«

Just passed the 2001 linear core, and thought some notes might help
others.

The grading baffles me, as I scored a 900 but was also told I missed
one or more questions in areas 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 3.1, & 5.2. That being
said, those could be "new items" that don't count, or you are given
some sort of buffer. The new objective questions pretty much stood
out from the old material.

I used Sybex's A+ complete study guide (Old 2nd edition that I bought
way back and never got around to certifying on) and online a+ links,
however I think you'll find the Test King series of q & a's helpful
(Some of the questions are duplicated exactly.)

Be careful using any of the stuff you find, as I've found errors and
discrepencies in all of them (ie: Verify the answers from a second
source if it's not obvious). Had the old Class C fire question and
good old POST 601 Floppy questions.

Overall, pretty easy test, I studied 2 weeks and that is probably
overkill for anyone with directly related experience.

One thing I found helpful was using the laminated sheet they give you
to write on to keep track of my score. Two columns, 1 for answers I'm
certain of, 1 for answers I'm not sure of, need to come back to, or
have no idea. Once I got to Q 80 I had 60 correct and 20 possible
incorrect, so I knew I had at least 75% which removes any stress as
you go back through the ones you marked for review.

Good luck...

Regards
martin426

> (Some of the questions are duplicated exactly.)

You don't think knowing the exact questions before hand is cheating?


--

KB

first inital last name AT hotmail DOT com

Congratulations! I am taking the tests (both) in a couple of weeks,
and feel well prepared for them.

Ac ouple of questions if I may. I don't remember running into
anything about "POST 601 Floppy" in the material I have studied so
far. What are you referring to? Is it a 601 error in POST? Also,
can you take a calculator with you when you take the test, and do you
need one?

On 30 Oct 2003 13:04:15 -0800, (martin426) wrote:

>Just passed the 2001 linear core, and thought some notes might help
>others.
>
>The grading baffles me, as I scored a 900 but was also told I missed
>one or more questions in areas 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 3.1, & 5.2. That being
>said, those could be "new items" that don't count, or you are given
>some sort of buffer. The new objective questions pretty much stood
>out from the old material.
>
>I used Sybex's A+ complete study guide (Old 2nd edition that I bought
>way back and never got around to certifying on) and online a+ links,
>however I think you'll find the Test King series of q & a's helpful
>(Some of the questions are duplicated exactly.)
>
>Be careful using any of the stuff you find, as I've found errors and
>discrepencies in all of them (ie: Verify the answers from a second
>source if it's not obvious). Had the old Class C fire question and
>good old POST 601 Floppy questions.
>
>Overall, pretty easy test, I studied 2 weeks and that is probably
>overkill for anyone with directly related experience.
>
>One thing I found helpful was using the laminated sheet they give you
>to write on to keep track of my score. Two columns, 1 for answers I'm
>certain of, 1 for answers I'm not sure of, need to come back to, or
>have no idea. Once I got to Q 80 I had 60 correct and 20 possible
>incorrect, so I knew I had at least 75% which removes any stress as
>you go back through the ones you marked for review.
>
>Good luck...
>
>Regards
>martin426

"martin426" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> Just passed the 2001 linear core, and thought some notes might help
> others.

> Be careful using any of the stuff you find, as I've found errors and
> discrepencies in all of them (ie: Verify the answers from a second
> source if it's not obvious). Had the old Class C fire question and
> good old POST 601 Floppy questions.

yeah i studied for a couple of weeks as well, and i got a 876 on it - and I
missed questions on 5-6 objectives, which I dont udnerstnad really. How
many points was each question worth?

The test had the Class C fire extinguishers question, which I just guessed
( I take it I'm right since you said C as well) and the floppy 601, which I
believe I answered the same way.

JesseTX <> wrote in message news:<>. ..
> Congratulations! I am taking the tests (both) in a couple of weeks,
> and feel well prepared for them.
>
> Ac ouple of questions if I may. I don't remember running into
> anything about "POST 601 Floppy" in the material I have studied so
> far. What are you referring to? Is it a 601 error in POST? Also,
> can you take a calculator with you when you take the test, and do you
> need one?

