Strata

Lenniusce

Has anyone taken this? What can you report, and what free materials online will help me?

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beingcertified

Yeah, ditto. I'm looking at study material and it's a bit lacking.. .any help please? Email me! or post!

beingcertified

I've passed Green IT exam today. I'm still looking for info for Strata... I'm going to see what is available and take it anyway.

Lenniusce

Passed the Strata on the 15th...very easy. How about the Healthcare IT exam? Anyone taken that?

beingcertified

Lenniusce wrote: »

Passed the Strata on the 15th...very easy. How about the Healthcare IT exam? Anyone taken that?

I failed the Strata Weds and am taking the Healthcare in 2 weeks. Just got the book in for it. What did you use to study for Strata? The book I had wasn't worth crap since it missed out on entire areas covered in the exam.

Lenniusce

beingcertified wrote: »

I failed the Strata Weds and am taking the Healthcare in 2 weeks. Just got the book in for it. What did you use to study for Strata? The book I had wasn't worth crap since it missed out on entire areas covered in the exam.

I bought the Mike Meyers guide on amazon. Since the kindle edition was available, i just got that and printed it out and highlighted the problem areas. Should do fine if you study the book along with Prof Messers A+ videos.

Darril

beingcertified wrote: »

I failed the Strata Weds and am taking the Healthcare in 2 weeks. Just got the book in for it. What did you use to study for Strata? The book I had wasn't worth crap since it missed out on entire areas covered in the exam.

Sorry to hear you dropped this. I'm curious about what kind of content was missed in the study guide you used. I'm putting together some study notes for people that may take this test and am wondering if the exam deviates much from the objectives. The objectives are rather broad and many cross over into the A+ objectives but I wouldn't think that they'd be as deep as the A+. It does have some security and network content which I'm betting you aced with your Network+ and Security+ certifications.

If you took it again, what topics would you be studying to fill in the gaps?

Darril Gibson
Security+ blog
Security+ Tip Of Day

beingcertified

Darril wrote: »

Sorry to hear you dropped this. I'm curious about what kind of content was missed in the study guide you used. I'm putting together some study notes for people that may take this test and am wondering if the exam deviates much from the objectives. The objectives are rather broad and many cross over into the A+ objectives but I wouldn't think that they'd be as deep as the A+. It does have some security and network content which I'm betting you aced with your Network+ and Security+ certifications.

If you took it again, what topics would you be studying to fill in the gaps?

There appeared to be large areas that was NOT covered in the GTS Learning Book I ordered on the exam. The book made it appear
that it was quite basic dealing with pre- A+ areas and it really was not the case. The Green IT stuff I did ok on since I just took that
3 days before and passed it with flying colors. The power management stuff I had problems with since it was not covered and it appeared
to me that the exam did deviate greatly from the objectives. I had just passed (from studying your books!) Security Plus and Network PLUS!
I picked up Green IT and studied for 3 days straight and passed that one. Strata threw me for a loop. I believe the man at the test center told me that they had just also changed the exam a few days prior so that might have something to do with it being differently focused. I'm almost at a loss what to actually focus on since I have been working in IT for 20 plus years, I'm a ISSO for the Government and have hands on for A+ type of work which I did for over 6 years.... Darril I'm really baffled. I saw people post that they aced it without studying, I'm a bit amazed at that one. It did NOT appear to have some of the basics I was studying like the connectors: S Video, etc... and where slots were in the computer to add memory, things like that I have not done hands on in over 10 years I really studied up on and it was NO WHERE on my exam. I brushed up again on things like BNC connectors, etc since I know that ties into the A+ stuff... Once again, no dice... it was more about power saving, more along the lines of Green IT and I had the 12 questions that put me into fail hell that was on things like Power management power saving that came to me out of no where.
I used what I knew from Green IT which I passed, but this was more tricky with there being 2 answers that were just about the same/right for the answer to the question. For me, I was running into alot of that on this exam... one was just about as good to another... Let me know if you come out with this study guide soon. I would like to take the exam again before Christmas! Ditto for Healthcare IT... Let me know if you need anything else and if I can remember more I will let you know!

Darril

Reading your post, the primary information I’m hearing you say that you didn’t see was related to power management. I looked over my notes and I would expect the basic information to be covered like this:

Standby. In standby mode (sometimes called sleep or suspend to RAM), the system reduces the amount of power it uses drastically. It provides a small amount of power to maintain the contents of memory, and also for the processor to periodically check for input. Other components are turned off. If the user presses a key, the system will wake up.
Hibernate. In hibernate mode (sometimes called suspend to disk), the system writes all data in memory to the hard drive and is then turned off completely. This saves the current computing session, but it does not require any power to maintain the session. When the system is turned back on, it restores the session by writing the saved data from the hard drive to the memory.

