Failed A+ exams
I took my A+ exams and failed them - miserably. But let me elaborate: I had taken both A+ prep classes at the community college to get into Cisco, and I made an A in both of them. I learned a lot, too, and I also bought the book ExamCram 2 to help in the exam questions. On exam day I felt really prepared. Then I took the hardware exam, and the bulk of it was "break-and-fix" questions, which was totally NOT what I had studied. There is a lot of difference between knowing what the computer components are/what they do and doing diagnosis. The OS test was even worse. I aced my class with all the DOS commands, and incidentally, the class only covered XP, with a little of 2000, and that was it. The test, however, required extensive knowledge of XP pro, 2000, ME, 98 - even a 95 question. I think there were 2000 pro questions, but I can't remember if that's a real OS. Anyway, I got numerous DOS commands that were totally alien and that I had never seen before, which frustrated me.
My score in hardware was in the 470s and the OS was in the low 400s. IMHO, if you want to pass the A+ today, you'd better be a good PC repairman, knowing how to fix breaks, and also know all the older OSs inside and out. Unfortunately, I'm in the thick of Cisco right now and will be for the next year and a half, so I neither the time nor the inclination to retake a test that I probably don't really need for my career anyway. It would have been nice to have it on my resume, but - oh well. $315 down the tubes. I may decide to retake it one day. We'll see. I hope someone will benefit from my experience.
I would not recommend ExamCram 2 for this test. It helped me hardly at all. I would go with Michael Myers book(s).
Looking ahead.
Jeff
