A+ Certification - Best approach to training????

[writetime]

Hi:

First time poster. I've been attempting to self study to gain an A+ certification. It's taken forever as I haven't one plan of attack. I have a number of websites with good info, several good books, and even a CD course (though it is older). I just don't know how to pull it all together.

Guess I am used to the classroom approach with a set plan of what to study when and then quiz/test on those areas in preparation for the "final" exam if you will. Unfortunately, money is a problem now, and I can't afford to take certification classes (which have boomed, it seems, in the recent past).

Any ideas? Where can I find a free or low cost, organized in the way I want it, approach? Or, does anyone have any tips on how I might pool the current resources I have to come up with a workable approach for me?

Thanks,

Writer

 

[glister]

You've already got everything you need. Take the CompTIA exam objectives and use them as an outline for study. Take the Cramsession study guide and start at the top and go down the list, studying as you go until you have the material mastered. Then do it again. Take lots of free practice exams along the way to test, reinforce you understanding. This also helps build confidence and gets you over the exam willies.

Pick up another Study guide (examnotes.net) and repeat the procedure. Again, this will reinforce the material and give new perspective.

HTH A+,N+,S+,L+,I+,HTI+,CET,CST,CNST,CFOT,CCNT,ACSP,ISA CCST3

 

[Accessdabbler]

I don't know what your experience is but I've built a dozen or so systems and have done various upgrades/fixes for friends and family. I also owned a small business and maintained those computers and set up a relatively simple peer-to-peer network.

With this experience I bought the All-In-One A+ Certification Guide by Mike Meyers and read it cover to cover. Made notes on each chapter, memorized various things (IRQs, DMA, I/O Addresses, connector types, etc.). I also memorized all the different Pentium and AMD processors as well as their L1 and L2 caches, sockets/slots, voltage requirements and additional features (such as MMX).

I completely reformatted my home computer and re-partitioned the drive in various pieces. I reinstalled Win98SE and Win2K (dual boot) for practice. I didn't do a Win98 to Win2K upgrade (I should have though).

I spent about an hour a day reading newsgroups such as this one to see what problems people were having to help me diagnose problems. If I didn't now the answer, I read the solutions provided.

I then wrote the A+ exams and passed.

My only cost was the book (~$100 Cdn).

For the hardware side it's important to know how to install all the different components. It's also helpful if you can do a lot of troubleshooting. If not, I recommend buying a computer book about troubleshooting PCs (I'm considering buying one for reference even though I've passed). The questions I received for the Core exam had a number of troubleshooting-type problems. To my dissappointment, none of the stuff I memorized was on the ##%$$%^# exam!

The OS exam was heavily weighted to upgrading Win95 and WinNT to Win98 or Win2K. To my surprise, I did better on the OS exam then I did on the Core.

The Mike Meyer's book is a great resource and will teach you enough to pass. It's not designed to make you an expert. Aceing the exams will require you to have a lot of hands-on experience, that's why I recommend a troubleshooting book.