Would this be a typical question on the A+ Exam?

greyskies67

This is a question out of the Mike Meyers book. I find this question completely ridiculous.

What are the standard system resource assignments for COM1?
A) I/O Address 03F8 and IRQ3
I/O Address 03F8 and IRQ4
C) I/O Address 02F8 and IRQ3
D) I/O Address 02F8 and IRQ4

Would a question like this really be on this Exam or is this just Meyer's sadistic way of grilling us after reading the chapters??
Also, is it necessary to know the different number of pins for CPU sockets or to just know how that they vary?

longhornxp2005

I don't believe those specific types of questions will be on the exam. They used to be on the older 60x exams though. It seems that the newer exams (70x) focus questions on general foundational knowledge and troubleshooting as opposed to learning specific detailed facts that have no way of showing the true ability of a certified tech to actually "DO" the job itself.

Simply put the older tests could be passed with great memory skills while the newer tests will be hard to test with just memory without the foundational knowledge. Though with a solid foundation I believe good memorization skills could put you over the top.

Slowhand

Don't be so sure that IRQ knowledge is out of date. There may be a question or two hidden away in the current A+ exams just for those lovely blue screens that say "IRQ_not_equal" right before a machine reboots fifteen times.

As for your second question: yes, knowing the pin-count for the common types of connectors is very likely to show up on the exams. This has been a classic type of A+ question since the inception of the cert and will probably continue to be until the end of (certification) time. And, to tell the truth, you may find that knowing a bit about pins will help you as you're working.

Remember, the certifications we earn are baselines of knowledge. Studying for them gives you the same information that a lot of other working professionals have and understanding that, if an exam question is really difficult, it probably means it's medium difficulty compared to what you'll see when you're "out in the trenches", so to speak. Don't be afraid of those sadistic questions, understanding the answer means you're going to be a much better IT pro than the guy who steers clear of them.

chmorin

greyskies67 wrote: »

This is a question out of the Mike Meyers book. I find this question completely ridiculous.

What are the standard system resource assignments for COM1?
A) I/O Address 03F8 and IRQ3
I/O Address 03F8 and IRQ4
C) I/O Address 02F8 and IRQ3
D) I/O Address 02F8 and IRQ4

Would a question like this really be on this Exam or is this just Meyer's sadistic way of grilling us after reading the chapters??
Also, is it necessary to know the different number of pins for CPU sockets or to just know how that they vary?

It is not uncommon for the A+ to want you to know IRQ's, CPU differences, and other misc stuff that you probably wont use on a daily basis. But that was my test.

As to say if that question will appear on your test, or something like it, I cannot say. Probably not.

Devilsbane

I would put all the money in my wallet (which really isn't much right now, maybe $15 lol) that you will not see this. And even if you SOMEHOW did, 1 question won't be the difference between a pass and a fail.

DraxtheSoviet

I took the older 602 version of the exam and never had that question. As far as I remember some of the A+ materials (Mike Myers' A+ incl.) noted that IRQ q's won't be asked on the exam.

erpadmin

DraxtheSoviet wrote: »

I took the older 602 version of the exam and never had that question. As far as I remember some of the A+ materials (Mike Myers' A+ incl.) noted that IRQ q's won't be asked on the exam.

It may not hurt to still learn it, if only for educational value....you never know when you might need to fix a dinosaur that requires the manual settings of IRQs through jumper settings and what-not.

It wasn't always "Plug and Play." LOL.

DraxtheSoviet

erpadmin wrote: »

It may not hurt to still learn it, if only for educational value....you never know when you might need to fix a dinosaur that requires the manual settings of IRQs through jumper settings and what-not.

It wasn't always "Plug and Play." LOL.

True that, it is a plus to know it even though we may never stumble upon configuring IRQs in the future or have a question about it in the exam itself. It may be the case today with legacy devices that are still being used throughout the world. So knowledge is always power, but thank "IT gods" for "PnP"!