Practice

jwads

Have been going thru Gibson's book questions, got an 84 on the first test, a 93 percent on the end of chapter questsion, have not taken the last exam in the back of the book.

I have taken 2 of the four CompTIA practice exams, getting anywhere from a 55 to a 80 percent on them...curious if those are harder or easier than the real exam, and if they are as out of left field?

Many of the questions on the practice TIA exam have phrases and terms I have never seen in Gibson's book, I had to go look them up online...

Taking the exam on the 1st, trying to get as ready so I don't throw money away

jwads

No one can tell me anything to help?

shortcut144

Well Gibson's Book seemed well reccommended by everyone but I never got the chance to read it. I found the sample questions to be little off from what I experienced in the exam today.

I kinda thought the same thing when I took the practice tests two days before my exam. What made me feel confident was going through ALL the objectives and making sure I understood them all. Cross them off as you go.

It's hard to tell with practice tests.

Carl_S_901

I have always found the the 100 question practice tests on the CompTIA web site to be more difficult and less representative of the real exam. I used the Gibson book and only seen one question on the exam that was not in the text. However, Darril had done a blog post covering that subject so make sure you read his blog articles. I made a 77 on the pre-assessment test at the beginning of the book before reading it all. After reading the book, my score for the CompTIA web site test was 88%. I scored 96-97% on the end of the chapter questions and on the 100 question practice test at the back of the book. I scored 897/900 on the actual exam.

Some of the things I did besides reading the book:

1. Bought the audio files and listened to them all the time in the car.

2. Bought the iPad/iPhone app and used it before the test.

3. Used Wikipedia/Google during my reading to get more depth on some topics. I read the book on Kindle for iPad so this didn't require me to put down a book and go to the computer so it flowed nicely.

There is a good bit of memorization for this exam but focus on learning how things work (particularly PKI) and you'll naturally learn what is needed in regards to the terms and such.

jwads

Has anyone used the Proprofs testing exams online? They see really odd questions, and I've been bombing them...

Darril

I'll echo Carl. The questions on the CompTIA web site are more difficult and not necessarily a good representation of the live exam. Nothing wrong with using them and researching the answers on your own though, if you're so inclined.

RoyalTech

I have DG's practice test book and have been getting pretty much 100% or 100%-1 on all of them as well as the end of chapter tests in the study guide. I just took CompTIA's practice exam and got a 70%. I'm a bit shocked and a little nervous now since I take the exam on Tuesday. Many of the questions on the CompTIA practice exam were phrased the way DG described how a Microsoft exam question would be phrased. Of course, CompTIA is very helpful by not letting you know what the right answer is. I sure hope you guys are right when you say it is a poor example of the real exam or else I'm in trouble. My question is why they would do that for their practice exam.

Darril

First, many people use the book you're using, never do the practice exams on CompTIAs site, and pass the first time they take the exam. You've probably heard me say this before - the key isn't so much your score, but rather your understanding. If you can look at the questions and know why the correct answers are correct and why the incorrect answers are incorrect, you'll still be able to answer the live exam questions correctly no matter how CompTIA words the questions.

You're nervousness is similar to what has been expressed by many people after taking the practice exams on CompTIAs site. Sometimes it scares people away even though they were ready to take and pass the exam.

Those questions aren't written by CompTIA but instead are outsourced to MeasureUp. The only way this is apparent is by looking at the URL while you're taking the exam.

MeasureUp has a specific format they like to follow for questions which generally makes them longer than the actual CompTIA questions. They will often have some type of background for the question to set the stage, a problem or issue, and then the actual question. In contrast, most of the actual questions on the CompTIA exam only have the question without a lot of preamble.

Someone else posted in this forum that the answers and explanations are now included when you take the practice exam CompTIA exam. If that's consistently done for everyone, those practice test questions would be much more valuable. People could actually gain some knowledge from them. Then again, that would cut into MeasureUp sales if people can get the questions and explanations for free so it'll be interesting to see if it stays that way.

Good luck.

RoyalTech

Earlier today, I read something on the CompTIA site that expressed that the questions were not necessarily representative of the questions on the real exam. Your feedback is helpful for my sanity at this point. Would you like to come and take the test for me? Figure I'd ask

At least I can say that I have been able to take your tests and can often give the answer without looking at the choices. While I know that braindumps are frowned upon here, I have taken a look at a few and have seen that they appear to be much closer to the questions you provide than anything on the CompTIA practice exam.

I have always agreed with your comment that understanding the comment is far more important than any practice exam score. I believed that before I heard you say it for the first time. I just question my comprehension sometimes. I suppose that's normal for someone with my newbie standing.