A+ has come a long way

I passed the two A+ exams in June 1997 with nearly no studying, just a few years experience building PCs and 4 years of Windows experience. It was two exams: A hardware exam, and then a choice between 2 exams for the elective: Windows or Mac. I took both exams the same day and was in and out of the testing center in about an hour.

The last few years when I stroll through the book stores, I see these gigantic A+ study books, about the same size as my 1,700 page 70-292 and 70-296 upgrade exam book for MCSE 2003. Given the advancement in technology, I guess I can understand the additional content but back in the day I don't think this was meant to be an uber-master-god cert which took 6 months to prep for. People studying for the A+ in recent years seem to have it a lot tougher... I feel for you guys.

I hope you find the time invested and the experience worth it.

Jas

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Turgon

jasonboche wrote: »

I passed the two A+ exams back in 1996 with nearly no studying, just a few years experience building PCs and 4 years of Windows experience. It was two exams: A hardware exam, and then a choice between 2 exams for the elective: Windows or Mac. I took both exams the same day and was in and out of the testing center in about an hour.

The last few years when I stroll through the book stores, I see these gigantic A+ study books, about the same size as my 1,700 page 70-292 and 70-296 upgrade exam book for MCSE 2003. Given the advancement in technology, I guess I can understand the additional content but back in the day I don't think this was meant to be an uber-master-god cert which took 6 months to prep for. People studying for the A+ in recent years seem to have it a lot tougher... I feel for you guys.

I hope you find the time invested and the experience worth it.

Jas

I can relate to some extent. Back then when I was working in IT the A+ technician was about the only exam going for PC/Server folks..although there was the Compaq ACE programme which was really difficult to pass without the classroom training and course books..I think it was four exams for ACE. If I remember though there was a big PC hardware book out in the nineties which has gone through many revisions I think its Scott's book which at my last count was at 18th revision?

Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing • View topic - A+ certification

Anyway..big books have been around for a long time for this cert. Perhaps when you started out it was a fairly simple example if you had some hands on, but from what I recall from 1999 onwards *unless* you had a lot of minutia down (the sort of stuff most people wouldnt totally encounter at work), memory values etc..you would fail unless you went blind on this book or use condenced study guides with all the right tables of stuff to memorise..parameters..command line switches etc.

Plantwiz

Well...when some of us started we still used the abacus. After the abacus everything seems like a lot of study

matradley

Plantwiz wrote: »

Well...when some of us started we still used the abacus. After the abacus everything seems like a lot of study

Gee whiz Grandpa Plantwiz.

TheShadow

Grandpa would be me. I carved my one's and zero's out of stone. I think that you will find that Plantwiz is female, with a husband and all.

MosGuy

jasonboche wrote: »

I passed the two A+ exams back in 1996 with nearly no studying, just a few years experience building PCs and 4 years of Windows experience. It was two exams: A hardware exam, and then a choice between 2 exams for the elective: Windows or Mac. I took both exams the same day and was in and out of the testing center in about an hour.

The last few years when I stroll through the book stores, I see these gigantic A+ study books, about the same size as my 1,700 page 70-292 and 70-296 upgrade exam book for MCSE 2003. Given the advancement in technology, I guess I can understand the additional content but back in the day I don't think this was meant to be an uber-master-god cert which took 6 months to prep for. People studying for the A+ in recent years seem to have it a lot tougher... I feel for you guys.

I hope you find the time invested and the experience worth it.

Jas

I can semi-relate as well. I got my A+ back in 2001 & like you took both exams the same day with an hour break in between for lunch. I took hardware first, walked out of the exam in 5 minutes. Software I completed in 10 minutes. Though I had 10+ years experience at that point. I took it when they were phasing out the Windows 3.1 & proper DOS content. Which I wanted to catch having learned on 286's and DOS in the pre-Windows era. I can't say I've flipped through the recent A+ material. I did for the net+ though out of curiosity what was added. I think there's still something to be said for the old content. I wonder how many techs today could handle Windows 3.1 with ease or understand DOS memory management. If you put the old material in front of techs today. I'm sure it would seem just as hard to them

earweed

Mine I took in 2008. It had two parts. One was general (mostly hardware) and the other was IT Technician. It still had a lot of the older equipment in the book and referred to it as old. Made me feel old.
I worked with DOS and 3.x in the "old days" and had just moved up from Windows Me (Which I hated) to Windows XP.
I took both tests the same day with a snack break in between.

petedude

MosGuy wrote: »

I think there's still something to be said for the old content. I wonder how many techs today could handle Windows 3.1 with ease or understand DOS memory management. If you put the old material in front of techs today. I'm sure it would seem just as hard to them

I took mine in 1999, about 10 years after I started in IT. I don't think I prepped much-- I seem to remember just using some prep exams. I finished both in about an hour and a half-- the test center was amazed, telling me it was the fastest they'd ever seen them taken.

