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A+ Certification Test
Magus`
The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered User regular
The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered User regular
I am working on getting certified and was curious if someone has taken it semi recently and could give me a general idea of the test layout (multiple choice, blank space, etc). I've taken a few practice exams but I worry the format will be different.
I appreciate it!
I appreciate it!
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From what I understand the practice is what you should be seeing. I know there is multiple choice and a lab type thing(?). No essays.
Not sure how you're going about studying, but when I took my Sec+ I got the package that had a retest and an app/web program that was useful for studying through comptia. Would recommend something similar if you are able.
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That was also my experience... 15 years ago? But that was when it was a permanent cert.
(suckers!)
I took mine a few years ago. You can see pretty much the same question in this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/141320/getting-it-certs-a-network-etc-worth-the-time#latest
I'm happy to report I'm 6 years into a thriving IT career, currently serving at a very large public school district and have since taken Sec+ and Net+. Couldn't be happier.
I'd definitely not get too bogged down in the format. CompTIA is notorious for shittily worded questions, and the study materials needs to say on the right side of the law when it comes to mimicking them, so it'll always feel weird when you actually take the test. I'd get two different books (like a Sybex + something else), read them both cover to cover, and then supplement online with CBTs and Professor Messer and all that good free stuff. A+ is really pretty easy, but it's broad. You can't just build a computer and pass it. You've got to have some interest/history/respect for the the way these machines have been and are currently put together.
Good luck! I was pretty rudderless until I focused on this and found myself. It's a really big deal for some of us (not the test - finding what you love doing or at least can tolerate doing!).
From what I've seen so far it's a question of remembering terms more than comprehending systems. I'll look into the resources you've mentioned. Thanks all!
Edit - I did the practice exams on the website and got 100%. That being said they all seemed fairly obvious and there were only 20. Gives me some idea, though.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Though I would have to get a few hundred practice tests in first.
― John Quincy Adams
The biggest hurdle for these tests are simply that nearly 20% of all the official study material is wrong., and at least 10% of the expected answers on the actual exam are also wrong. Like not even "this would be right under specific circumstances" wrong, or "maybe open to interpretation" wrong, they're just flat out incorrect. I've seen questions where the real answer isn't even one of the choices. These exams are about 50% actual knowledge and 50% knowing how to take their stupid test. And it's not like you can argue the point, it's right/wrong pass/fail thanks for your $300. I've known people with 10+ years of field experience who could teach the A+/Net+/Sec+ exam topics just barely pass the certification exam because there's enough questions on them that are simply impossible to get right without a lucky guess to push you down to a borderline failing score.
So yeah, don't beat yourself up too bad if you go in and fail by a hair. Odds are it was just bad luck that you rolled too many bum questions and actually have the requisite knowledge. I highly recommend buying the combo pack vouchers from CompTia that give you access to their practice test engine AND a retake voucher. It's only like an extra $100 compared to a one-shot exam voucher and just having that retake and the extra practice test will go a long way to ease your nerves.
Read every question twice, and take your time. More often than not the quick, real world answer is not the answer for the question because of how it's specifically worded.
Yeah, i remember on mine there was one where it asked you to select x number of best practices for wifi security and none of the answers were actual best practices, and one of the ones they wanted was enable WEP, which even when I ton the exam 6 years ago had been so thoroughly and trivially compromised for years that it was considered a worst practice.
The only reason i got that one right was because that exact question was on the practice exam.
http://www.professormesser.com/ has a bunch of things I used to help me study and it was tremendously helpful (and free) so I can definitely recommend those.
I took the *just updated* a+ a few months ago and that question is *still* on it. It is "technically" correct as it's better than doing literally nothing but arguably only just.
The A+ is mostly multiple choice.
It has a few questions that are simulations of fairly basic things.
There was one kind of shit-house simulation on the one I took - I think it had something to do with placing a set of firewalls in a way that put a web server in a DMZ? It was, IMO, honestly too hard to be on the A+
The rest of it was basic stuff, hardware focused, kind of stodgy. Like drill the OSI layers, that kind of thing.
Parse the questions very legalistically. In any compTIA exam, if there's a lot of seeming ambiguity in the answers - too many seem correct, typically - there will probably be a word buried in there somewhere that's supposed to tell you which one of the good answers is the best answer. Sometimes they will mention cost or scale of business and that's supposed to clue you in that one of the seemingly correct options is cheaper, for example.
There aren't a lot of intentional gotchas on the A+, but there are a lot of really oddball older questions. There are an INEXPLICABLE amount of questions about the steps in the laser printing process (the actual internal process, beyond "put in paper and toner and hit print") - at least there were on mine.
I second professer messer, particularly his youtube channel, which helped me a lot with the A+ and the Net+ behind it.
I host a podcast about movies.