need help on the a+ core hardware exam

chris2006

iv just started studying for the hardware exam does anyone have any tips

i dont have any work experiance

drainey

If you have a home pc, take it apart and put it back together. Study how the individual parts go together and how they interoperate. It can also be helpful to just take the case off so you can look for each individual part/piece/connection, etc as they are discussed in your study material.

If you can get ahold of a couple of cheap pc's you can work on so much the better. If you can get a hub/switch and network them that'll help also. Try adding a printer to the network. Study the printer and how it works.

In short do whatever you can to get some hands on at home. May not be work experience but it will still help tremendously when taking the test.

Find a good list of IRQ's and study them, try to get to where you can just name them off on demand. See various links on this site for places to get a good list.

Good Luck.

skully93

Better yet, buy an older, cheap beat up PC that you know nothing about. somewhere above 500mhz. Make sure it's not a really a popular one, so it's harder to find drivers and support for it.

THEN take it apart, put it back together, and install Windows on it.

Rinse, repeat.

Good luck! the A+ is one of those that while basic, requires a lot of lab time if you have no experience.

Plantwiz

Take a look at the Objectives for the A+ exam at CompTIA.org.

Then you may wish to look around the forums here for A+

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=1

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=2

Whole bunch of people on those boards who are also preparing for A+.