I'm sure I asked this before

wwpranma

So I was just wondering out of curiosity and all.....
In comparison to pre-tests that are offered in wide variety as opposed to the real deal, how many felt that pretests in general helped all in all? I have yet to score above a 700 on any of my pretests and I've been battling these things for a while. I can't go into too much detail about which pretests are what mainly because I've been relying way too heavily on Prep Logic. Too many people keep telling me it's the one to use. I'm just all confused about which one seems like the best to use. So anyways, that's the dealio there. Just curious is all. Suggestions?

Plantwiz

I never used pre-tests for A+. I merely walked in and took the exam after reading Meyers book (and many years of experience). At that time I wasn't even aware of the 'objectives' and the web was pretty young so I couldn't have even guessed if there were websites with forums and practice tests on them.

Overall, I'm not a fan of the 'pre-test' BECAUSE, it's my observation that too many people rely on them for their learning process and the end results is that they 'learn' to subject matter via questions and never bother to really learn how to troubleshoot computers.

Now, people do actually manage to use practice tests as a measure of their knowledge of a subject area....then review areas they are weak in....then re-evaluate by another test or two, but do NOT ever only use practice tests. They use the tests with their experience and study (books, whitepapers, labs) to prepare.

So 'best' would be the one that measures your skills and gives you the best assesment of you knowledge on the material so that you spend the majority of your time in your weaker areas.

FWIW

Practiced2Death

I couldn't agree more. Don't just Pre-Test. You can test yourself to death...and do NOT use brain ****. Prep Logic is great IF you use it the way it is intended. Study the material.....then REVIEW what you have just went over at the end of the chapters....then take the end of the chapter quizes. If you missed a few things....go back and study those specific thinngs. Once you go through the whole book, take the bog practice test at the end of the book. Again, if you find areas where you were missing, go back and review, review, review.

If you just take the practice tests, you will continue to improve your SCORE, but not your knowledge. You will do so because you will (whether you realize it or not) eventually begin recognizing the answers.

When you do sparingly take the practice tests after you have studied, make sure to use the study-mode options...that way you can see the reasons WHY a particular answer is right...and why wrong answers are wrong.

oldtech

I disagree , I found that I learned alot from testing sites/software. Maybe it just highlighted what I had already read but it definitely help me.

Practiced2Death

oldtech wrote:

Maybe it just highlighted what I had already read....

then we dont disagree....that is exactly the point...there is much to read, study, and experience first.

I don't at all disagree with practice tests, neither d i think this site does. otherwise there wouldnt be an entire section dedicated to them. I just wanted to stress the read before aspect.


(edited Feb 22, 2007 --- I had accidentally put "then we dont agree" at first instead of "disagree". lol reeeeeaally changes the whole meaning. lol)

royal

My philosophy is if you use practice questions correctly, it's completely fine. Many people use them to just memorize questions/answers. If you study to the point where you firmly believe you are ready, it's fine to use practice exams to test your readiness. Also, when you get a question correct, make sure you know why the incorrect answers were incorrect. When you get something incorrect, go back and research why you made an incorrect choice, why the correct one is actually correct, and why the other incorrect answers were incorrect. Do some labs, practice, and make sure you know how to do something. Do NOT just memorize questions/answers. This completely defeats the purpose of obtaining the certification.

wwpranma

Yeah, I've been studying heavily with the pretests after I memorized alot. But at the same time, the cpu stuff ALWAYS throws me for a loop. I have 30 days left til I test, so i guess I better jump on the cpu material asap.