Passing the CompTIA A+ Core 1 & 2 Exams | DTRHnet

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  Passing the CompTIA A+ Core 1 & 2 Exams

    
    [
	**2024-01-31

](/2024/01/31/Passing-the-CompTIA-A-Core-1-2-Exams/)

It has been a couple of weeks since I took and passed the second exam of the CompTIA A+ certification (220-1102). Having learned a lot reading others who have written about their experiences on the CompTIA subreddit, /r/ComptIA - both good and bad - I’ve decided to contribute and do the same. My hope is that the following text will offer some insight into what to expect, useful materials to study, how to study and even save a few bucks.

I. One of many CompTIA A+ logos recieved after completing both exams.1

1. Don’t downplay the difficulty of the examination process

This is easily one of the biggest mistakes you could possibly make. A+ is considered an “entry level” certificate, and the material covered reflects that which every tech should know or at least be quite comfortable working with. It is quite a lot of material spanned across two formal, “closed book”, multiple choice exams. I found many of the exam questions to be, not so much deceptively tricky, but tricky nonetheless. While the answer list may work to ones advantage in a multiple choice exam by the elimination process of knowns for instance, carefully chosen answer lists can add just enough doubt when two answers seem equally right. This leads to overthinking. I certainly dealt with this. As someone who considers themself decent with computers, I felt like the choices given in the answer pool were purposely chosen to promote critical thinking on the fly. With an internet connection and a bit of problem solving methodology, any of the questions or simulations you will encounter on the exam can easily be handled should they present themselves in real life. A lot of the difficulty comes in the way of how a question is worded and creating a scenario in your mind, not having the hardware response to fall back on in front of you. Keep a sharp eye on exactly what is being asked of you.

I have a theory, built from discussions around this topic with family and a few friends. While the exam content is absolutely relevant, I have to assume there is considerable interest in weeding out those who aren’t serious - either by exam costs (~400cad/exam) as well as making the covered content vast enough it isn’t easily ‘crammed’. It shows you have potential to learn - the IT industry is constantly growing afterall, and being able to adapt to change is huge. The certification will prove you have a well rounded understanding in full, or at least in part of the many faces of the industry, but I think employers are noting more than that in regards to the commitment piece, and as you may find out, even the entry level exams aren’t a walk in the park. CompTIA is testing you on computers, as well as your ability to learn, retain, and problem solve using anything from common sense to technical knowledge.

So don’t downplay it! The challenge is not so much about the difficulty of the material, but more in fully understanding what is asked and answering with the best answer offered. Like myself, you may find yourself studying and thinking some of the material is a “waste of time”. Chances are you have goals beyond A+. So put your head down, grind it out, and soon the exams you will be taking will be much more specific and technical as well as in the direction you are working towards. This will surely make these periods of little motivation you may be experience worthwhile!

2. Study Methods and Materials

When I initially started studying for the exams, I purchased the A+ bible and decided to read it start to finish while maintaining detailed study notes. As you can see if you check my blog, that by chapter 11 I switched up my study methods - and for good reason. Had I continued studying this way, not giving in to my increasing inner anxiety of being in the dark about every aspect of the exam, there is a good chance I would have failed. Reading a book cover to cover has never been the best way to fully grasp and retain the material, at least for me. Add to that, it’s bone dry and was slow going. Without forums like Reddit where you can gain valuable insight, it’s a recipe for failure even for the most determined student. We don’t live in a day where it’s normalcy to remember the amount of pins on a piece of DDR4 so-dimm RAM, or the measurement, in inches, of an Mini-ATX form factor. There is a huge advantage in buying practice exams from accredited sources. For one, any practice exams you find online that are free will likely give you a false sense of security, be outdated, or just be blatantly wrong. I don’t think there is any free resource which effectively covers all exam topics. If you are dropping upwards of $700 on the two exams, don’t short change yourself when it comes to the study materials. This is important for a few reasons - The objective is to pass the exam, but more importantly understand
the material as well so as a new worker in the IT industry, you will have the accrediation as well as the competency to do your job confidently. And at worst, know enough to efficiently source the answer online with proper and specific keywords as said situation calls for.

