A+ Certification

[cyco]

Right now I'm going to High School and a program choice we get is to go to this other school while we go to the High School and we earn High School and College credits. I attend this Junior College type of deal for 2.5 hours a day. Its free too.

 

 

 

The program I'm taking is Computer Repair and our goal is to pass the CompTIA A+ Certification Essentials and the other one, forgot the name. Has anyone taken these tests? I'm wondering how hard they are / were for you?

[____]

From what I know is that if you can build a computer you can pass your A+; if you want something that will impress go for Cisco certification.

[ClareJonsson]

The A+ comes in 2 parts:

 

Hardware:

 

This obviously covers all aspects of your computers hardware, including fault diagnosis. So you will be required to have a good knowledge of PC hardware new and old, as well as the POST diagnostic beep codes.

 

 

 

Operating system:

 

Windows only here. But what version your exam will cover is not known. You will have to have a good knowledge of XP Home and Pro. especially the network side, how to perform data transfers, how to diagnose driver problems and an idea what BSOD codes mean.

 

 

 

I took the A+ a few years back, I found it very easy and I am proud to say that I got the 2nd highest mark the test centre had seen. But don't think it's easy, another tech who is quite experienced, took the test on the same day as me failed.

 

 

 

My biggest advice is to study the questions carefully. Here's an example:

 

 

 

A user wants to upgrade their CPU to a Pentium Dual core 2.4. and 8Gb of Ram for the minimum of cost. They have already backed up all their data and their current system is:

 

 

 

CPU: P4 2.0 PGA.

 

Memory: 2GB (2 X 1Gb DDR1)

 

PSU: 400W

 

Graphics: Onboard.

 

OS: Windows XP Pro 32Bit.

 

 

 

Tick all below that do not apply:

 

 

 

[ ] Replace CPU and Memory.

 

[ ] Replace CPU, Memory and run the XP Repair to update the HAL.

 

[ ] Replace CPU, Memory, PSU and Motherboard.

 

[ ] Replace CPU, RAM and install XP 64 Bit.

 

 

 

The answer to the above would be to tick them all, as none of them are the correct answer. Also, it's sometimes easy to miss that they asked you for the wrong answer.

 

 

 

The correct answer would be:

 

*Replace Motherboard (Presently it's a PGA socket, Dual cores are LGA).

 

*Replace CPU (Obviously).

 

*Upgrade Memory (Dual cores use DDR2 so the old ram is not compatible).

 

*Install Windows XP 64 bit (32 bit OSs cannot address 8Gb GB of memory).

 

 

 

The above is quite typical of A+ questions.

 

 

 

My best advice is to get as much hardware and OS experience as you can. Get some old PCs that people are throwing out and build and rebuild them. Take things out and see what happens. Install windows and network them together. Share out folders and printers and see what happens if you start turning off various windows services. in other words, Break the OS and see if you can get it running again. in fact, break the hardware too. And never, ever, open a PSU. Switch mode power supplies are death traps if you don't know what you're doing.

 

 

 

Good luck and if you need any advice, let me know.

 

Clare.

 

 

 

P.S. You might want to Google for old A+ exams, there's a few online that may help.