A+ harder than before.

**The_Saint** · February 22nd, 2004, 06:43 PM

I don`t know about you guys but I`m studying for the A+ and the new 2003 tests are not so easy as before!!! I studied for the 2001 test and then didn`t have any time to take it, now I`m studying again and it changed a lot. The questions a really harder....

at least for me.

Anyone has comments in regard...?

**bailey** · February 23rd, 2004, 02:40 AM

I must agree with you on that, the new test are a bit more involved than before, more senieros too,
glad I got mine when I did

**extreme_gamer** · February 23rd, 2004, 03:37 AM

atleast you're actually learning more! : ) i'll think of studying some A+ material soon.

**The_Saint** · February 24th, 2004, 05:02 PM

yeah....I`m in the middle of the studying process. Going over the MOtherboard and I`ll hit pretty soon the OS. I'm taking the test next week.

**radio1_mike** · March 12th, 2004, 06:43 PM

Do you guys have any advice for me about the A+ testing and certification? And what comes next after the A+ cert...?

I just picked up a book in December and have started reading it just now. And it's weird because it daunting. I've had a computer since I have been 15 and I've been building my own computers for the past 7 years...

But I started reading binary, hex, etc... Stuff I have not really thought about since the mid/late 80s, when I was a Computer Science major in college for a bit... And it is familiar, comfortable and very involved. All at the same...

**SeanC** · March 13th, 2004, 05:22 PM

I would suggest Network+.

Then depending what you want to do go either Microsoft (MCSE) or Cisco (CCNA through to CCIE).

If you want to do security go for Security+ after the Network+ then look for SANS GIAC or Checkpoint or any other security certs.

Sean

**radio1_mike** · March 13th, 2004, 06:51 PM

Thanks SeanC.

What do people recommend for training...? I think I just plan to book it and do it on my own for a few reasons:

1) cost
2) indecision at whether this will be a career choice
3) not much free time for formal classes (or even accelerated classes)

**poopeyhed2** · March 13th, 2004, 07:06 PM

Aww crap, I wanted to take the A+............................. now if it's that much harder I have to work harder

I just don't have the time for it ::sigh::

**bailey** · March 13th, 2004, 10:31 PM

just a side note here
I have to say it.

I won the first place gold medal at missouri state competition in computer repaire for skills U.S.A.

**Mikel05** · March 16th, 2004, 01:23 AM

HEY GUYS I PASSED THE OP-SYSTEM HALF!!!!! Don't try memorizing questions, and those practice exams you take...KNOW WHY THE ANSWER IS RIGHT. What I mean is don't just look at the answers and think "Oh I know thats it".

I'm taking the Hardware in 2 weeks. Wish me Luck. This was the first exam I took in 10+ years. I stared at the "End Exam" button for about 5 minutes before I clicked it.

BTW how is it graded. The guys I know have been passing w/ 510-530 points. I hit a 604 About how many wrong is That? Or whats my grade 70-80-90% ?? Just curious

Good luck to everyone taking it!!!!

**bailey** · March 16th, 2004, 02:42 AM

the 100 % correct would be a maxium score of 900

**Derek Smalls** · April 19th, 2004, 10:04 PM

That's funny Mike! I took the hardware test and am studying for the OS test!

There were a few things that struck me about the hardware test. First, I memorized IRQ's, I/O addresses, DMA channels and didn't need any of it on the test

At least I know them

The other thing was that the test had a fair amount of questions pertaining to AMD Athlon XP's advertised(P rating) vs. actual speeds.

Well, anyway, I hope to take the OS test next week. Then on to my Apple Cert. Wish me luck!

P.S. Any input on the OS test would be great

**bailey** · April 19th, 2004, 10:48 PM

there is a very large pool of questions, and what you seen on yours will not be the same ones on another, so its best to know all the stuff, if you can pass the sample test at 100%, like testking or the sample test that come on the cd with a book, your chances of passing the test are prety good.

I just got the certification certific in the mail today for the network+, and am working on the server+ now,
all 3 certs in the first year of school, not bad.

