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	CompTIA A+ 220-701 and 220-702 Exam Cram by David L. Prowse Amazon Price: $29.69 Used Price: $30.11 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 Review (rating: 4): Passed the exam using this book as my primary study guide. Also took advantage of a few online freebies but most were geared toward the 601/602. I have 15 years of IT equipment sales experience but no official technical experience. This book was just the ticket to bridge the gap. I passed the 701 with 870/900 and 15 min to spare. The 702 was far more challenging but passed with 815/900 and 3 min to spare. Pros: Easy read. Great presentation and organization. A lot of down and dirty "Exam Cram" type of information. Does the job and that's why I highly recommended it. Cons: 702 practice tests are far too soft. Don't get me wrong...they reinforce what you need to know but the real test is more challenging and "obscure". You REALLY have to understand and apply what you've learned in the book to pass (as you should). But it would have been helpful to see more realistic, scenario-based practice test questions. Even though I passed with comfortable scores, I wasn't as confident about my answers when taking the 702. I attribute that to "soft" practice questions that didn't challenge me during preparation.
	SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 6 Exam 310-065 by Katherine Sierra Amazon Price: $31.49 Used Price: $26.26 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 Review (rating: 4): I bought this book several months ago and finally spent enough time plowing through it to be ready to take the exam. Which I took today and passed. Glad that's out of the way, as it's a really obnoxious exam. (I took the 1.4 version in 2006.) Many of the test questions rely on misdirection/trickiness, as opposed to getting plainly at your understanding of Java itself. Several questions only test brute memorization of APIs. There are not enough questions, so the categorical results given to you afterwards have little meaning (50% in concurrency! Meaning probably 2 out of 4 questions--on a topic covered in 80 pp in the book!). You can get for example 3 possibilities correct out of 7, but miss a 4th, so get the whole question wrong. At least they have drag-and-drop now, which they didn't have in the 1.4 exam. It is, in short, a poor design. Given that, this book does do a good job of preparing you for the mess. The book mentions "toughening you up" for the exam and I think that's accurate. One problem is that there is no published errata, and the errata, particularly in the mock exams will drive you crazy. The website Java Ranch is a good place to check when something seems like a typo. There's really no short cut to 1.) reading the thing front to back 2.) going through the questions and answers at each chapter's end 3.) going through the provided mocks and 4.) writing dozens of little programs that mimic the points in the mocks. But be aware: Oracle now owns Sun, and has announced a new "Sun Java Programmer Plus Certification", which they call Sun's first "performance-based" Java certification exam. It's apparently in beta. It may make this version of the SCJP 6 obsolete. Good riddance I say! So, if you haven't signed up with Sun to take the SCJP 6 yet, and haven't bought this book yet, it may be worth holding off until the dust settles. Currently they're saying they'll have a beta version of the new exam ready in March 1, 2010. That seems a bit too quick. The cost of this exam (SCJP) has doubled since 2006, to $300, so it may be worth waiting to take this "Plus" version instead. It's hard to find info about the beta on the Oracle site, though you can follow news at Java Ranch in the SCJP forum, under the topic Regarding SCJP Plus. Those guys are on it like rats on cheese. Of course where would any certification exam be without its associated lucrative cottage industry of prep books! They may delay release of a new test, until they have big fat exam books like this one ready to publish.
	CompTIA A+ Complete Study Guide: Exams 220-701 (Essentials) and 220-702 (Prac... by Quentin Docter Amazon Price: $37.79 Used Price: $32.74 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 Review (rating: 4): I bought this book as my main training for the 2009 A+ Essentials and 2009 A+ Practical exams. I passed both with a 94% and a 90% respectively. I can say that the book was a big contributor to my successfully passing these exams. The authors thoroughly cover the topics in the exams and correctly emphasize key areas. Some drawbacks: - The CD included with the book purports to emulate the exams. The format of the exams is fairly close to the actual exam, but they give you 90 minutes to answer 50 questions. The actual exam gives you 90 minutes to answer 100 questions: a much tighter time frame! The CDs also contained a few obviously incorrect answers, some spelling errors and a few repeated questions. The CD also periodically focuses many questions on a small segment of material, which doesn't give a good feel for an actual exam. It was clear to me that the CD was not as thoroughly reviewed as the written material. - The authors occasionally fall in to the trap of assuming the reader has knowledge beyond that which they might be expected to have. I also found that the index did not always lead me to a topic where I could learn more material. - Most importantly: the book alone is unlikely to get you a good grade on this exam. Much of the reason for my good scores was from 2 years of practice on actual machines, interacting with real people, and learning new hardware and operating systems. The exam questions come from such a wide range of topics that even this book is unable to cover them all. I would hope that anyone who takes this exam would have a degree of real-world experience. You should be able to tell if you can pass this exam simply by reading the material in this book: if ALL or most of it is new to you, it's probably better to get some real world practice first. That's the best way to guarantee a passing grade.
