Reddit mentions of CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Seventh Edition (Exams 220-701 & 220-702)

>did you take a class or study on your own?

Studied on my own.

>Can you recommend any good sites or books that are somewhat instructional lead?

I used this.

Micheal Meyers is the best This book alone will enable you to pass the tests. It's the best in my opinion. Good luck, it isn't too hard.

For good all-round coverage towards A+ and basic networking knowledge, work through this book, and then read through this book (whether you take the test(s) or not). You might be able to find older editions in a library. Those are also good, but be aware that you will then need to read a bunch of PC mags for several weeks or months to bring yourself up to date. Or maybe you can also bring yourself up to date with Wikipedia. The commercial aspect of magazines however gives you a good idea of what's currently on the market -- something which Wikipedia doesn't necessarily do. So I'd recommend either older editions of the books from a library, and then following that up with a hefty pile of PC mags + Wikipedia, or the most recent editions of those books and maybe just two or three PC mags and just checking the odd thing online. That should get you a decent foundation. As to whether you'll then subsequently want to progress to more advanced (vendor) certifications such as the ones mentioned by the parent poster (and which ones of those) -- that'll be something you'll be best equipped to decide once you get there.

>took an intro class in college which was not very good (blaming the teacher more than anything)

you too? lol

As far as books go, I've always gone with the official CompTIA books

http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Certification-Seventh-220-701-220-702/dp/0071701338/
This one focuses on both hardware and Windows. I think it's necessary to have both. The books come with study guides as well with software to test you with actual A+ test questions.

I'd like to hear what other books people have had success with.

My suggestion would be to go pick up a used copy of the A+ Certification books from someplace like Amazon or Half Priced Books. You can find them for like $20-30. Find one made in the last 2-3 years and give it a read.
Something like this

http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Certification-Seventh-220-701-220-702/dp/0071701338

That one.

I found Mike Myers' A+ Certification manual to be the easiest to read all around manual that will give you basic knowledge of computers. He starts with simple analogies, and works through up to modern computers and their internal parts. Even if you have no interest in getting an A+ certification.

I bought Mike Meyer's A+ certification book from Amazon, read through it, downloaded some practice questions from BitTorrent, took the test and passed with flying colors.

Book: Click Here

As just about everyone has said, Mike Myer's book works quite well. I just went for my certification within the past couple months, after putting it off for years (got my previous job before I got the cert, so there wasn't incentive to actually test). My wife is now going through the book to learn more about how things work, and the biggest thing keeping her going is the style of writing for the book - it's not nearly as monotonous as you would expect from a tech writing.

http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Certification-Seventh-220-701-220-702/dp/0071701338/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

I used a version of Mike Myer's CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide about 12 years ago to past my A+. The test has changed a lot in the last decade. Get this book a try.
http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Certification-Seventh-220-701-220-702/dp/0071701338/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

I picked up this guy and just finished reading through it. Fantastic, easy to read book.

I'm at the point where I need to find some good ways to practice for the tests themselves. Gotta cram that material into my head before the tests.

yes it would! as long as youeither have support for raid on your motherboard (quite likely), or a raid card for the use of even more hard drives for raid. Also get this book if you are serious about learning computers get this book. http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Certification-Seventh-220-701-220-702/dp/0071701338/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313463384&sr=1-1

This is the one.

Buy the right book
http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Certification-Seventh-220-701-220-702/dp/0071701338/ref=dp_ob_title_bk/177-3252212-2199309
Read it,
Take the practice test over and over and over until you score at least 95%

i recommend Mike Myers' CompTIA A+ book it comes with a CD that you can take practice test through.

Edit: The new test does not cover Windows 7, while the book mentions this, it still does go over some of the basics of 7.