Questions All Non A+ People Are Wondering

How hard is the test actually? What is the hardest part (as in type of questions)? What should we maybe study more that we might not of put as much time into?

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Plantwiz

It is not a difficult exam. Mind you, I say this after having many years of experience BEFORE taking the exam and working with several OS and hardware configurations long before even thinking about the exam...then one day a friend recommended the Meyer book, I bought it, read it, took the exams and passed.

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This in mind, review the objectives, have as much experience as possible (ideal candidate has 500 hours of experience...not just a board swapper) read through a couple different books like Meyers and Sybex.

A+ is one of the easiest exams for IT professionals. Some people do struggle with it mostly because they don't enjoy hardware...but are very talented on NOS and routers/switches and not so much with PCs and peripherals.

Shouldn't cause you much trouble if this material is of interest to you. FWIW

techgeek07

The biggest problem with the A+ is that it covers soooooooooo much. None of it is really hard, but, the devil is in the details the whole way. You never know what might be on the exam. As stated above, check out the objectives to help narrow it down. It's expensive, but, even as a person that felt it was kind of below my skill to bother taking, I was releived when I finished the exam (and good and drunk later...). I will say, that employers, no matter your level, do look at it (it might be the only one they know, but, who cares. It's one more check mark in your favor). And, it does count towards an MCSA with Net+. GL if you take it.

Illusionking

Is the trade off worth the price? I've been with my current company for 8 years and been working on the Net Admin side for the last 5 (before that was desktop support and accounting).

Should this still be something I consider taking?

Plantwiz

Illusionking wrote:

Is the trade off worth the price? I've been with my current company for 8 years and been working on the Net Admin side for the last 5 (before that was desktop support and accounting).

Should this still be something I consider taking?

Truly your choice (IMSHO).

I know and have worked with several extremely talented Network people who never took the A+, are completely competent to pass the A+, but at their level....there is no point.

It won't hurt you to have it....probably won't help you if you already have a nice career established.

You could run into an HR person who doesn't get that a network engineer doesn't need to same skillset as a helpdesk or board swapper...but may be confused when shuffling resumes and pass over one what lists MCSE or Cisco certs but omits a COMPtia cert. Seriously, if you're talented and have good personality skills...you can overcome this easily enough with the proper cover letter/ follow-up call and/or contact straight to the person who needs the IT person to have more networking skills as compared to some of the basic OS and PC hardware skills.

Really your decision...sorry not much help other then....you can be successful without it. That said, I'm glad I have mine....but then again with the type of troubleshooting, parts replacments and spec'ing I do....it's really the sort of thing I do in my day.

oakguy19

if you're an established Net Admin I can't see needing A+. The exam is more to verify basic tech skills for entry level gigs.

A+ is by far the easiest exam I've taken/studied for because it seems like 90% of the material is general knowledge if you build/troughbleshoot computers, printers, basic networking equipment. Just know correct names and acronyms for things, speeds, simple cmd lines, some common sense tech behaviors and the exam is a breeze.

That being said, use some practice test software to review, if you score 80% or more then you're definately ready.