II. The book I refer to as the A+ Bible2

I can only speak to the practice exams offered by Dion Training found on Udemy. I know there are other exams mentioned frequently which overall have great feedback such as the Messer ones. My personal experience is only with the Jason Dion exams, and they was a tremendous help.

I bought the package of six exams just four days before taking my Core 1 exam. Each practice exam offered by Dion is 90 questions, vs 75 questions on the actual exam, 5 of which were PBQs. You’ll have 1.5 hours to finish it, as you will in the real exam. You can pause the exam to stop the timer, but the idea is to try to make the practice as realistic as possible (more on this under section 4). The practice exam will fail you on a score under a 90%. The idea behind failing you at under 90% is to really ensure you are ready to take and pass the real exam. Don’t let a score under 90% discourage you - I finally got a 91% on exam 3 or 4, however it was my second attempt. My first exam I scored 71%. After reviewing every question after each exam, I was able to create some really great study notes, far beyond the slow process I was with the book alone. DionTraining also states they specifically make the pass grade high so you can go into the real exam fully confident.

When you finish a DionTraining practice exam, you are presented with a pie chart indicating how well you scored in each of the targeted areas of study. Every question has a detailed answer - and also a detailed explanation as to why the other answers you had to choose from were wrong. This is crucial and so incredibly helpful to gaining a full understanding in any areas you are lost on, or even a bit unsure of. Being given a full explanation as to why your answer was wrong (or right), and why others were wrong makes it much easier to fill in the blanks on those questions you might otherwise be phsyching yourself out on.

III. My scores on the practice exams.

In my case, I scored a little higher on each successive practice exam I took. I would take a practice exam, then create a document and review every question, noting the ones I answered wrong. Why review them all? Simple - you might have answered a question right by total luck if you guessed at it, or got it right for the wrong reasoning. The full explanation of the wrong answers also carries, as mentioned, a lot of value. You’d miss out on this if you only filtered the results to show wrong answers.

It is important to keep in mind, you’re going to have diminishing returns if you are simply memorizing the answers and retaking each exam multiple times. The value is in studying the answers afterwards, and being able to determine which areas of study you should focus on.

You will notice across all 6 exams that there may be some repeated questions. They are far and few in number. Highly recommended!

Along with the exams, Dion offers video courses. I have not used them myself yet, but I did snag them at a decent discount from Udemy. I recommend you have a hardcopy book - but maybe that’s just my style with how technology is these days. I can only assume the video courses are done well. This is what I’ve read online by other customers.

3. Performance Based Questions

You are more than likely aware the majority of this test is done in multiple choice style. Typically each question having up to 5 answers to choose from, a few of which will require you to pick two or more. You can expect up to 5 PBQs, or performance based questions. PBQs are more interactive, and can loosely be considered ‘simulations’. My guess is the software used to keep the testing process secure means disabling a lot of external libraries/software which could possibly be exploited. So you will notice the PBQs seem ‘dated’, almost like bad flash player stuff. In any case, these are the questions you may find yourself burning too much time on. CompTIA will throw these at you right at the start. So a bit later on in this write-up, I’ll detail some strategy to navigate that. The best advice I can give you for PBQs is limited in that, you do have to understand the material. But also, read the questions and figure the UI out. There is a bit of way to navigate properly. You will have to open dialogue which may hide dragable elements on the page, or cover the initial question - in full or part. So keep that in mind. They all have a reset button, to return anything on the screen to how it was when you started it.

You can expect they will give you more options to choose from which will work to confuse you, in my case types of conductors and their connectors.Don’t waste too much time on these*. They are easy time killers. If you aren’t confident in the question, move to the next and flag it for review You can find similar PBQs on YouTube which show you what to expect from the UI in the exam. This is extremely helpful.

4. Exam Tips

When you get to your PearsonVue testing facility 15 minutes or earlier than your scheduled exam, you’ll register with a receptionist. With some luck, you got a decent sleep the night before, because you’re gonna get your picture taken and sign off on some paperwork while you are explained and asked to read all the rules.