And yes, to be an old so-and-so, most folks don't appreciate how much easier some things have gotten in IT. There are lots of people, in and out of IT, who would be utterly lost at a command line. Of course, that sort of thing is why computer literacy courses cover the obligatory old equipment.

Turgon

MosGuy wrote: »

I can semi-relate as well. I got my A+ back in 2001 & like you took both exams the same day with an hour break in between for lunch. I took hardware first, walked out of the exam in 5 minutes. Software I completed in 10 minutes. Though I had 10+ years experience at that point. I took it when they were phasing out the Windows 3.1 & proper DOS content. Which I wanted to catch having learned on 286's and DOS in the pre-Windows era. I can't say I've flipped through the recent A+ material. I did for the net+ though out of curiosity what was added. I think there's still something to be said for the old content. I wonder how many techs today could handle Windows 3.1 with ease or understand DOS memory management. If you put the old material in front of techs today. I'm sure it would seem just as hard to them

Messing around with load high and all that? gotta love it. Rudiments are good, and some respect for capacity paramount!

MosGuy

Turgon wrote: »

Messing around with load high and all that? gotta love it. Rudiments are good, and some respect for capacity paramount!

Yep good old load high & all that fun stuff. I came across this link for those of us who remember the "joys" of memory management: DOS memory managment . I still have my first computer: 386 laptop, 10" mono screen, 25 mhz, 4 MB RAM, 60 MB hard drive running DOS/W3.1. On occasion I fire it up, it still runs great after 19 years. I've been meaning to take a picture of it next to my 10" Asus Netbook. It reminds me how technology seems to have come full circle

Turgon

MosGuy wrote: »

Yep good old load high & all that fun stuff. I came across this link for those of us who remember the "joys" of memory management: DOS memory managment . I still have my first computer: 386 laptop, 10" mono screen, 25 mhz, 4 MB RAM, 60 MB hard drive running DOS/W3.1. On occasion I fire it up, it still runs great after 19 years. I've been meaning to take a picture of it next to my 10" Asus Netbook. It reminds me how technology seems to have come full circle

Do you have TCP/IP stack running on that thing? Curious.

MosGuy

Turgon wrote: »

Do you have TCP/IP stack running on that thing? Curious.

No, it does have a slot for a modem, one was never fitted. I remember having to go buy a separate math coprocessor to do more advanced calculations. I'm sure it would handle the net fine the trick would be to source a modem. A few years back I did tech work for an elderly couple. They had a 386/486 running Win 3.1 & used dial-up, that was a fun tech session. This video is cool: YouTube - 1964 Antique MODEM Live Demo , on-line with a '64 modem

netn3rd

MosGuy wrote: »

Yep good old load high & all that fun stuff. I came across this link for those of us who remember the "joys" of memory management: DOS memory managment . I still have my first computer: 386 laptop, 10" mono screen, 25 mhz, 4 MB RAM, 60 MB hard drive running DOS/W3.1. On occasion I fire it up, it still runs great after 19 years. I've been meaning to take a picture of it next to my 10" Asus Netbook. It reminds me how technology seems to have come full circle

You're lucky. "My" (my father's really) first computer was a compaq portable III. 286, 12MHz, 640k and 40MB hard drive. It had a 12 or 14" orange monochrome plasma screen. It folded up to the size of a small weekend bag and was totally awesome. I'd probably still load old Sierra games onto it if I still had it. It was stolen during a break-in in the late 90s. Every once in a while i get nostalgic for it.

Turgon

MosGuy wrote: »

No, it does have a slot for a modem, one was never fitted. I remember having to go buy a separate math coprocessor to do more advanced calculations. I'm sure it would handle the net fine the trick would be to source a modem. A few years back I did tech work for an elderly couple. They had a 386/486 running Win 3.1 & used dial-up, that was a fun tech session. This video is cool: YouTube - 1964 Antique MODEM Live Demo , on-line with a '64 modem

Interesting. Reminds me of the old bulletin board www experience. Hell just getting a sound card working in a PC could be an all nighter. Then plug and pray came around..then it finally got better. Even getting a Win 3.11 on a Novell Network was work..config.sys, autoexec.bat..T/R card dip switches..network drivers, Novell client..then all the batch files. Easy today by comparison.