How difficult is the Comptia A+ tests? - From those who have actually taken it.

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TheBest

TheBest

Sweet dreams, huh?
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I'm going into it soon, and i've been studying the material hardcore, taking practice exams out the wazoo, but is there more I should be doing so I'm more prepared?
 
I'd still recommend study as even practicing techs can fail one or both of the exams and end up blowing their money because they take it too lightly. That said, it's mostly pretty straight forward. If you know your way around the inside of your computer, can find the event viewer, and aren't a complete boomer with Windows, you're pretty much good.

That said, take a practice exam and see how you do. Also, if you find reading dry and are more of a visual learner or you just want to take advantage of good, free study options, look up Professor Messer (https://www.professormesser.com/). He has entire video series where he goes through literally everything you'll need to pass your A+, Network+, and Security+.
 
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Fish-Eyed Fool said:
I'd still recommend study as even practicing techs can fail one or both of the exams and end up blowing their money because they take it too lightly. That said, it's mostly pretty straight forward. If you know your way around the inside of your computer, can find the event viewer, and aren't a complete boomer with Windows, you're pretty much good.

That said, take a practice exam and see how you do. Also, if you find reading dry and are more of a visual learner or you just want to take advantage of good, free study options, look up Professor Messer (https://www.professormesser.com/). He has entire video series where he goes through literally everything you'll need to pass your A+, Network+, and Security+.
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I'm already making 88 - 90 percent on practice exams, but I guess those videos will help too.
 
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The newest version isn't quite a cake walk, but most of what threw me off are the stupid scenario questions. I hate being asked what I should do next or what the most likely whatever is. Being good at troubleshooting comes from experience and from being able to observe and experience what is going on. If you say, "A, B and C are happening, what do?" it's hard for me to answer because it could be 1000 things. The most likely answer is going to depend on what you are working on and what you know about it. One model laptop may have a certain problem crop up that is a particular cause that you may never see on another laptop.

I passed both tests. Did better on the first because it was mostly hardware shit. The second has all the scenario shit. I did worse on that one but still passed. I did better on Network+ (I took them out of order). I only used the TotalSem book to study and whatever free practice shit comes with it. The study material actually goes over some Linux commands now but I didn't get any of those questions.
 
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I took an A+ test a few years back when I was majoring to be desktop support. All I can say is that I manged to pass and get a certificate that didn't do much because I still didn't get the degree (thanks college for not really offering what I needed to graduate, you bastards). The test wasn't too hard but then again from what I could recall, it was done through the same website the class used to understand how computers worked and how to do things like installing parts and giving admin privileges to an account all of which wasn't done hands on because it was all online. Totally not screwing anyone over in needing actual experience in how to apply thermal paste and install a heat sink properly without screwing up worse than the video the Verge did on building a custom PC.
 
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It's literally "Computers 101". Don't be arrogant about any test or cert, that's just stupid, but if you are scoring high (I don't know what passing is, I've never taken an IT cert) make sure you can repeat that and you should be good.
 
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I took the test a long time ago because an employer required it (back when serial port addressing and CRT monitor flyback voltages were still relevant), and it was dead easy. It's basically designed so that anyone thinking to hire you can know that at the very least you're not going to destroy their shit. Supposedly it represents the equivalent of 6 months to 1 year of in-the-field computer hardware knowledge, although in my opinion it represents the bare minimum you need to know to be allowed into the field in the first place.
 
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xr95 said:
The tests can be bullshit. It does a good job humbling you if you are a hotshot
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This. Read and re-read those questions, OP. I remember one question that specified that the company wanted to replace their RAID 5 array with a similar array that had fast write times AND high risk tolerance. The answer is RAID 0, even though RAID 10 was an option. Cisco does the same shit in their CCNA course. They have a question on subnetting for a network that has more hosts than you have IPs and they expect you to wirte that in the fucking box.
 
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World's Best Dad said:
This. Read and re-read those questions, OP. I remember one question that specified that the company wanted to replace their RAID 5 array with a similar array that had fast write times AND high risk tolerance. The answer is RAID 0, even though RAID 10 was an option. Cisco does the same shit in their CCNA course. They have a question on subnetting for a network that has more hosts than you have IPs and they expect you to wirte that in the fucking box.
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I thought RAID 0 had no fault tolerance though?
 
Very Easy.
You don't even need to buy the overpriced Textbook for it, you can just watch online lectures on it and, if you pay attention, get through the exam without any issue.
Also, as other have stated, do some of the available tests online, they can be very useful.
 
You are playing a first person shooter game using an xbox one controller on your 14 inch $3,000 slim notebook at half Vsync (30fps), and motion blur on. What is the correct term for somebody like you?

1) Faggot

2) Cunt

3 Jew

4) Nigger

5) All of the above
 
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World's Best Dad said:
This. Read and re-read those questions, OP. I remember one question that specified that the company wanted to replace their RAID 5 array with a similar array that had fast write times AND high risk tolerance. The answer is RAID 0, even though RAID 10 was an option. Cisco does the same shit in their CCNA course. They have a question on subnetting for a network that has more hosts than you have IPs and they expect you to wirte that in the fucking box.
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A question I remember was a customer wanted to replace their drive with a HDD, but the way they worded the answer was 'slow mechanical drive'. On one hand it was on the nose if you studied the material, but if you didn't study and you only know the term HDD, you're fucked.
 
A trained monkey could pass it.
If you regularly fiddle with computers for fun and help your dumbass relatives unfuck the horrors they've wrought, you're fine.
 
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