Anyone else realy new at this

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Lol, I'd take anything Advent say with a pinch of salt mate. Unless you're an experienced tech, you're looking at about 200 hours at least.

If, like me, you're a newbie, then passing the A+ would be pretty much impossible unless you have a computer that you can take apart and inspect the inside of IMHO.

As others have said previously, purchase the Mike Meyers all in one book - I can tell you from experience, this is the best book out there.

Anyway, lecture over, good luck with your studies.

Alex

 

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Hello all,
1st post here Been lurking for a while now so I decided to have my 2 cents and say hello
Great forum by the way !
How long to study ?? Well, I've been in the IT game for 16 years +. Working in Data Centres on IBM Midrange stuff and loads of exposure to servers & PC work. Done a few helpdesk roles and mixed in with the Desktop support boys now and again. I know pretty much what folks are talking about so I thought I would give the A+ a bash. Got myself "The Book" with a couple of others for reference, and I use the web. I'm lucky with my job because it gives me access to loads of onsite stuff and a techie is never far away for an ear bashing.
I worked it out from the Mikey M book that I would take around 100 hours to complete the course and be ready for the exam. I reckon I was a bit over the top with that figure but I thought better safe than sorry, its a comfortable number of hours.........Until I started to study that is. The 100 hour study time I gave myself has gone right out the window. On the CPU chapter alone I'm about 20 hours and still going strong. However I'm not really upset by this because I wanna get it right. When the time comes for me to take the exam I want to be confident and ready for it. Also, and it seems alot of folks on here seem to forget. I really do want to know what I'm doing & talking about. By that I mean, I'm not in this just for a nice looking piece of paper to wave under an employers nose. If I'm faced with a problem or someone needs help, I want to be able to act and think like a true professional.
Right that’s about it for now, I’ll be popping in with some stupid questions now and again no doubt.
Good luck to you all.

Best Regards
AlanaSky

 

Like everyone mentioned here, everyone learns at their own pace. Whether it is 4 months to learn the material or 6 months it doesnt matter just as long as you have a good understanding of the material and that you can successfully implement what you learned at work. Also having hands on experience is a great way to learn, people tend to learn well from making mistakes and visually observing the concept in action. For example; the HD interface, or PCI slots, DIMM modules, etc.

Its one thing having the book tell you the DIMM module looks like a thin black rectangle and a picture beside it and its another thing actually going and installing the memory yourself.

Just take your time to learn the material and if it takes too long then fine but at least you'll know material properly.

 

Me:
September 2006: yeah, I know all about computers, i'm good with 'em this a+ thingy will be a breeze.

October 2006 with Mike Meyers book in hand: whoo, this a rather large book! and I don't know anything about the stuff in it (DOS, Disk maagement, SCSI what the **** is SCSI, networking GULP

October 2006, some time after that: I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT COMPUTERS!!!

November 2006: This is starting to make sense.

Jan 2007: passed O/S
June 2007: passed H/W

Yep, its intimadating at first, remember the old rule about how to eat an elephant, do it bit-by-bit.

When I passed the O/S exam I decided to pace my training for the H/W exam. Enjoy your training, the way I see it, the more you learn the better IT tech you can become.

best of luck.

 

I can relate to Vantage's post - I was the same, thought I knew a few things about PCs and their maintenance, but start reading Mike Meyers for the first time was a shock.
Sep/Oct 06 - first started reading the book.
Apr 07 - passed O/S
June 07 - passed H/W

While not knowing something knocked my confidence to start with, after understanding it I actually felt that I knew a subject - which I obviously I did when I passed the exams

Enjoy the learning - simple as that!

 

I'm glad you said that because that's me just finished that chapter and it took me AGES - thought it was just me.

I've not even memorised a lot of the data in that chapter yet either so will have to pay extra attention during my second read of the book.

 

And that's *exactly* why we tell *everyone* starting out in IT to go through the A+ route FIRST.

...it was worth it, wasn't it? ;)

 

too right, theres a big difference between being "good" with computers and upgrading bits and bobs in your own machine to having the knowledge base to be a proper IT employee.

Even if not one employer ever sees it as a plus I'm a much more clued on than I ever was before...

 

Jagunco - just going back to advent, ive just passed the A+ Essentials exam, the book is written quite a lot more indeepth than the exam needs, the lectures said its because they weren't really sure how indeepth the exams were going to be plus it gives you a bigger andd better foundation.

Read the book through once, dont try and remember everything and then get yourself on the workshop days, they teach it at such a basic level youd not even need to read the manual before you go but i suggest you do, then fire as many questions through the 2 days at the lecturer as you can. the guy i had was very knowledgable and could explain things in such a good way. Also email the mentor constantly anything you dont grasp easily or have trouble making sense of get an email to the with your query, they send good replies and good links to websites we're you'll find good answers.
Just be careful if your getting the mike meyres book, make sure you get the new exams, ive had a few places trying to tell me the old books are still good valid.

But as its been said about get yourself a computer to play with or rip to pieces, i just used the one i got but i guess its safer to have a spare lol

 

Dhughes, was it the Mike Meyres book you used to study or one from Advent?

If it's from Advent, does anyone know if the Mike Meyres book goes into as much depth?

 

I just bought the mike myers book and its very good. The 6th edition (I think its the latest) and its easy to red and even funny in places. I'm reading it just stright through to back up some of the Advent stuff from a different angle. In al honesty I prefer the Myers book as the advnt stuff is a little drier with less pictures.

Also I've shifted my study down to one hour a day and more on the weekend (maybe 2) won't get me there quick but I don't feel constatly stressed out as well.


Can I ask, does anyone else have trouble with falling alseep when they're studying?

 

I did when i was at uni but i was mainly stoned back then

 

Also try mike meyers learnkey video for A+, i found it to be very good,much better, comparing to CBT nuggets and trainsignal videos...Once you watch it you'll most likely pass the exam from the first try. You can find it on most e-learning trackers or buy it (expensive though)..

 

I'm also with advent and the Mike Myers book is a lot better than the dull and dreary manual Advent sent me.

I would definately recommend it, along with some practical experience.