What minor hardware details need to be memorizied?

I plan on taking the A+ exam this month as soon I'm ready. The problem I'm having is the required memorization of very, very minor hardware details or otherwise. I understand the concepts but questions like this always bring down my percentage. I'd easily be ready for the test if it weren't for questions like this :

"How many wires are in a IEEE 1394 cable that provides both data and power to devices"

Two
Four
Six

Best to be prepared for "got ya" questions like that. I'm trying to figure out which minor hardware details need to be memorized. Should I memorize the color and voltage of every wire of P1 and so on? What about the command line utilities? Is it necessary to Memorize every switch for ping, defrag, checkdsk, telnet, Net, Netstat, dir and ones I haven't listed?

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FloOz

i recently sat the test and it was MUCH MUCH easier than i expected. I myself was worried about those nit picky questions, however, i was not asked anything like that. You for sure do NOT need to memorize the color and voltage of every p1 wire etc. Command line you will need to know tho, the test did ask a good amount on commands. And also know port numbers.
Remember that the books goes into great detail about everything, and most of it is not needed to pass the exam, however that doesnt mean you shouldnt learn it

Whiteout

I agree with pruspeter, much easier than I an anticipated, but that was probably because I studied my ass off. Definitely be prepared for command line questions. The test doesn't really get to nit picky about wire colors, # of pins on ram, cpu types, etc. One think to make sure you know is the path to get to a lot of key tools in Windows 7, Vista, and XP (You know start - Control Panel - and so on) . A lot of situational questions as well, asking what would do in such and such situation.

Good luck on the test buddy. It's not too bad, don't stress too much!

Novalith478

On my test there weren't that many nit picky questions. There was a lot of network stuff, but other than that it was fine. Make sure you know what cables go for what (7 and 15 pin for SATA drives, 40 pin ribbon cable for IDE, etc). Also know the power questions. There were some questions for me like: how many cables are there in a 4 pin molex connector and what are their voltages?

draught

I've been reading more about networking and I'm working on my flashcard collection thanks for the advice. I tried the practice test on comptia's site and wow some of these are a bit hard. I'd think this type of question would be meant for Net+. I passed the test anyway but still.

[FONT=&amp]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]You need to ensure that Active Directory domain user Alice does not have read access to the folder named Graphics. The Graphics folder is shared to the network from the server named FS0. The disk partition on which Graphics is located is formatted as NTFS.

Your solution should not impact other users.

What should you do?[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]

A)Explicitly deny read access to the folder to Alice through local access security.[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]B)Explicitly deny read access to the folder to Alice through shared access security.[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]C)Remove Alice from any domain group that has access to the Graphics folder.[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]D)Deny read access to the Graphics folder to any group to which Alice belongs.[/FONT]

I guessed B but I'm really not sure going to have research this one.

swild

One thing that my A+ test was heavy on was laser printer parts functions. For instance: What part should be replaced if you are seeing ghosting of previously printed images on the next few pages?

I had at least 10 questions like this about laser printers. Everyone else I know that has taken the test had one or two if any so the test bank is pretty big. All in all, If you use the AIO text, you will be fine.

draught

Don't want to start a new thread so I'll just post here; I'm taking the A+ essentials test tomorrow. I'm very much looking forward to finishing this. I've done nothing but study for this test for the past 3 weeks and I finally feel ready. I've read 4 books in the past two months as well. The only thing don't fully understand is some networking concepts like the OSI model (I am aware of each of the various network topologies but the OSI seems like network+ material) but I don't think I'll be asked about that for the A+. Will post my results tomorrow.

FloOz

dont even bother worrying about the osi model. you will not be asked any explicit questions about it.

draught

Just passed my A+ essentials with an 785! The one thing I can say about this test is the only way to pass is to know the materials; there's simply a huge variety of questions. Probably the most stressful test I've taken in my life too.

Taking the practical tomorrow then I can celebrate hopefully.

QuietOne

I'm taking my 701 tomorrow. I am really nervous about it for some reason, I have been studying for a few weeks now and been taking practice tests on the Mike Meyer's DVD, Ucertify and on CompTIA's website. High scores on all of them but I'm still really nervous about taking the exam.

Daniel333

Careful here. This exam is not as easy as people say IMHO.

Wiring layouts are very common among the entry level certs even beyond A+. You should probably expect to know the pin layouts by heart. Beyond just wires most, A+ books give a chart of CPUs/ram/bus types, their cycles, bits etc. These are not optional. They will expect you to memorize them.

The strategy for these I recommend is, if you understand every element, move on. The week before your exam flashcards! Reproduce the charts from memory. Then finally two hours before the exam, review them one more time. Keep it fresh in your mind.