WAHOO! How I got A+ certified

Discussion in 'A+' started by quuuaid, Sep 20, 2010.

  1. quuuaid

    quuuaid Nibble Poster

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    Happy days!

    My 701/702 exams finally came around today and I passed! :rocks Took them both in the same day (much like nn, congrats dude!), which is a bit nerve-wracking. As suggested on nn's post today, if you can pass one you should be able to pass the other. On the other hand, if you're not ready or have a bad day and fail the first, there's no time to go back to the drawing board and/or reschedule the second exam. Personally, I wouldn't recommend taking both on the same day unless you are definitely comfortable with the idea.

    I found it useful reading others' stories in preparing for the A+ exams, so here's mine to boot!

    I mainly used the excellent Mike Meyers' CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Seventh Edition (Exams 220-701 & 220-702). As Meyers suggests, I started out by reading the entire book like a novel. I then went back through and made notes on pretty much the entire book (ch. 4-26!), which isn't for everyone but I found it cemented the knowledge & understanding into my brain!

    I complimented that with all the end-chapter questions & chapter review suites on the accompanying CD. About half way through I also bought Patrick Regan's CompTIA A+ 220-701 and 220-702 Practice Questions Exam Cram from Amazon using Kindle for PC. I got one hell of a shock from this book because I found it A LOT tougher than Meyers' test questions, but after my initial panic I studied through that and added anything from that book that I didn't already have from Meyers' to my notes.

    Finally, in the last week before the exam I did the practice finals on Meyers' CD and watched some of Professor Messer's A+ training videos. I found the videos on networking especially useful in explaining the fundamentals, as that was a difficult area for me. If I did it over again, I'd probably watch corresponding videos after reading each chapter as a review.

    Whatever study materials you choose, just make sure that you give yourself enough time and feel like you've got all of CompTIA's objectives covered. Good luck to everyone looking to get A+ certified!
     
    Certifications: A+, N+, MCDST
    WIP: Drupal, PHP
  2. alicat

    alicat Nibble Poster

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    Congratulations!
     
    Certifications: BA, ISEB Software Testing, N+, MCP
    WIP: 70-646
  3. Sparky
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Congrats mate. :biggrin
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
    WIP: Microsoft Certs
  4. TheITCrowd

    TheITCrowd Kilobyte Poster

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    congrats on pass :biggrin
     
    Certifications: Network + |CCNA |MCTS-70-680,MCTS-70-401, MCTS-70-656, MCTS-70-351 |HP AIS ProCurve Networking -2011 | HP2-896 |VCD-CP27|JNCIA |Hewlett Packard ASE - Network Infrastructure (2011)
    WIP: 642-813
  5. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    Congrats!
     
    Certifications: A+ | CCA | CCAA | Network+ | MCDST | MCSA | MCP (270, 271, 272, 290, 291) | MCTS (70-662, 70-663) | MCITP:EMA | VCA-DCV/Cloud/WM | VTSP | VCP5-DT | VCP5-DCV
    WIP: VCAP5-DCA/DCD | EMCCA
  6. Kopite_21

    Kopite_21 Gigabyte Poster

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    Congrats on the pass. good luck with N+
     
    Certifications: National Diploma IT Advanced ECDL
    WIP: A+
  7. nn

    nn Nibble Poster

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    nice job mate! its worth all the hard work :D
     
    Certifications: A+
  8. BosonMichael
    Honorary Member Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Congrats!
     
    Certifications: CISSP, MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCSE: Messaging, MCDST, MCDBA, MCTS, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+
    WIP: Just about everything!
  9. Londino

    Londino Bit Poster

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    Congrats on the pass and thanks for the insight!
     
    Certifications: None
    WIP: A+
  10. aestudiar

    aestudiar Byte Poster

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    Congrats! What are you going to achieve next?
    I'm following a similar path to yours, and also found it shocking that the questions in the Cram book are so much harder than those in Messer videos (too easy, by the way, though great vids), or the Meyers book.

    Were the actual questions easier or harder than those in the cram book?
    Cheers.
     
  11. reddevil12

    reddevil12 Megabyte Poster

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    Congrats mate :clap
     
    Certifications: a+
    WIP: 70-270 / 70-680
  12. Bluerinse
    Honorary Member

    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Excellent 8)
     
    Certifications: C&G Electronics - MCSA (W2K) MCSE (W2K)
  13. snessy

    snessy New Member

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    mazel tov!

    you given me the idea to take both the same time..
     
  14. quuuaid

    quuuaid Nibble Poster

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    Thanks everyone!

    I'm definitely looking to get N+ before the end of the year so I can have the cert for life. I think I'll take at least a week off before I order the materials for it though! I found the Messer videos were excellent in giving an overview of each topic, which is why I think they'd by most useful to watch before or after reading Meyers' corresponding chapters.

    I'd say there were areas of Exam Cram that were harder than the questions I was presented with in the exam, but it wasn't too far off the mark. To put it another way, having learned Meyers' book and the detailed answers to the questions that I got stumped on in the Exam Cram, I felt that I had enough knowledge to answer the questions I got in the real exam.

    As many have said on the forum before, it's definitely worth investing in some form of practice materials to suppliment Meyers' book.

    Good luck to you snessy! Just bear in mind what others have said about it making the stakes higher!
     
    Certifications: A+, N+, MCDST
    WIP: Drupal, PHP
  15. greenbrucelee
    Highly Decorated Member Award

    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    Well done :D
     
    Certifications: A+, N+, MCDST, Security+, 70-270
    WIP: 70-620 or 70-680?
  16. chuckles

    chuckles Kilobyte Poster

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    Congrats!
     
    Certifications: '07/'09 A+, N+, S+
    WIP: maybe something Apple

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