What are some good paid practice tests?

mr.me

I tried posting this yesterday and it never showed up, so I'm trying again. Maybe I'm not allowed to post links yet.

I'm looking at the CompTIA website and found four practice tests. They all seem pretty expensive with one 2 part test at $80 a pop. They were:

-CompTIA A+ Certification Practice Exams, 2/e (Exams 220-801 & 220-802) CompTIA Authorized published by McGraw Hill - $30
-CompTIA A+ 220-801 and 220-802 Authorized Practice Questions Exam Cram - $30
And the really expensive ones:
-A+ Essentials (220-801) - 30 Day Practice Test - CompTIA Authorized published by Measure Up Powered by Certiport - $80
-A+ Practical Application (220-802) - 30 Day Practice Test - CompTIA Authorized - $80

Do you have any experiences with these? Or perhaps know about some other ones that are better?

403Forbidden

Measureup and TestOut are pretty decent, the latter is more a lab simulation type programme that allows you to in a simulated environment move bits around and such things in a scenario that you have to do X and Y to get Z result.

mr.me

Thanks for the reply. The Measure Up practice tests are the ones that are $80 each so it's $160 total to get both the 801 and 802. Are they really worth the extra money when I can get one of the other 2 for $30? Why exactly are they charging so much more?

403Forbidden

I honestly don't know without looking at the 30$ practice tests. From what I have seen from measureup is that they are rather small in question bank around 160 for each test. As for paying for the practice tests, If you're tight on caps then I would suggest against it. There are online resources such as Professor Messer on youtube that work very very well to get a grasp of the subject matter and then a lot of it is thought experiments and messing around with the actual hardware.

I only spent the money on the practice tests because I had the money and wanted something to help me identify what I was weak on.

DoubleNNs

Honestly, there is too much free material out there to justify paying for a practice test for a CompTIA in my opinion.

Professor Messer has a free question of the day. You should subscribe to that and answer the questions he e-mails to you every morning. You can also check the archived questions on his site.

I've forgotten the legit free sites w/ practice questions by now, but honestly I think any of the questions in the book you study will be sufficient. Just make sure you completely study the book before using their practice tests.

Also, just about every vendor that supplies paid-for tests will give you demos. I used MeasureUp, Kaplan, Transcender, and Boson demos while studying for my CompTIAs. They'll usually only be 5-10 questions, but they'll do a good job in explaining why each correct answer is right and each wrong answer is wrong, which will most importantly give you a good idea on how to approach different problems on the exam.

Last, but def not least, CompTIA gives practice questions on their official website. Again, something I'd recommend waiting until you finish studying to use.

Another thing, if you haven't already, I recommend purchasing the A+ Exam Cram book. It's a condensed study guide for the exam and includes chapter tests and multiple full-length practice tests, included in the print book and also the accompanying CD.
CompTIA A+ 220-801 and 220-802 Authorized Exam Cram (6th Edition): David L. Prowse: 9780789749710: Amazon.com: Books

Good luck.

Plantwiz

I would focus on downloading a copy of the objectives and going through them. Items that you are less familiar with, do a little research.

If you can spring for a text (and I highly recommend that this is on the list) get the Mike Meyers "All-in-one" A+ book. Or Sybex A+. If I could only chose one it would be Mike's. Check your library or look for used copies if you think the price is too much, but you are investing in your future...a few books vs. a full college education is a drop in the bucket. Otherwise, self-study from the objectives.

ThomasHohner

For like 20 bucks off Amazon Cram Exam has a stand alone question book/cd with like 700 questions. It is very, very good! He also gives very detailed answers on why the answer was correct. This becomes invaluable when helping to figure out some of the logic of choosing the BEST answer.

I just finished
-SkillSoft
-Prof Messer
-Exam Cram cover to cover, I'm currently verifying that I got all my objectives down. I am also giving myself small quizes each day from the Question cds. I think by far Exam Cram made the most sense and I would reccomend it as a good study resource.