Sorry, yes, I meant the post error. No, you can't bring a calculator
in and I had no questions regarding binary conversions; however, if
you do, converting Hex to Binary and Binary to decimal is actually
pretty easy. I've seen a couple explanations on here that make it
seem like it's differential equations or something. What you need to
remember with hex is that A-F represent binary 10,11,12,13,14,15. A
simple way to remember is to create a table like follows
(powers of 2)

128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

With hex, we only deal with the 8 4 2 1. Hex A=10, which equals 8+2:

8 4 2 1
1 0 1 0 = 8*1 + 4*0 + 2*1 + 1*0 = 10. Hopefully that helps.

Regarding a previous reply from KB:
>You don't think knowing the exact questions before hand is cheating?

Actually, after I posted that message I started thinking about that,
and started looking around about opinions about TestKing, and found
that they and some other's are despised for their "braindumps" which
appear to often contain actual test questions. I was not aware of
this when I got the q and a's, and like to think of myself as a moral
person. I agree that it is fishy. On the one hand I have extensive
experience and studied quite extensively from my available materials,
and didn't get the TestKing q's until the day before I took the test.

On the other hand, I question how people are supposed to know the
answers to some of the questions, for instance the question regarding
Class C fire extinguishers for a computer fire. Until I saw that
particular question in the TestKing material I had no idea (It's not
in my Sybex book for one) and not listed specifically in the CompTIA
objectives. I searched this news group and found a post regarding
someone who had taken the test and got that question wrong, because he
or she had no idea and it wasn't in any of their study materials.
The conundrum is created because CompTIA doesn't publish their own
book on the A+ exam, so it seems that all the available study material
seems to me to be very contradictory.

Of the 350 q&a's in the TestKing material, less than 5 were duplicated
on the test, so I really don't know... I probably went through about
2,500 questions including the 4 tests on my sybex CD, online q's from
this and other sites, etc. So yes, I agree that having any questions
before hand, but not having a set "curriculum" creates this problem.
One should be able to study a set out plan and through hard work learn
everything one needs to pass the exam. I certainly never would have
graduated from college if the professors didn't tell us what was going
to be on the test by assigning materials for the class.

Any thoughts regarding this? (And from what I found out there, this is
a very emotionally charged subject, so please don't hate me for using
it innocently--I had no idea that any of the questions would match!)

-Regards

From someone who finally (after about two years of contemplating it)
took the tests... I kept in the back of my mind the whole time what
Meyers says in his book: "The A+ certification shows you have a basic
competence in supporting microcomputers. The test covers generally
assumed knowledge held by a technician with six months of full time PC
support experience."

I knew I had the basic competence, although I have never served as a
"hardware" support technician. And yes, if you asked me yesterday how
I felt about the process, I would have told you... ARRGGGHHHH!!!!

There isn't a single site, reference, etc., that will prepare you 100%
for the test. You either know something about the material or you
don't. It's a good test... it's a good thing that Comptia doesn't
publish "the book". If they did, it would be a book test and wouldn't
mean anything at all.

It's not hard... but...
you do need to know something about it.

oh, if you're shooting for 900's then knock yourself out. I've been
told the certificate doesn't say what you score was

of course, I can say all of this now that I have passed!!!! Damn it
feels good!

blue


On 30 Oct 2003 20:47:45 -0800, (martin426) wrote:

