Question about the A++

Luke88

Hi, I just got this Mike Myers book. I don't have any certifications because I'm still in HS but I'm good with pc laptops, whatever. Anyway this book is huge. A ton of info on processors and differences on OS's and I don't think that part in the book is really organized. The book says no window 7 questions but the objectives say there are 7 questions?? Can anyone say if that info is important for the exam? This book is a monster and I don't want to memorize stuff I don''t need.
Thanks

NotHackingYou

Which Mike Meyers book did you get? Everything in the A+ book is important for the A+ test.

What is your goal with passing the A+ exam?

Luke88

I have version 7 of the book. I don't have it in front of me but its like 1600 pages. I'm pretty good with computers in general (I've been working as a repair tech for a couple years in this programm at my high school. I think I'll probably do WGU and I was thinking about getting started with A+.

YFZblu

If the objectives say there are Windows 7 questions, there are Windows 7 questions.

Also, you'll want to read it all. The A+ isn't as bad as it once was, but can still be notorious for arbitrary questions. Welcome to certification

Bryzey

What version of the a+ are you planning on taking?

7th edition was released prior to the exam updates in 2011 for 220-701/702 So you need an alternate resource for windows 7, ipv6, and not sure what else off the top of my head.

The book does cover a lot and is extremely dry. It is designed for a total beginner as an all in one type of resource. If you have hands on experience and are finding the material to be mostly stuff you already know then maby try another resource?

Professor messer has a free video collection for the exam that are lots of short little videos that get straight to the point. If a book is what you are after exam cram by prowse is quite concise and half the length of your current book.

In regards to memorising all of the processor slot tables, ram stuff and os differences its hard to say. The exam has 100 questions pulled from a massive pool of potential questions. You might get no questions or you might get a few questions about it.

Michael2

I can tell you that the A+ is about recommending hardware solutions, not just knowing what will work. They will ask you to pick multiple solutions to problems. Also, you will have to know a couple of different Windows os's and how to work with each of them. Ditto with processor tables and ram stuff. There's memorization involved and there's math involved.

Betrayal

I recommend that you spend your weekends from now until you take the A+ watching Professor Messer videos and taking notes on them. As mentioned above, not every little detail will be on the A+ exams, and it is also very helpful to work with each of the operating systems if you can (Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000). Good luck.

Darril

The original versions of the 701/702 exams didn't include Windows 7 objectives but CompTIA updated the objectives sometime after they originally released them. The book you have was probably written and released before CompTIA updated the objectives.

Something to consider is that you need to take and pass both the 701 and 702 before August 31, 2013. If you don't think you'll be able to do that, you should focus on the newer 801/802 exams instead.

These two posts provide some information on the newer exams:
New CompTIA A+ Exams 220-801 and 220-802
New A+ Exams Released

Good luck.

jMak

I too have the Mike Meyers All in one book and i find the length of it a bit overwhelming, but once you dig into it the material is quite basic. You should be able to fly through the pages if you already have the fundamentals down. Mostly all the material is important but the book will tend to drag on a couple of subjects. Put a few hours in a day and you can probably go through almost 100 pages in a day.

DoubleNNs

I'm just starting to studying for the A+ myself. But... Really? Is everything actually important in this book?

Am I supposed to memorize the fact that Win XP displays common tasks on the left side of Win Explorer, but can be replaced by a tree menu by clicking Folders view on top, but Folders list is enabled by default in Win Vista? These are such small differences in the OS's that I have definitely seen, but haven't paid enough attention to before to be able to tell someone this w/o being in front of a computer at the moment. And I'm sure they don't include diagrams on the A+, do they?

Can I seriously expect to be asked a trivial question similar to this on the A+??

Chitownjedi

Read it as if every word was a breath of air!

icehead14

DoubleNNs wrote: »

I'm just starting to studying for the A+ myself. But... Really? Is everything actually important in this book?

Am I supposed to memorize the fact that Win XP displays common tasks on the left side of Win Explorer, but can be replaced by a tree menu by clicking Folders view on top, but Folders list is enabled by default in Win Vista? These are such small differences in the OS's that I have definitely seen, but haven't paid enough attention to before to be able to tell someone this w/o being in front of a computer at the moment. And I'm sure they don't include diagrams on the A+, do they?

Can I seriously expect to be asked a trivial question similar to this on the A+??

I dont remember seeing anything like that but definitely know difference between the user doc folder path in the different versions or the different paths to control panal and stuff like that. Some of the questions i saw were like:
a user wants to open admin tools on windows 2000. where would he go?
and they gave me a couple random paths and then the path for vista and the path for win 2000.

So I would say you dont really have to memorize much of what doesn't help you with troubleshooting.

And use the objectives as a guide of what you should definitely know.