'Trivia' questions

kaels

Hi all! I'm just getting started studying for the A+ and Net+ certs, so I've been sort of pretesting myself to see where my weak spots are and what sorts of questions I should be prepared for. I've been scoring around 70-80% on various practice tests for the 220-801 (the 802 is a lot easier).

The questions that are tripping me up, though, aren't what I expected - they're not about technologies I'm unfamiliar with or processes I don't understand. What I'm having trouble with are what I'd describe as 'trivia' that I can't imagine ever needing or wanting to know in a support environment: how many pins on an SODIMM, how many pins on a floppy drive cable, the maximum length of an IDE cable, the maximum speed of 802.11a, etc. These are all very familiar objects/technologies, but the numbers are pretty meaningless unless you're an engineer designing to the spec. As a tech, you just need to recognize the things and know how they compare to other similar things.

I'm not comfortable looking at braindumps, so I was wondering if anyone who's taken the exam could just give me a general estimate of how many of that sort of question one might expect? Are the practice tests accurately representing the test material? And if so, how did you study for these sort of questions? I could just memorize the particular numbers on the practice exam questions, but then what if I go in and they ask me how many pins there are on an AGP card? Or the maximum speed of Cat 3 cable? Do I have to know every number in all the various books?

Thanks for the help!

Gradywhite22

I just got done with 801 on Tuesday, I passed with a 757. Not exactly happy with that score, but considering I have no IT past and studied for right at a month, I'll take it. I cant really say exactly what is on the test obviously, but I will say make sure you know the 802.11 hertz in which they operate and the speeds. And yes the amount of pins on ddr, ddr2, ddr3 and sodimm. So to answer your question, yes they do focus on a lot of aspects that may not be needed in the actual field. I used the Rapid Review book and thought it was spot on with what I needed to know.

AW177

I took the 801 on Monday and passed with an 818/900 and the A+ exam does focus on those things. I would suggest you create some flash cards and just memorize them as you never know what they may ask on the test.

kaels

Thanks for the insight, guys. Seems silly, but I'll play the game.

SnackyJ

I was kinda upset when I had to memorize these kinds of things too, but it is what it is and you need to know all of the objectives.

Really, if you're the slightest bit familiar with computers you already "know" a lot of this stuff, you just need to commit it to memory.

And if you aren't familiar with these sorts of things...may God have mercy on your soul. J/K

Since you already know 70-80% all you have to do now is memorize the stuff you don't know.

For me, having to know all of the differences between Windows versions/requirements was nauseating. But it was necessary and there were more than a few questions like this on the 802 so it's stuff you have to know for the test.