of repeats. Four tests for each section (601, 602, 603, 604) fifty questions each. Out of 200 possible questions, I don’t know how many were unique, but I would guess about half, maybe more were actually unique.

This book is huge, over 1000 pages. After looking at reviews and other books on Amazon, I believe this is one of the best. I was looking for a smaller “cramming” book, but other book are just as big and it’s a little hard to cram for this test other than reading, doing the chapter questions and practice tests, start two weeks before you are scheduled to take the tests. I would love an audio version so I could listen while driving, but can’t find many technical books on audio, even though studies show you have better retention listening than reading.

It’s a nice start since this certification is one of the requirements on most computer jobs.  Not only do I get college credit for taking the classes, but the college gives a half price discount for the tests.

CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Sixth Edition

I listened to the unabridged version (full text read) from audible.com. My first impression – Great book. The first half was great, great situations and good action scenes. A little on the technical side, but not that much. The main detective character is computer and computer game illiterate so all of the technical details are explained.

The second half of the book, a little slow and as the technology gets more advanced, it gets a little unbelievable. You can see the ending coming from a few chapters away and the actual ending, doesn’t actually end. The book ends setup for another book.

Is it just me or I’d like to read a book that actually ends and I don’t have to wait a year for the next installment of the story, then it still doesn’t end. I listened to Stephan King’s Dark Tower, that was 6 books and the ending sucked, but it couldn’t really end in any other way. I read Eragon and the next book, but now I’ve heard that the third book in the trilogy isn’t the end and the plot was stretched so far it slowed down to make a third book.

Authors should finish a story and go on with the next one instead of trying to stretch the same story into another book or a long series of books.