About This Book

[ LiB ]  

If you're preparing for the ICDL exams for the first time, we've structured the topics in this book to build upon one another in the same order as the exams. Therefore, the topics covered in later chapters might refer to previous discussions in earlier chapters.

We suggest you read this book from front to back. You won't be wasting your time because nothing we've written is a guess about an unknown exam. Once you've read the book, you can brush up on a certain area by using the index or the table of contents to go straight to the topics and questions you want to re-examine. We've tried to use the headings and subheadings to provide outline information about each given topic. After you've been certified, we think you'll find this book useful as a tightly focused reference as your computer knowledge continues to grow.

Chapter Formats

Each Exam Cram 2 chapter follows a regular structure, along with graphical cues about especially important or useful material. The structure of a typical chapter is as follows:

  • Opening Hotlists Each chapter begins with lists of the terms you'll need to understand and the concepts you'll need to master before you can be fully conversant with the chapter's subject matter. We follow the hotlists with a few introductory paragraphs, setting the stage for the rest of the chapter.

  • Topical coverage After the opening hotlists, each chapter covers the topics related to the chapter's subject.

  • Alerts Throughout the topical coverage section, we highlight material most likely to appear on the exam by using a special Exam Alert layout that looks like this:

    This is what an Exam Alert looks like. An Exam Alert stresses concepts, terms, software, or activities that will most likely appear in one or more certification exam questions. For that reason, we think any information found offset in Exam Alert format is worthy of unusual attentiveness on your part.


    Even if material isn't flagged as an Exam Alert, all the content in this book is associated in some way with test-related material. What appears in the chapter content is critical knowledge.

  • Notes This book is an overall examination of computers. As such, we dip into many aspects of computers and software. Where a body of knowledge is deeper than the scope of the book, we use notes to indicate areas of concern or specialty training.

    Cramming for an exam will get you through a test, but it won't make you a computer expert. Although you can memorize just the facts you need to become certified, your daily work with computers will rapidly put you in water over your head if you don't fully understand the underlying principles.


  • Tips We provide tips that will help you to build a better foundation of knowledge or to focus your attention on an important concept that will reappear later in the book. Tips provide a helpful way to remind you of the context surrounding a particular area of a topic under discussion.

    The sample tests at the end of the book will help you judge your readiness to take the actual ICDL exams.


  • Review questions This section presents a short list of test questions related to the specific chapter topic. Each question has a following explanation of both correct and incorrect answers. The review questions highlight the areas we found to be most important on the exam.

  • Need to Know More? Every chapter ends with a section titled "Need to Know More?" This section provides pointers to resources that we found to be helpful in offering further details on the chapter's subject matter. If you find a resource you like in this collection, use it, but don't feel compelled to use all these resources. We use this section to recommend resources that we have used on a regular basis, so none of the recommendations will be a waste of your time or money. These resources might go out of print or be taken down (in the case of Web sites), so we've tried to reference widely accepted resources.

The bulk of the book follows this chapter structure, but there are a few other elements that we would like to point out:

  • Review sessions The review sessions, which appear in Chapters 9 and 11 (with answer keys in Chapters 10 and 12), cover the sort of information that you are likely to find on the ICDL exams.

  • Answer keys These provide the answers to the review questions, complete with explanations of both the correct responses and the incorrect responses.

  • Glossary This is an extensive glossary of important terms used in this book.

  • The Cram Sheet This appears as a tear-away sheet, inside the front cover of this Exam Cram 2 book. It is a valuable tool that represents a collection of the most difficult-to-remember facts and numbers we think you should memorize before taking the test. These are usually facts that we've found require brute-force memorization.

    You might want to look at the Cram Sheet in your car or in the lobby of the testing center just before you walk into the testing center. The Cram Sheet is divided under headings, so you can review the appropriate parts just before each test.

  • The CD-ROM The CD includes even more review questions to help you judge your readiness to take the exam.

Contacting the Authors

We've tried to create a real-world tool that you can use to prepare for and pass the ICDL exams. We're interested in any feedback you would care to share about the book, especially if you have ideas about how we can improve it for future test-takers. We'll consider everything you say carefully and will respond to all reasonable suggestions and comments. You can reach us via email at MikeG1@larkfarm.com or ssharkins@bellsouth.net.

Let us know whether you found this book to be helpful in your preparation efforts. We'd also like to know how you felt about your chances of passing the exam before you read the book and then after you read the book. Of course, we'd love to hear that you passed the examand even if you just want to share your triumph, we'd be happy to hear from you.

Thanks for choosing us as your personal trainers , and enjoy the book. We would wish you luck on the exam, but we know that if you read through all the chapters and spend some time actually using the products, you won't need luck: you'll pass the test on the strength of real knowledge!

'This ECDL Foundation approved courseware product incorporates learning reinforcement exercises. These exercises are included to assist the candidate in their training for the ICDL. The exercises included in this courseware product are not ICDL certification tests and should not be construed in any way as ICDL certification tests. For information about Authorized ICDL Test Centers in different National Territories please refer to the ECDL Foundation website at www.ecdl.com'

The European Computer Driving Licence Foundation Ltd.


[ LiB ]  


ICDL Exam Cram 2
ICDL Exam Cram 2
ISBN: 0789730928
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 142

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net