>JesseTX <> wrote in message news:<>. ..
>> Congratulations! I am taking the tests (both) in a couple of weeks,
>> and feel well prepared for them.
>>
>> Ac ouple of questions if I may. I don't remember running into
>> anything about "POST 601 Floppy" in the material I have studied so
>> far. What are you referring to? Is it a 601 error in POST? Also,
>> can you take a calculator with you when you take the test, and do you
>> need one?
>
>Sorry, yes, I meant the post error. No, you can't bring a calculator
>in and I had no questions regarding binary conversions; however, if
>you do, converting Hex to Binary and Binary to decimal is actually
>pretty easy. I've seen a couple explanations on here that make it
>seem like it's differential equations or something. What you need to
>remember with hex is that A-F represent binary 10,11,12,13,14,15. A
>simple way to remember is to create a table like follows
>(powers of 2)
>
>128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
>
>With hex, we only deal with the 8 4 2 1. Hex A=10, which equals 8+2:
>
>8 4 2 1
>1 0 1 0 = 8*1 + 4*0 + 2*1 + 1*0 = 10. Hopefully that helps.
>
>Regarding a previous reply from KB:
>>You don't think knowing the exact questions before hand is cheating?
>
>Actually, after I posted that message I started thinking about that,
>and started looking around about opinions about TestKing, and found
>that they and some other's are despised for their "braindumps" which
>appear to often contain actual test questions. I was not aware of
>this when I got the q and a's, and like to think of myself as a moral
>person. I agree that it is fishy. On the one hand I have extensive
>experience and studied quite extensively from my available materials,
>and didn't get the TestKing q's until the day before I took the test.
>
>On the other hand, I question how people are supposed to know the
>answers to some of the questions, for instance the question regarding
>Class C fire extinguishers for a computer fire. Until I saw that
>particular question in the TestKing material I had no idea (It's not
>in my Sybex book for one) and not listed specifically in the CompTIA
>objectives. I searched this news group and found a post regarding
>someone who had taken the test and got that question wrong, because he
>or she had no idea and it wasn't in any of their study materials.
>The conundrum is created because CompTIA doesn't publish their own
>book on the A+ exam, so it seems that all the available study material
>seems to me to be very contradictory.
>
>Of the 350 q&a's in the TestKing material, less than 5 were duplicated
>on the test, so I really don't know... I probably went through about
>2,500 questions including the 4 tests on my sybex CD, online q's from
>this and other sites, etc. So yes, I agree that having any questions
>before hand, but not having a set "curriculum" creates this problem.
>One should be able to study a set out plan and through hard work learn
>everything one needs to pass the exam. I certainly never would have
>graduated from college if the professors didn't tell us what was going
>to be on the test by assigning materials for the class.
>
>Any thoughts regarding this? (And from what I found out there, this is
>a very emotionally charged subject, so please don't hate me for using
>it innocently--I had no idea that any of the questions would match!)
>
>-Regards

On 30 Oct 2003 20:47:45 -0800, (martin426) wrote:


>Sorry, yes, I meant the post error. No, you can't bring a calculator
>in and I had no questions regarding binary conversions; however, if
>you do, converting Hex to Binary and Binary to decimal is actually
>pretty easy.

I am not really concerned with converting binary or hex, that is
pretty easy. The reason I asked about a calculator was in case of
questions about how much video RAM you need to run a certain
resolution, or how much RAM a CPU can support based on the number of
wires in the address bus. Any questions like that?


>On the other hand, I question how people are supposed to know the
>answers to some of the questions, for instance the question regarding
>Class C fire extinguishers for a computer fire. Until I saw that
>particular question in the TestKing material I had no idea (It's not
>in my Sybex book for one) and not listed specifically in the CompTIA
>objectives. I searched this news group and found a post regarding
>someone who had taken the test and got that question wrong, because he
>or she had no idea and it wasn't in any of their study materials.

The Class C fire extinguisher infomration is covered in the Total
Recall material. Having been an electronics technician for over 20
years, I already knew all about Class C fires, but I can understand
how many people don't.

As far as people studying with actual test questions, I have mixed
feelings. A lot of the A+ material I see as "memory type" material
anyway, that after you brain dump for the test you're not likely to
remember forever, or have a need to anyway. For example, DMA's, IRQ's
and I/O addresses used for default devices. The way I see it, in the
real world I don't need to have that data commited to memory to be a
PC technician. If I ever need to know it when working on a system, I
can look it up. What real useful purpose does it serve for me to
memorize that COM uses a default IRQ of 4, and an I/O address of 3F8h?
So studying "actual" or "simulated" test questions for those type of
things just helps to memorize them for the test.