**Jon11582** · April 20th, 2004, 01:01 AM

I just passed hardware last week. I decided to wing the test since I have about 5-6 years experience in computer hardware. I got nothing on Athlon XP or IRQs, got a few P4 questions, and a strange obsession of questions about SCSI, Pentium, AT, and expansion ports. Being of the P2 generation with only a little experience witha Pentium MMX and a K6-2 I was pretty much hosed on all those. There was also one weird question on ESD and humidity; your supposed to ground yourself regardless of the humidity, so I dont know when Id ever use that knowledge.

The pool of questions must be huge, since It doesnt seem like I got many of the same catagories some of the rest of you have. I dont know about the OS part, but it seems very hard to cram the hardware stuff since theres so many things they can ask you. I must admit that most of the questions I got right was because i had first hand experience with them, not because I read them anywhere. Its alot of real world knowledge sprinkled with some speciality knowledge and a touch of questions they put in because only one person up in a mountain really know the answer and they dont want you to get a perfect score. I dont wanna scare anybody, but its a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

I got a 574, but hardware is my strong point, so the OS part is scaring me, since I dont know much about the innerworkings of system files. I was originally going to wing that one too shortly after, but I think Im going to study for a while now before I take that half.

I really dont know much about OS's....Troubleshooting hardware is a necessity with computers. Troubleshooting OS's is knowing about bootdisks, ghosting and formatting. Works almost every time, and its completely free, so it stuck with it instead of learning Himem.sys and emm386.sys and all those funky little files that perform some important function Ill never see because they all work in the background.

Anyways, Im also curious how the scaling goes. On the sheet that told me what I screwed up, I had 9 catagories, so I must have gotten at least nine wrong. The space between 900 and 574 kind of freaked me out though. Its probably somekind of bell curve,so the first one off takes off a good 200 or so, and goes down from there, so everyone feels like they were alot closer to failing than they were.

**bailey** · April 20th, 2004, 01:10 AM

all I can say is study a lot and the os does cover xp pretty good

**Mikel05** · April 20th, 2004, 01:24 AM

I forgot to write in...I passed the Hardware. Im certified heh heh.
and yes I believe the pool of questions must be huge. I barely made it w/ a 545. truth to tell, I crammed for it . I spent so much time on the op-system that I somewhat ignored the hardware.

GoodLuck everyone. Net + here I come.

**Derek Smalls** · April 20th, 2004, 08:48 AM

That's good to know bailey, thanks!

I remember taking the hardware test and the first eight questions I said "wow, this is easy". Then I remember the next sle of questions and I thought to myself, "this wasn't in ANY of the books I read".

I haven't taken any classes. I've been repairing/building/cursing at computers for a long time from the day when I had a paperweight called an IBM Dispaly Writer (8" floppies!) and a 60 mghtz 486 Packard Hell, which taught me a lot about fdisk and the lack of cd drivers on original boot disks.....

Fortunately, I knew enough about the hardware, old and new, to get out with a 645. It's nice to hear about the XP heavy OS test as my two main pc's run XP and I am very familiar with it. I just don't want to concentrate my time on something that isn't going to be on the test. That feeling of seeing questions I wasn't prepared for, coupled with the nice little heap of pressure put on me by the woman setting up the test, was a little deflating....The woman looked back as she was leaving the room and said " I'll see you in about 25 minutes!". Wow! Nothing like a little pressure to finish a 90 minute test in 25 minutes. That was a tad unprofessional

Anyway, I plan to do a lot of command line prepwork this week along with locating applets and installing Win2k Pro on another comp to get familiar with it more and to connect it to a 98se machine with ICS. I want to cover all my bases to prepare for those "out of nowhere" questions

**bailey** · April 20th, 2004, 10:25 PM

on another forum site they have the entire set of testking sample exams for all the differant certs, if you want I can post it here,
and it is a leagle free download

**Derek Smalls** · April 21st, 2004, 09:42 AM

I would most certainly be interested!

**LeftCoast** · April 21st, 2004, 10:03 AM

I think I heard somewhere that the new tests kind of adapt to your answers. If you make a mistake in a certain area early (like a SCSI question), the test adapts and pounds you with questions on that subject.