Sitting A+ OS on Friday

MonkeyHarris

Done loads of studying yet still feel worried after the hardware exam (I passed that....just). I got a lot of odd questions on that and it knocked my confidence............... only managed 554!!

Anyone sat it recently who can remember anything out of the ordinary that my study material (Sybex 2003 deluxe edition) may not prepare me for? Or any key subjects to cram in?

STRESSED!!!!!

I'll remember what I can either way and post on here on Friday.

Fingers crossed.

MonkeyHarris

Here's a couple of things that are confusing me at the moment...appreciated if anyone knows the correct answers!

My book says the HDD minimum system req for win 2000 is 650mb and recommended is 2gb. Then it goes on to contradict itself several times claiming that 2gb is the minimum.......????? Any ideas?

Also..saw this posted on here but can't find the answer....Does anyone know the minimum service pack to update NT to 2000??

Much appreciated!

janmike

I don't know anything about the present version of this exam, but I'm sure that getting a fair amount of experience with each OS will help a lot.

If you aren't sure, then you should reschedule.

Best of luck!

As I recall, if you want to dual-boot NT4 with W2k, NT4 has to have at least service pack 4 installed. I don't recall ever seeing a service pack requirement for an upgrade--although there may be one.

MCP study manuals generally call for 2GB HDD space with 650 MB minimum free space. That's good for a general rule anyway.

Hope this helps.

MonkeyHarris

Thanks!

I know I am ready, just getting the pre-exam jitters. If I revised for 6 months for this exam I'd feel the same

That would make sense. Perhaps I read it wrong i.e. 650mb free space after the install and it occupies 2gb.

2lazybutsmart

Best Luck MonkeyHarris. 6 months of preparation should be ample time.

charwell

Dear MonkeyHarris,

Hey friend, I'm in the same boat as you...I've got my OS exam tomorrow at one (4/1/04). I've definitely got the pre-exam jitters. I felt the same way as you did on my a+ hardware exam, like half of the eighty questions were completely strange and weird (I've formed the opinion that comptia prefers asking AMD questions over Intel and SCSI over IDE)....I mean let's measure a computer technician's abilities by seeing if he can name the speeds of each AMD processor. That's just stupid! I got five questions about AMD processors on my Hardware exam.

I failed the OS exam by 12 points my first time around a couple weeks ago, and I know why: (hopefully this will help you out!)

Know the exact size that the msdos.sys file must be.
Know the exact key you press to install a RAID/third party SCSI device during XP/2000 installation "blue" screens. (F6 to install a third party SCSI device or RAID device, and F5 to run ASR)
Know everything about the XP and 2000 installation process, each and every upgrade path (especially the fact that windows me can't be upgraded to 2000, which is kinda confusing logically because win 95 can be upgraded to XP) (note to webmaster, could you explain that to me? Why Me can be upgraded to XP, but not to 2000?)
For a quick review of the old stuff, goto studynotes.net. Personally, I'm scared as heck of failing a second time, please share anything else you can think of from sybex etc. Most importantly, look through every forum on this website...it'll help! Form the opinion that knowing the minimum won't due...the point of the a+ exams is to make the student learn each every one of the basics.

Thanks, and lord help us both!

baker

you'll be fine.
I found that I practically over studied for the hardware, but the OS was a little more annoying.
I used trancender prep, which was great, but had no test questions about driver signing, so sure enough - there were 3 or 4 driver signing questions - doh!
Just relax - you'll kick ass.

...and review driver signing.

charwell

Baker,

yeah, man, I've gotten the same notion from my test prep questions...I've been getting pounded with driver signing questions. Do you remember anything in detail? From what I have learned from my MCSA class:
To set the installation properties (ignore, warn, never) for installing unsigned drivers goto: settings, control panel, system applet, harware tab, driver signing button.
Is there an internal command that allows us to control these settings from a msdos prompt?
Also, does anybody remember qustions about the certificates applet in 2000 Server? There's not one in XP's control panel

baker

I was so unprepared for the signing questions, that I just took a stab at them and moved on. Like much of the subject matter, driver signing is not exactly crucial information once you end up actually supporting users in the field or at the helpdesk (though I'm a relative newbie, so there may be some objections to that statement)
Unfortunately, I don't recall the questions, but they were not involved.
They definitely didn't ask about accessing those settings via command line, and I don't even know if that is an option, but I'm going to check that out right now - thank for giving me something to look up!

MonkeyHarris

Charwell,

Hope you get this before you go, about the ME upgrade to 2000. I believe this is because ME actually came out after 2000 and there would be driver conflicts etc. Thanks for the tips they are much appreciated. MSDOS.SYS = 1,024kbs? Is that right......hope so!

I agree with you that Comptia prefer to ask questions on anything that you're never likely to encounter or need again. Shame really as I felt dissapointed after the hardware that all my studying barely counted for anything and most of the questions I got I had to use my best judgement. I kept thinking when are they going to ask me some proper questions!!!..Hahaha!

Anything you can remember from todays exam would be much appreciated.

Fingers crossed m8 and the very best of luck.

Simonides

Hi,

I'm also taking my OS test tomorrow, and I used David Groth's book as my main method of study as well; however, I have found it helpful to supplement other sources, most notably articles from Microsoft's homepage. XP's Help and Support Center also has a lot of information (most importantly, XP's new command line tools which I heard can show up). I did ok on the hardware portion (59, but I feel that it would have been a lot tighter had I not used some other sources (mostly internet and personal experience); in other words, I believe that the Sybex book is a little incomplete. If you know it from cover to cover, you'll most likely pass, but will probably see stuff on the test that wasn't covered in the book.

Regarding other issues:

I think msdos.sys is supposed to be 1024 bytes (1K).
Are networking ports covered on this exam? My boss (who took this exam some 8 years ago or so) seemed to think so.


Good luck to everyone else taking it tomorrow!


Edit: Oops, didn't see the dates on your posts, hope you guys passed! :P

charwell

dude,

I took the a+ OS today, and didn't see any questions about port assignments. Just know 80 is HTTP, and few of the other basics. Know what a socket is. Be ready for trick questions.

Cheers.

MonkeyHarris

No time to write an essay at the moment but I passed. By the skin of my teeth.........515!!!!

N+ course already booked for 19th!

I will come back later and put down what I can remember. One thing I do remember is the look of horror on the faces of everyone when I realised my mouse had packed up half way through the exam!!!!! I was hysterical to say the least.....

janmike

Congratulations to all on the pass!

Simonides

Passed mine with a 597 (after having gotten a 598 on the hardware, heh)... while I am happy with the pass, I feel that several aspects of the test were rather poor. Due to the randomness of the test, I had 5 similar questions with the same answer, 4 of them in a row. I had the same exact question (unrelated to the 5) twice on the test; however, the first time it prompted me for three answers, and the second for only two. There were a few misspellings as well, one of which affected the correct answer to a question. Other than that, I felt like I should have gotten a much better score, but a pass is a pass, so whatever...


Best advice is: go through each and every objective on CompTIA's site and make sure you know what it is/where to find it/how it works, and despite the discrepencies you should pass quite comfortably.


On to Network+... assuming the scoring system is the same, I'd better know my stuff even more the next time around (at least I didn't miss any networking questions on this one). Congrats to MonkeyHarris and Charwell, and good luck to everyone else taking the A+!

2lazybutsmart

Congrats!