Looking to start studying for CompTIA A+

I am almost finished with this semester and want to do something productive over the summer, outside of summer classes. My username explains my IT experience/knowledge but I am ready and motivated to get my foot in the door and I feel it is necessary since I am planning on getting a bachelors in CIS. So I guess my question is, what should my first steps be in tackling this goal (getting A+ certified)? I have read a few post and saw that the most popular books are Mike Meyers and the Jean book as well as ExamCram so I figure I'll need to pick one of those up, but my real question is, do I need to look into buying a cheap experimental PC for hands on training? If so where is the best place I could find one? Any and all input is appreciated!

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Slowhand

The Mike Meyers book is a great resource, definitely work with that if you can get it. Hands-on practice is an absolute must for any exam(s) you're going to be taking, so make sure you have at least one computer to work with that you can take apart, build up again, install and reinstall the OS on, etc. If you can't find a good deal on Craigslist or eBay for some older equipment, try looking around the labs in your school and see if there's anything the staff is planning on tossing out.

Schools are notorious for keeping computers around long after they've become too old for their own good, so that's a good place to start. You don't necessarily need new hardware to work with, things haven't changed so much that you won't get good experience from working with old Pentium 4 machines, for example. As long as you hit the books and the labs evenly, you should have no trouble learning what you need to pass the exams over the summer.

ITnew-bee

Ok thanks. Another question, if I am just now starting to think about getting this certification should I study for the 701-702 exams or go ahead and look into books that go with the 801-802 exams? I've read where the 701-702 exams are likely to expire in a year or so, so I dont want to waste my time with them if theyll be useless in the near future.

Slowhand

You're not likely to find any books or material relevant to the 220-801/220-802 exams out until July or August, and you're probably wanting to earn the cert well before then. There hasn't been any official word from CompTIA when the 220-701/220-702 exams will be discontinued, so start your studying with them and go from there.