New to this.

Hi all, firstly thank you all for making such a great resource!

I have been lurking these forums for a while, reading all the great answers posted, and I have finally found the motivation to give A+ self study a proper go. I've been on and off studying for a year (more off than on), I always had a massive spell of highly motivated study time, then something in life would require attention and studying would always get put on the back burner. I know there are no two ways about it, I need to put the work in to reep the rewards. The content of the A+ has never been an issue, I always struggled to keep myself motivated long enough. My goal is to gear studying to get into infosec, however I would like the A+ to just break into the IT field to start gaining experience.

My question is, how do you guys keep yourself so motivated to power through the studying?

I know this is a tough question to answer, as everyones answer is only really relevant to them, but I figured a general idea wouldn't hurt.

Thank you in advance

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Jon_Cisco

This probably is not what you want to hear but keep an open mind.
You really have to just want to learn the information. Either to open up opportunities or for personal enjoyment.
If the content does not interest you at all then you are likely to burn out quickly.

Consider what your goals are and you might be able to motivate yourself to achieve them!

Good Luck!

Incyclopuss

Jon_Cisco wrote: »

This probably is not what you want to hear but keep an open mind.
You really have to just want to learn the information. Either to open up opportunities or for personal enjoyment.
If the content does not interest you at all then you are likely to burn out quickly.

Consider what your goals are and you might be able to motivate yourself to achieve them!

Good Luck!

Thanks for your reply mate!

The content itself is super interesting, and I am facinated by it. I think what I need to do is to figure out how best I learn. I think I just find it difficult to keep going with the Meyers book, which I know is a vital piece of studying for A+.

As far as wanting to learn the information goes, I always find myself really looking foward to sitting down and learning something new, but it's retaining it.... Which I guess is more to do with memory and learning techniques, as opposed to motivation.

I know I've kind of just backtracked on everything I said in the original post...

Anyway, thank you very much for your reply, it has given me a great deal to focus on!

Chamayo

Sometimes breaking down a computer and putting it back together is very easy, especially installing the operation system and configuring software. That may seem like enough to keep you motivated when studying for certification.

Although, honestly for me... it was the love for reading, that ended up being what kept me motivated throughout. Considering how I bought a large and fat 802 A+ Certification study book and only got through 1/3 of it 2 years ago before I lost interest. BUT After graduating from college where I was forced to read plenty of books and textbooks... and especially after completely reading the Catholic bible from page 1 to the end~ I finally sat down again and completely read the Microsoft A+ Certification study guide which is over 1,000 pages.

Do you love to read, especially really good books about things you find interesting? That should be enough to keep you motivated throughout. It is very important though, that you choose the right book. For example, the first book I tried was very interesting with a lot of pictures... but it soon got too repetitive and I even wondered if they were wasting my time with information I wasn't going to be tested on. Every other chapters seemed to be repeated again after a couple more. It made me crazy.

I admit, the other book from Microsoft might repeat 1 or 2 chapters but rarely. They also seem to adhere to the actual exam objectives. Plus, it is more trustworthy in my opinion, and the guy is very funny too sometimes. I finished it but reading it beginning from the last chapter towards the first. Now you find me with my own multimeter testing PSUs and telling right away what sockets are within the various PCs we have at home. In front of me, is the opened laptop of my little niece that I cleaned out by following its manual as it awaits for a replacement power plug.

Have interest (like the previous poster said)
Love to read
Find a good book
Then apply your knowledge in real world examples

So I suggest to focus on reading the complete book to get the big picture of what you are expected to know. Then when you are done, coming back to practice each individual part that is SPECIFICALLY required in the tests you will take (the test objectives can be acquired at CompTIA.org)
Maybe, grab a textbook of questions that might be on the test to get an idea of what areas you need to spend more time on.