It varies depending on testing facility, but if you do need to use a washroom, you can normally flag down one of the workers and they’ll let you slip out however, your exam timer will not be stopped if this is the case. So make sure you take care of all that business beforehand, come in fed. Just think of it as showing up to work for simplicity.

They will take all your personal belongings and put them in a locker. You aren’t allowed to bring even a water in. You will likely be brought to a room where others may be doing exams as well. You’ll be provided some paper and a pencil/marker, and once they log you in, you’ll have to go through more CompTIA paperwork. This process takes about 15 minutes.

You’ll be asked if you are ready and then the timer starts and first thing you are going to see is a PBQ simulation. I recommend you just skip the first 5 questions or so, and start with multiple choice. Even if a PBQ was worth 5 marks, which I guess no one but CompTIA knows, if you burn 10 or 15 minutes on one question worth 5 marks, you are doing yourself no favor.

So for that reason, I recommend you skip them all, and start on question 5 or 6. The remainder of the exam is multiple choice. This allows you to ease into the exam before taking on the arguably more difficult questions they throw at you initially. Take note of the FLAG button. If you are really unsure of a question, or just want to come back to it after, this button is a lot like starring an important email. At the end of the exam, it will prompt you to go back and check any unanswered or flagged questions. It’s good practice to have an answer ticked off before skipping ahead, in case you for whatever reason don’t make it back before the timer runs out.

It’s much easier to guage your time on the PBQs if you leave them till the end. In my case, I used all the time given for the exam. Surprisingly, and maybe in part due to nerves, it took me that long.

I like to keep a mental note as to roughly where I am at with my score. It’s like mentally getting a point for each question I feel I know and am confident with 100% while noting roughly how many I’m 50% confident in, and the dreaded ‘no idea’ questions. Unfortunately, for both exams, the majority of the ticks were in the 50% confident range due to question wording and how I could justify more than one answer being considered right, as mentioned earlier in this writing.

In addition to the flag and skip tip, the math would say on a 90 minute timer for 70-75 questions, you have a little over a minute per question. Don’t stress yourself too much on time - it’s certainly not the most important thing to focus on, but if you are spending too much time just skip it and review it at the end. I flagged/skipped quite a few questions on the Core 2 exam. It didn’t work out this way for me, but sometimes a question can contain some information in helping you with answering a previous question.

I should note, you are able to book these exams and do them from home. I chose not to for a few reasons - I just figured that by getting up and driving to it would work better for me. I could think of the exam as work. My head more in the game at a testing facility. I’ve read the software that watches you while you do a test online is extremely strict. Warning you, for example, if you are mouthing the test questions as you read them. I would recommend you do some homework and read what others are saying, especially if anyone can compare the testing facility to taking it from home.

Lastly - You get your results almost immediately. You have to fill out a survey while you are stressing about if you passed or failed. This process takes about 10 minutes after finishing the exam

With some hard work and a little luck, it will all be worthwhile when the next screen pops up and says ‘Congradulations, you passed!’

5. Saving Money

You can save some money on your exam if you purchase vouchers from an verified source. I’m sure there are plenty. Vendors purchase these vouchers in bulk, at a bulk price, and can offer them down to consumers like us! DionTraining helped me out a lot, so I’ll just leave this here:

SAVE WITH DIONTRAINING VOUCHERS

IV - Udemy reciept of study materials at massive discount..

When I purchased the practice exams and various other study materials from Udemy, I got insanely discounted prices due to a bit of timing luck. So if you are considering taking the exam, keep an eye out on Udemy for the deals. When I made an account, I was given 5 hours to purchase basically any content discounted. If you hunt for coupon codes and search the forums you’ll find ways to save money.

6. Useful Links / Resources

CompTIA Core 1 Exam Objectives
CompTIA Core 2 Exam Objectives
A+ Bible on Amazon.ca
DionTraining Website
Udemy for Online Courses/Practice Exams
CompTIA Subreddit

My Blog

KBS, dtrh.net

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