Do I really have to learn all the specs?!

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Hi,

I'm studying for the A+ Essentials. Do I really have to learn all of the data transfer rates, speeds and other specs for CPUs, drive interfaces etc? It seems like if it is necessary it would take forever and it would be easy to get confused!

 

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When doing the A+ it would be wise to know which cpu fits in which socket, but you wont have to know how many watts a pentium 3 produces that would be stupid and would take forever.

 

If you haven't already, visit CompTIA's A+ page and download the official objectives for the exam. While questions on all of the objectives *may* not appear on the particular version of the exam you get, any information on the objectives is fair game.

 

This is true. I just passed 601 and 602 last week. Most of the processor questions that I saw dealt with two things:

1. matching the name of the CPU to its corresponding socket (i.e. Athlon 64 - socket 939)

or

2. Knowing a 'fun fact' about a specific processor. (i.e. Which CPU was the very first Dual-Core on the market? or Which of the following CPUs is a mobile processor?)

I used Mike Meyer's book and went completely self-study. My book listed speeds, caches, wattage, etc. for numerous processors. If you take the time to memorize sockets as well as the qualitative stuff then you should be fine. Wattages and clock speeds didn't turn up on either the real tests nor any of my practice exams. From what I understand, the 'Depot Technician' exam does hit those things a little harder than the IT Technician exam.