Administrative Details
You are going to need to set up accounts with two organizations, CompTIA (the certification provider) and Pearson VUE (the testing provider).
While you are at CompTIA.org, be sure to see the A+ exam description page, and get the Sample Questions and the current Objectives. The Objectives are your critical tool.
Get these details out of the way immediately.
This course comes with a text, which you will receive as a digital file. Notice that the book gives you instructions for accessing online resources. Use them!
Introductions
We’ll introduce ourselves over Zoom. I want to know what your IT goals are, because there are a lot of directions you could go. And I need to know what your experience and knowledge level is, so I can teach to our shared abilities.
Resources
Use every CompTIA resource you can get (Objectives, sample questions, etc.).
Be a Google ninja and find good free sample questions and tests. Beware of braindumps: these are highly unreliable. Don’t use anything that requires you to download a test engine.
Start taking tests constantly, like every day. The questions will steer you toward what you need to study. At first, you may know very little, but it won’t be long before the questions give you an idea of what to expect on the test.
The Examination
The current tests are the 220-1001 and 220-1002. Yes, there are two courses and two tests to get this cert. Don’t complain; before they split it, the test was getting really long and hard just because of its duration. They’re doing you a favor.
Your First Test
Testing Tips
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Textbook Time
The most important things you can do in the text are:
- Mark up and highlight extensively. Do this with the plan of studying the night before you test: highlight the critical points, and walk through them at a rate that respects the depth of your knowledge. In other words, if you can look at a highlight and think, “I know this,” then move on to the next one.
- If you’ve got a physical book, use sticky notes to make bookmarks for pages with critical information.
- Create your own book of notes and study materials. Whether on paper or in a digital file, be ready to start a new page when a new topic is introduced, so that later you can return to that page to add material when we discuss it in more depth later.
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2