Some news about the exam

I just took the exam today. The bad news is that there were several questions I was not prepared for:

-types of memory (names, pins, speed, which goes with which bus speed)
-solid ink printers
-netbeui
-1394a vs. 1394b
- int13h
-mobo power reqts
- the UNC for a printer connected to a networked pc

There was not one question on DMA, I/O addresses, beep codes (except one beep means success), post errors and only one (maybe 2) questions about the Intel cpu family stats. NO questions about AMD or Cyrix.

The good news is that I prepared for less than 3 weeks with just books, transcender, cramExam2 and (free) mcmcse practice exams and still managed to pass with a respectable score (764)!

There were more questions than I expected on IDE/ATA (jumpers, speed, configuration) and troubleshooting slow performance.

For what it's worth, before the test I was scoring about 90% correct on the practice exams.

Good luck to all of you. Feel free to ask questions.

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Comments

Plantwiz

Congratulations!

Have you been able to find information on the questions that took you by suprise?

stndrd_123

Congrats!

janmike

Congratulations! Great score!

porengo

Congrats on your pass!

Now study harder for your OS exam.

ra13

Congrats, I personaly felt that the os was a little easier for me. All in total I did about 2 and a half weeks on and off studying using the exam cram 2 book and measureup.com. Once again congrats I'm going for my hardware re take on friday 3/11. Unfortunately I failed the first time but hey it took me 2 times to pass my os so it looks like 2 is my lucky number.

Webmaster

Congrats!

webbin

Mbeth,

Thanks for your informational post about the exam & Congratulations. I am puzzled about this. Whilst studying for the Core Exam most of the study sources say memorize IRQs and I/O Addresses. Has the exam changed since these sources: The Mike M. AIO Exam Guide, 5TH Edition & A+ Certification for Dummies, 3RD Edition were written? According to many folks these sources are very up-to-date. Any comments on this would be greatly appreciated.

Ricka182

congrats!

Mbeth

To answer one person's question, yes I found the answers to questions that surprised me (after the test), but not in the prep resources.

Someone else asked about the IRQs, etc. There were some questions about IRQs - yessm, but not as much as you see on the practice exams. My test asked about COM1 and COM2 and LPT1 only. To some, that might be a relief. I memorized ten lists of numbers and data (like IRQs and I/O addresses) and used extremely little of it. I think there is greater focus on troubleshooting than I was expecting. Having field experience, so to speak, would help there. There were a fair number of printer questions; some about the order of steps in a laser; some about other printer type methods; others more about troubleshooting various printer problems.

Plantwiz

Mbeth wrote:

To answer one person's question, yes I found the answers to questions that surprised me (after the test), but not in the prep resources.

Good. Does it make sense? Also remember, 'test prep' is just that, it is to familiarize the candidate with the material that will be asked and not a teaching guide. So, other resources are always helpful in preparing for an exam and I personally recommend using more than 3 sources/resources to understand a subject.

Mbeth wrote:

Someone else asked about the IRQs, etc. There were some questions about IRQs - yessm, but not as much as you see on the practice exams.
My test asked about COM1 and COM2 and LPT1 only. To some, that might be a relief. I memorized ten lists of numbers and data (like IRQs and I/O addresses) and used extremely little of it.

The idea of only memorizing it for the test is not what this should be about. I do hope you are familiar or become familiar with IRQ's, how they are used, why they are needed, etc.. If you are in need of clarification yet, please ask and I'll help you as best I can as well as anyone else here is has that knowledge.

Just because the information may not have appeared on the test, or even your particular test, doesn't mean that information isn't used by a technician regularly in the field.

Mbeth wrote:

I think there is greater focus on troubleshooting than I was expecting. Having field experience, so to speak, would help there. There were a fair number of printer questions; some about the order of steps in a laser; some about other printer type methods; others more about troubleshooting various printer problems.

Comptia's ideal candidate should posses: (quoted from their site objectives for Core Hardware 11-26-03)

For A+ Certification, the examinee must pass both this examination and the A+ Operating System Technologies examination. The Core Hardware examination measures essential competencies for an entry-level IT professional or PC service Technician with the equivalent knowledge of at least 500 hours of hands-on experience in the lab or field

More HERE (may need to sign up??)

Even though the A+ Certification is thought to be 'easy' and unfortunately an 'Entry-Level' certification by many people - IT IS NOT! There are many facets computers that just are not covered in the exam and even if some things like CPU pin configurations, I/O, RAM Speeds and specs are not things that are imperative to be memorized - someone who works with these items recalls them rather quickly and usually will have a quick way to reference the information quickly if the do need to check.

Please don't mis-read my post as chastising, hopefully it will read as a re-focus of the meaning of an A+ Certification. A+ Certification is a very serious certification, and much of the information tested or not comes into play for actual diagnosis.

Many times it determines a good tech from someone holding a certificate. I by no means want this to be read that I may be insinuating that your are hoping to achieve an A+ for the sake of the cert, but if you would like a better understanding of the any of the areas you may be unclear about....that is what this forum is all about. Learning how it all is used and/or understanding why.