It is possible that they went deeper covering this type of information on actual states covered by the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification. The ACPI includes several different definitions for different types of power saving modes which are usually accessible via the operating system. Some settings are global and apply to the entire computer, some are for specific devices, and some are for the processor.

In general the 0 state is fully functional and higher numbers save progressively more power.

The global power saving states are G0 through G3 as follows:

G0 (Operating) - The system is fully functional and is not saving power.
G1 (Sleeping) - The system is in one of four sleeping states as defined in the next section.
G2 (Soft Off) - The computer is off but system input from a keyboard, LAN, or USB device can awaken it.
G3 (Off) - The computer is turned off and not running. This is the same as unplugging the computer from power. If you needed to replace parts within a computer, or disassemble it, it should be in the G3 state.

The four sleep states (contained with the G1 Sleeping state) are:

S1 Stand by - The system is maintaining power to memory and the processor. Out of all the sleep states, this one consumes the most energy.
S3 Standby - Trickle power maintains the memory and the processor is not executing any instructions. Other devices such as disk drives or graphics cards are off. The system will quickly start up when it receives input such as a key press by a user.
S4 (Hibernation) - All data from the memory is written to the disk and the system power is off. When the computer is turned back on, it retrieves data from the disk and writes it back into memory.

The processor power saving states are C0 through C3 as follows:

C0 (Operating state) - Processor is operational and does not save power
C3 (Sleep state) - Processor is in sleep mode where it is not running any instructions and it doesn’t have any data within its cache. This saves the most power and takes the longest to recover from.

The Display Power Management Signaling (DPMS) standard is another standard used for power management. However, it is only used to manage power on monitors and video cards.

Sorry, but there's no way the project I'm working on will be done before Christmas so it won't be able to help you.

HTH,

Darril Gibson
Security+ blog
Security+ Tip Of Day

beingcertified

Darril wrote: »

Reading your post, the primary information I’m hearing you say that you didn’t see was related to power management. I looked over my notes and I would expect the basic information to be covered like this:
Standby. In standby mode (sometimes called sleep or suspend to RAM), the system reduces the amount of power it uses drastically. It provides a small amount of power to maintain the contents of memory, and also for the processor to periodically check for input. Other components are turned off. If the user presses a key, the system will wake up.

Hibernate. In hibernate mode (sometimes called suspend to disk), the system writes all data in memory to the hard drive and is then turned off completely. This saves the current computing session, but it does not require any power to maintain the session. When the system is turned back on, it restores the session by writing the saved data from the hard drive to the memory.

It is possible that they went deeper covering this type of information on actual states covered by the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification. The ACPI includes several different definitions for different types of power saving modes which are usually accessible via the operating system. Some settings are global and apply to the entire computer, some are for specific devices, and some are for the processor.

In general the 0 state is fully functional and higher numbers save progressively more power.

The global power saving states are G0 through G3 as follows:
G0 (Operating) - The system is fully functional and is not saving power.

G1 (Sleeping) - The system is in one of four sleeping states as defined in the next section.

G2 (Soft Off) - The computer is off but system input from a keyboard, LAN, or USB device can awaken it.

G3 (Off) - The computer is turned off and not running. This is the same as unplugging the computer from power. If you needed to replace parts within a computer, or disassemble it, it should be in the G3 state.

The four sleep states (contained with the G1 Sleeping state) are:
S1 Stand by - The system is maintaining power to memory and the processor. Out of all the sleep states, this one consumes the most energy.

S3 Standby - Trickle power maintains the memory and the processor is not executing any instructions. Other devices such as disk drives or graphics cards are off. The system will quickly start up when it receives input such as a key press by a user.

S4 (Hibernation) - All data from the memory is written to the disk and the system power is off. When the computer is turned back on, it retrieves data from the disk and writes it back into memory.

The processor power saving states are C0 through C3 as follows:
C0 (Operating state) - Processor is operational and does not save power

C3 (Sleep state) - Processor is in sleep mode where it is not running any instructions and it doesn’t have any data within its cache. This saves the most power and takes the longest to recover from.

The Display Power Management Signaling (DPMS) standard is another standard used for power management. However, it is only used to manage power on monitors and video cards.