	Upgrading and Repairing PCs (19th Edition) by Scott Mueller Amazon Price: $31.49 Used Price: $33.29 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 Review (rating: 5): This is the best PC hardware book in the world. The fact that this is the 19th edition of this book should tell you something. The photographs and diagrams in this book are excellent. I have yet to find anything concerning PC hardware that was not covered in this book. I like that the author covers the history of personal computers. He also cover PC hardware that is obsolete. I highly recommend this book.
	A+ Guide to Managing & Maintaining Your PC by Jean Andrews Amazon Price: $80.47 Used Price: $67.72 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 Review (rating: 4): I purchased this book for my ECT 372 class for my IT major. I already have my A+ certification but my major says i had to take this class. This book is one of the best textbooks ive ever used. Its going on my shelf along with my Grobbs Electronic books. The information in there is fairly recent (thus only a 4 star rating). Theres not much stuff in there about windows 7. The only other complaint I have with this book is the weight. Its the heaviest textbook I have ever used. Its 7 pounds and you can feel the weight. Though it has plenty of pictures and info in it so its worth the weight. Even if your not in college and are interested in computers, get this book, youll be able to fix most problems that arise with computers.
	CompTIA Security+ All-in-One Exam Guide, Second Edition (Exam SY0-201) by Gregory White Amazon Price: $37.79 Used Price: $33.34 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 Review (rating: 4): I used this book as part of my exam prep. Good intro to the topics, with somewhat more detail than is required in many areas. Better to have too much info than too little in this case, however. Starting with this volume and moving on to the Sybex Security+ Study Guide, then Security+ 2008 In Depth, passed with 855/900. As noted in other reviews, you should have some networking background before attempting this material, as it does not review those topics sufficiently for a beginner.
	A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Comprehensive by Jean Andrews Amazon Price: $85.23 Used Price: $21.90 Average Customer Rating: 3.5 Review (rating: 5): the book was used but it looks like it's still new, barely used. The shipping was good, did the regular shipping and it came in the mail within a week!
	RHCE Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide (Exam RH302) (Certification... by Michael Jang Amazon Price: $37.79 Used Price: $29.00 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 Review (rating: 4): Highly recommend as a study aid. I have always worked with Linux distros at home, but my job recently required more from me in the area of Red Hat Enterprise Linux support. I attended the RH 133 week long class. While attending the class I was also reading this book. It gave me a different angle to the material that the instructor covered and really think that it helped give me the extra push to get my RHCT. I would not say that this book alone would have caused me to pass the exam, but it really helped augment the instructor based class. It is also been a great reference guide in going forward in my new duties with managing RHEL systems around the office.
	Computer Repair with Diagnostic Flowcharts: Troubleshooting PC Hardware Probl... by Morris Rosenthal Amazon Price: $13.45 Used Price: $14.43 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 Review (rating: 5): EASY TO UNDERSTAND. I FIXED 2 ISSUES WITHIN 1 WEEK ON MY COMPUTER. BETTER THAN THE OTHER 2 BOOKS I BOUGHT. IT IS A MUST HAVE AT THIS PRICE
	Digital Restoration from Start to Finish, Second Edition: How to repair old a... by Ctein Amazon Price: $26.37 Used Price: $34.53 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 Review (rating: 5): I especilly liked the way this book starts out with a visual Quick Diagnostic Guide that directs to relevant chapters. Chapter 4 on Scanning and chapter 13 on Archiving and Permanence are worth the price of admission.