My study method

sujee27

Hi guys please tell me what you think of my study process for the a+ core. I've recently passed my a+ os and wish to do so with my core as well. I plan to use the following study materials/tests/ and such for about three weeks until i finally take the actual exam on sometime in september.

So here it is.
First to get an overview of what is on it i will study the lengthy study guide provided by mcmcse.com
next study guide on techexams.net
next study guide on proprofs.com (this will be optional- i might or might not do it)
watch cbt nuggets 2006 a+ videos
watch VTC comptia a+ certification 2003 videos
Watch Course Tech- Maintaining and Managing your Pc videos
Take Preplogic Premium Practice tests
Take transcender Practice Tests
Take Practice tests on techexams.net, mcmcse.com, proprofs.com and see how i score


Search for more practice tests on the web

this will all be done in a period of 2 to 3 weeks. So what do you think?

bighornsheep

If that was your method for the OS as well, then it should be ok. I personally learn better with books and practice. For mine, I only used Sybex A+ Complete. I personally dont learn better with videos.

For practice questions, consider exam cram. Lots of questions, lots of practice.

sujee27

yes i have exam cram as well but using it will be optional. I might take a look at the practice questions in the exam cram book at the end. And i didn't use this method for a+ os. The method i used for my os was scattered i basically used everything i could find. I never had a schedule for my os . I'm aiming for 700s-800s on the core.

Plantwiz

sujee27 wrote:

Hi guys please tell me what you think of my study process for the a+ core. I've recently passed my a+ os and wish to do so with my core as well. I plan to use the following study materials/tests/ and such for about three weeks until i finally take the actual exam on sometime in september.

So here it is.
First to get an overview of what is on it i will study the lengthy study guide provided by mcmcse.com
next study guide on techexams.net
next study guide on proprofs.com (this will be optional- i might or might not do it)
watch CBT Nuggets 2006 a+ videos
watch VTC comptia a+ certification 2003 videos
Watch Course Tech- Maintaining and Managing your Pc videos
Take Preplogic Premium Practice tests
Take transcender Practice Tests
Take Practice tests on techexams.net, mcmcse.com, proprofs.com and see how i score


Search for more practice tests on the web

this will all be done in a period of 2 to 3 weeks. So what do you think?

What sort of 'real' experience do you have? Looks like this is all from a book/classroom sort of prep??

While you have selected some nice material to prepare from, it looks a little heavy on the bookside of things and pretty light (or zero) from the reality based training side of things.

Doesn't mean you cannot do it like this, people do. Just not the best method from my experience (FWIW). Everyone does need to start someone though ..... just a bit of a peeve when a potential new hire announces they have an A+, but when you sit a PC in front of them they don't know where to begin.

sujee27

well i do have the hands on experience from working with my cousins plus my PCTech course i took-where all we basically did was take upart computers, name the parts, etc. Stuff like that

hey this just in i'm going to use mike meyers learnkey cds to help me and get an overview along with the mcmcse.com study guide.

Thnx for your response

nel

it looks like you maybe over preparing abit, anyone who has the a+ will tell you they seem to do worse on the OS. i only gt 650, but a pass is a pass.
but overall try and use books and hands on in good measure.
treat the a+ as a starting block more than anything! and depending if you are trying to make a career out of this i would look to progressing further than comptia stuff. although the a+ and network+ are good starters.

i used exam cram2 and the exam cram questions - these were v.good as it contained all the preplogic exam stuff (which is 10x's the cost)
i also used the technotes here. transcenders is supposed to be the best for practice exams but i didnt use them for the a+ but i have bought them for my 70-270 exam.

anyway gd luck with the a+ but i dont think you will have any probs.

sujee27

nel wrote:

it looks like you maybe over preparing abit, anyone who has the a+ will tell you they seem to do worse on the OS. i only gt 650, but a pass is a pass.
but overall try and use books and hands on in good measure.
treat the a+ as a starting block more than anything! and depending if you are trying to make a career out of this i would look to progressing further than comptia stuff. although the a+ and network+ are good starters.

i used exam cram2 and the exam cram questions - these were v.good as it contained all the preplogic exam stuff (which is 10x's the cost)
i also used the technotes here. transcenders is supposed to be the best for practice exams but i didnt use them for the a+ but i have bought them for my 70-270 exam.

anyway gd luck with the a+ but i dont think you will have any probs.

It might look like i'm overpreparing but i really am not. You see some people read 1000 pages of books for eg. mike meyer's books but I believe my method is quicker but not so sure about the efficiency of it. Anywho does anyone have tips on how to memorize PIO and DMA speeds for ATA HDDs? It really is pretty hard to memorize so many numbers. Will greatly appreciate it if someone had a quick method.

Thanks, god bless you

kujayhawk93

Even though they're included in the TechNotes on this site, I don't believe PIO and DMA transfer rates are included in CompTIA's objectives, so I wouldn't worry about them. I agree with nel in that it is possible to over-prepare; if you cram your head full of too many things that aren't even covered in the official exam objectives, you're more likely to forget something important that you will be tested on.

wwpranma

The only problem I have with all the online tests is that they quiz me on stuff that I never got from my study material in the first place, or they reword it in such a way that it's impossible to remember from the studying i dd through the meyers training (videos and books). But I guess that could be considered a good thing because of the fact that even though the objectives for the test are listed, I still got lost as to what I should focus on for the test as opposed to what I think I know from all the studying I do. Irregardless, I'm almost done with my OS video's, and afterwards, anything I've missed from the training will be reiterated through the test sites and I can hopefully just take what lil I have missed from the studying and add it to my notes later on. Thanks for all the test sites, I plan on reprogramming my brain asap.

sujee27

I got a score of 80% on the hardware technician test
95% on dma/irq test

still studying.. will study for about 5 more days then go for the core exam after a week or 2 has passed from that 5th day


wish me luck!

zenzen

good luck

I've just started my studying for this test, I want to take it in november because it's been a while since i've been in school for any of this and i forgot all the little specific facts