CompTIA A+ Plan [Old]

This was originally posted on my old GitHub page on May 1st, 2021

When I originally started this blog, it was to hold CTF writeups as a way of tracking my progress toward the OSCP. While I still hold the long term goal of getting the OSCP, and still want to post CTF writeups, I’ve decided to go after some easier/more marketable certifications along the way. I’ve scheduled both the CompTIA A+ 220-1001 and 220-1002 exams for May 29th. I started studying daily for the exams March 1st. I think three months is a good amount of time for the material that I need to cover.

Study Plan

I’m a big fan of having multiple sources to study so I have a book, a lecture series, and practice questions. The book I bought is Mike Meyer’s all-in-one CompTIA A+ exam guide. Admittedly I bought a slightly older version because it was significantly cheaper. The biggest updates to the exam from the version my book covers has to do with Microsoft Windows topics. I’ll have to be more thorough on those topics in general since I haven’t really daily driven Windows in a while (I was on MacOS all through college and have been using Linux for the past year and a half, I’m all about that unix OS life).

In addition the book, I bought Professor Messer’s success bundle that includes: lectures, notes, practice tests, mp3s, and some exam tips. I’ve been listening to the lectures while at work for the past week or so and plan on continuing to do so as well as actually watching them to see things like connector types and the like.

I also bought a CompTIA A+ study app for my phone that I use throughout the day. It seems to be good for testing how much of a given topic I understand, not so much for learning the material. Either way I have a pretty good idea of what I need to study for the last month before my exam.

In regards to the 1001 exam, I consistently score well with the virtualization and cloud computing section as well as mobile devices. Networking seems to be hit or miss as well as hardware. My biggest challenge is hardware and network troubleshooting. I think part of my problem is the specifics of networking like “What Ethernet specification do you need to run a connection of 10Gbps over 5km?”. It’s the nitty gritty of specific cables, connections, and things like that. I have a good high level understanding, now comes the grind of learning exactly what cables and connections are needed. I also have a hard time with printers too. I think that’s the biggest hurdle for me when it comes to the hardware section.

The 1002 exam is interesting. I seem to have the same level of understanding when it comes to OS, security, and operational procedures, but software troubleshooting is a pain point for me. I think part of that stems from my lack of Windows understanding. That’s going to be a big study point for me in this final stretch of time before the exam.