Sorry, but there's no way the project I'm working on will be done before Christmas so it won't be able to help you.

HTH,

Darril Gibson
Security+ blog
Security+ Tip Of Day

Yes you are just about spot on but then they had other things in there that I think must have been beta questions that did not seem to be covered by the objectives. For the power saving states, I basically got those, and the DPMS etc they did question about and go deep on those. I'm going to review the Element K book which I just picked up yesterday but even then it looks too basic for me. I think the problem I'm finding is that most of the materials are elementary level and I'm not at a beginner level. Oh well... I'll see how I do again and maybe wait for you new books to come out. Please keep me posted on your blogs on the progress with those and the CASP if you are still going to be working on those! Take care, Vanessa

Darril

Thanks for letting me know that these are valid topics. The power saving states are much deeper than I'd expect for this supposedly basic exam which is meant to be before the A+. I would expect most of the exam to be basic and with your other certifications I would expect it to be a cake walk for you. At this point, I'm baffled too. Sorry I wasn't able to help.

Best of luck on your next attempt and be sure to let us know how it goes. It could be that you had some fluke questions and you may be able to walk in and take it again and pass with flying colors.

On my Strata IT Fundamentals project, don't expect it before February but I will post it on my blog when it comes out and mention it in my newsletter. I'm not working on a CASP project though.

Darril Gibson
Security+ blog
Security+ Tip Of Day

beingcertified

Darril wrote: »

Thanks for letting me know that these are valid topics. The power saving states are much deeper than I'd expect for this supposedly basic exam which is meant to be before the A+. I would expect most of the exam to be basic and with your other certifications I would expect it to be a cake walk for you. At this point, I'm baffled too. Sorry I wasn't able to help.

Best of luck on your next attempt and be sure to let us know how it goes. It could be that you had some fluke questions and you may be able to walk in and take it again and pass with flying colors.

On my Strata IT Fundamentals project, don't expect it before February but I will post it on my blog when it comes out and mention it in my newsletter. I'm not working on a CASP project though.

Darril Gibson
Security+ blog
Security+ Tip Of Day

Darril

I agree that some of the questions were WAY deeper than it should have been for a certificate and not even a certification and I found that
highly confusing since I read in the forums here that some people walked in without even studying and passed, making it sound like a cake walk.
Me and you both are still baffled. I've taken other Microsoft test before also and passed every cert I have taken except this 'basic' one...
oh well. I think you are right. I think I had some fluke questions because these are the ones that were NOT in the GLS learning book on it,
and I"m reading over the Element K and we shall see. BTW, the exam is graded from 0-60 with passing being 49. I received a 37 but when
I got the breakdown of what I failed I had to start laughing like: Demonstrate the ability to set up a basic PC Workstation,... give me a break.
I've set up tons of those when I was at NASA... Recognize security breaches and the ways to resolve them? Once again, please, I'm an ISSO
for a government system... and was the IT Security Manager on a $1.27 billion dollar contact with NASA... I'm going with Fluke questions,
restudying the 'boring' things like how many cable connections are on X and Y and get my ass back in there and get going again. This has
slowed me down big time and I have to go in for surgery on the 20th of December for tonsils.. I want to get Strata over and finished before
then! I'll keep you posted! Vanessa

Darril

Vanessa,

Thanks for the info. I was just reading a thread on Linked In in the CompTIA Certified Professionals Group where some trainers were talking about how the people that had the most problems with the A+ exam were people that had a lot of experience. Some of the trainers seemed to think the experienced people were overthinking the concepts. Not sure if that’s your case or not.

The objective titles don’t seem to match the actual content. For example objective 1.7 “Demonstrate the ability to set up a basic PC workstation” is overwhelmingly about connectors. While you probably can set up a workstation, testing that with a multiple choice question means they have to ask you if you know what devices plug into what kind of ports. If that was a weak point for you, the good news is that you know what to study. Make sure you know what these connectors look like and how many pins each of them have: DVI, VGA, HDMI, USB, PS/2, FireWire, Bluetooth and Wireless, Serial, Network connectors, PCMCIA, ExpressCard, 3.5mm audio jack, and Power connectors.

Similarly, the objective 4.2 “Recognize security breaches and ways to resolve them” is focused primarily on viruses and just a little bit on keeping applications and systems up to date. I think you’ll see a pass on your next try. And I hope that all you remember from the surgery is how much ice cream you get to eat.

Good luck,

Darril Gibson
Security+ blog
Security+ Tip Of Day