Posting this again in case it was among the messages that got lost
Wed/Thur.

Hi Dan,

Like you, I have been building and fixing PCs for many years and have
server and network experience as well. I did the A+ a month ago and I
was glad I had prepared. It really pays to do as many practice questions
as possible and try to simulate an exam situation. Even if you know your
stuff in the real world, you have to get used to the style of the
questions. Some questions are issues of judgement and experience rather
than just knowledge. I disagreed with some answers where my long
experience has taught me something different from what the examiner
apparently thought. But you can't argue when you're sitting the exam.

The key thing about the adaptive exam format is that there is no going
back. You must answer each question as it comes and think them through
before committing yourself to an answer. It doesn't take long, though.
Both exams only asked me 20 questions and took only 15 minutes -- I was
almost disappointed.

I found the operating systems exam a lot harder than the core hardware
exam. Perhaps that's because I've had a lot of hands on troubleshooting
experience. Make sure you're familiar with the Windows 2000 environment
-- Control Panels, setting up and configuration procedures -- I was
surprised that the OS exam had several demanding questions about Windows
2000 configuration and networking.

The A+ exam is definitely a challenge not to be taken too lightly. And
it's not cheap! I live in New Zealand and it costs NZ$610 in total.
Ouch!

Cramsession.com has good daily questions for heaps of exams but it's
slow getting the answers. I found the daily practice questions from
mcseguide.com just as good and much faster. There are many A+ resources
on the net. If you email me privately I will send you my collection of
about 100 of the best questions.

All the best
---
Kevin Johnson
[log in to unmask]


Dan Ellis wrote:

> I am looking at taking the A+ tests for certification.  I've been
> doing
> pc work for over 8 years and feel I know most of the stuff pretty
> well.
>
> Looking at some of the practice tests, I see there are questions about
>
> OSI network layer models, what thing hits what wire on a dot matrix
> printer, and other real specific questions that hardly/rarely ever
> come
> up in real life.
>
> Has anyone taken the latest adaptive tests?  Any key places to look
> for
> the best areas to study (other than comptia) to fill in area I may be
> missing?
>
> Thanks
> Dan
>
>                          PCBUILD's List Owners:
>                       Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
>                        Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>

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