A+ Certification in a Month?

KayDay

I'm re-entering college after 4 years for Computer Technology. My intro class is full, but the school is willing to give me full credit if I pass A+ before the start of school on August 29th. I have some experience, but it's fairly limited, I've never built a PC, work mostly with a laptop, haven't done any PC repair. I've got a decent amount of technical knowledge and I'm currently studying out of Mike Meyers A+ All in One now. Is it possible that I may be able to pass with only a month of preparation?

Plantwiz

Download a copy of the objectives and review those.

If you need to add a text to prepare for the exams, then look at All-in-one from Meyers and/or the Sybex text.

If the objectives make sense and you understand the material, schedule your exams.

bigmantenor

Considering you have around a month and a half to knock it out, I don't think it should be that much of an issue. Another resource that helped me out was the Exam Cram book for A+ (the practice tests it comes with are worth the price of the book by themselves). Good luck to you!

mishy

KayDay wrote: »

Is it possible that I may be able to pass with only a month of preparation?

I read the A+ book with 1000 pages in 1 week and the rest of the other books in less than 5 days each and passed my exams in less than 1 month. So its all about how much you want to know about computers and desire to succeed. A+ is not that hard and you will find that most of the questions require common troubleshooting sense but then there is a few that you need to memorise like Power supply voltages, DC / AC and a few others.

Deathgomper

I did the A+ in 6 weeks using only Mike's book. I think as long as you put in the effort it is possible and probable.

AU5

I'm taking mine in a week and my main study tool has been Mike Meyers test question program. It's $125 on the website and it provides 12 practice exams and 12 Final exams. I'm basically engraving those questions into my mind for recognition on the exam.

I've also been watching Professor Messer's videos which are helpful.

As far as taking it in a month's time, I think you will be fine. I have been putting it off for 2-3 months and I finally just scheduled an exam date, giving myself 3 weeks to study. If you know the date of your exam, it helps to promote an urgency to study.

Look into those practice test questions though. It will be good as far as giving you an example of what you can expect to see on the exam.

Good Luck!

Michael.J.Palmer

I basically did mine in a month (hell I took the 701 and 702 on the same day even) so yeah it's possible.

At the time though I already had about 10 years of break/fix experience and on top of that I wasn't working at the time when studying, so that might have played a role, but it can be done. It just comes down to how much experience you already have in some of those fields.

The end-user support bit is pretty straight forward, if you've worked any customer service job then you should nail that since it's basically the same thing, same goes for hygiene, etc.

The tricky part comes down to the tech nitty gritty but if you have a degree and some experience already then half of that you should already know.

Devilsbane

It's possible.

But it is a pretty crummy place for them to put you in. Why does it need to be August 29th? Why not September or November?

Doesn't hurt to try, even if you miss their deadline you should be close to having it and once you get it you can slap that on your resume.

CareerChangeIT

It's a multiple choice exam if you are good at memorizing and cramming you should be able to pass it. I've met a lot of "IT Guys" who are A+ certified but cant open a single laptop. So the exam it self is not hard just put in 4 hours a day for a month you'll clear it easy!

zephryx

I did 4 days on INTENSE studying and passed it with no problems. I used Mike Meyers to study, and Exam Cram for the questions. The exam cram questions are much harder than on the actual exam, the questions that are in the Meyers book were too easy tough...

Concerned Water

Michael.J.Palmer wrote: »

I basically did mine in a month (hell I took the 701 and 702 on the same day even) so yeah it's possible.

At the time though I already had about 10 years of break/fix experience and on top of that I wasn't working at the time when studying, so that might have played a role, but it can be done. It just comes down to how much experience you already have in some of those fields.

The end-user support bit is pretty straight forward, if you've worked any customer service job then you should nail that since it's basically the same thing, same goes for hygiene, etc.

The tricky part comes down to the tech nitty gritty but if you have a degree and some experience already then half of that you should already know.

+1 I did both on the same day too, one after the other:D

RPMar52

It can absolutely be done in a month. It will take dedication, but assuming a decent working knowledge as a start, Professor Messer and AIO will get it done. Good luck!