3 replies to this topic

[SeanM91]

Hey all, I am new to this site. I have read the MikeMeyers CompTIA 220-701 A+ book. Did the sample questions with above average results. I have taken the sample questions and quizzes on this site probably around 3 times now. I work at a computer store as the salesperson but I am in college majoring as an IT Specialist. This is going to be my first certification. I am nervous about taking it. I have heard "it's easy" as well as "it's hard". Does anyone have any advice I could use going in for the most curent version of the test? I talked to the tech at my work but he took it around 20 years ago. He gave me some pointers and taught me some stuff about printers and SCSI and stuff like that.

Edited by SeanM91, 30 June 2012 - 02:04 PM.

[mudlimeson]

i felt d same too......does anybody could give us advice???really appreciate........

[Bakler1285]

I've heard that most people found the Practical Applications exam to be much more challenging than the Essentials exam. It seems that most people that are rather fluent in computer technologies should not have much trouble with the Essentials exam, but that the Practical Applications exam is quite in depth and asks quite a few questions that, as a computer tech, are more or less useless to know off the top of your head, yet they still ask them. I guess to see how much you've paid attention to all the little details. I haven't taken them yet so I can't say for sure, but I am going to take the Essentials today and will report back with my experience with it to give you an idea of what stuff to look over. From what I've heard, the practice tests on a lot of sites are misleading as many of them seem to ask a lot of questions about the laser printing process and stuff, and from what I've heard, there is next to nothing about it on the Essentials. But don't hold me to that until I can report back.

[Bakler1285]

Alright well I just took the test, got a 779, good enough for me. The test was largely troubleshooting questions, basically just describing a scenario and asking what the first thing you would do is. It did get kind of confusing as many of the answers on the problems seemed like they would fit but there would be just a tiny detail that makes a particular answer more correct than the other options. There were a few questions about troubleshooting printers, some laptop ones, a couple desktop troubleshooting problems. A few questions on networking, such as which class an IP address is, or what devices would be used to connect two networks, max cable lengths and which types of connectors would be on various network cables. Only a couple questions about command line tools. I believe there was only one question about backups, and it was something involving which string would be added to the command in order to achieve the desired result. Basic windows stuff, like pressing F8 to get to the boot options menu. Not too much as far as hardware was concerned. One basic question about which type of DDR a stick was based on the speed that was listed, which type of RAM goes in a laptop. You need to know how many devices can be connected in a chain of firewire and USB as well as the speeds for USB. A couple questions about optical media. Which device would store the most data (HDD). What device you would use to backup data to (Tape). What do you need to do to do an ASR, as well using ERDs. But largely it was just troubleshooting scenarios and asking how do deal with customers in the proper order and level of manners, etc. Don't spend too much time trying to memorize specs of different hardware though, cause there was not much regarding that. Nothing about processor sockets, a couple questions about hyper-threading and the sort. But yeah, just spend time going over the troubleshooting theory and communication skills and professionalism, that seemed to be the bulk of the test. If you have any questions, let me know, I'm happy to help.