On the other hand, having the actual test questions available for
someone to study can result in someone who can pass the test and
obtain their certification, but really doesn't "know" the principles
behind the material. This only serves to cheapen the certification,
which, in my opinion, isn't worth much as it is. The bottom line in
this regard is an employer needs to question or test a potential
employee to judge whether they really know what they are doing before
hring them simply on the merit that they have an A+ certification.
But this should happen anyway. As an electronics technician I have
ran into many people who could tell you the exact function of every
resistor, capactor, transistor, etc. in a circuit, but put a broken
piece of equipment in front of them and they have no idea how to
troubleshoot it and find out what's wrong. These type of people have
book smarts, but no practical sense to get the job done.

> Actually, after I posted that message I started thinking about that,
> and started looking around about opinions about TestKing, and found
> that they and some other's are despised for their "braindumps" which
> appear to often contain actual test questions. I was not aware of
> this when I got the q and a's, and like to think of myself as a moral
> person. I agree that it is fishy. On the one hand I have extensive
> experience and studied quite extensively from my available materials,
> and didn't get the TestKing q's until the day before I took the test.
>
> On the other hand, I question how people are supposed to know the
> answers to some of the questions, for instance the question regarding
> Class C fire extinguishers for a computer fire. Until I saw that
> particular question in the TestKing material I had no idea (It's not
> in my Sybex book for one) and not listed specifically in the CompTIA
> objectives. I searched this news group and found a post regarding
> someone who had taken the test and got that question wrong, because he
> or she had no idea and it wasn't in any of their study materials.
> The conundrum is created because CompTIA doesn't publish their own
> book on the A+ exam, so it seems that all the available study material
> seems to me to be very contradictory.
>
> Of the 350 q&a's in the TestKing material, less than 5 were duplicated
> on the test, so I really don't know... I probably went through about
> 2,500 questions including the 4 tests on my sybex CD, online q's from
> this and other sites, etc. So yes, I agree that having any questions
> before hand, but not having a set "curriculum" creates this problem.
> One should be able to study a set out plan and through hard work learn
> everything one needs to pass the exam. I certainly never would have
> graduated from college if the professors didn't tell us what was going
> to be on the test by assigning materials for the class.
>
> Any thoughts regarding this? (And from what I found out there, this is
> a very emotionally charged subject, so please don't hate me for using
> it innocently--I had no idea that any of the questions would match!)


My take on braindumps is they're wrong. Innocent or not. Of course, because
you didn't know, it's not really your fault, and you shouldn't be held
accountable, but it's still wrong. Of course, now that you know, and if you
use them again, you open yourself up for extreme flaming and (I'm not sure
about CompTIA, but I know Microsoft does...) possible revocation of certs.
They take this very seriously, as they should.
I am aware that CompTIA doesn't publish their own material, and I think they
should. But I also think that the A+ cert should be more difficult than it
actually is. I know it's supposed to be an entry level cert, but because
it's being so devalued (along with many, many other certifications) by
braindumpers (innocently or otherwise) and people without experience (this
wouldn't be you - but many people just "study" TestKing and other dumps and
memorize the answers, and they have no idea what they're doing in the real
world, so it reflects badly on everyone), maybe they should consider raising
the standards of the exam. Possibly make the questions harder, include a
practical lab portion of the exam, etc (Cisco does this in their exams).
This would prevent braindumpers from cheating the system, which in and of
itself would improve the value of the certification. Add to that the
increased difficulty, and suddenly A+ can be on par with other "low level"
certs, such as MCP. (Currently, and not to take anything away from A+'ers,
because I'm one too, but A+ is kind of the lowest rung on the certification
ladder.).

--

KB

first inital last name AT hotmail DOT com


> Regarding a previous reply from KB:
> >You don't think knowing the exact questions before hand is cheating?
>
>
> -Regards