This was originally posted on my old GitHub page on June 5th, 2021

A+ Thoughts and Next Certification

I recently took my CompTIA A+, both the 1001 and the 1002 exams, and I was able to pass first time! I’ll be giving some of my thoughts here, obviously without divulging any specific details, as well as my thoughts on where to go from here.

The Weeks Before the Exam

Mike Meyer’s A+ all-in-one was my first study resource. This book was good, but I do think it had a decent amount of unnecessary information that made getting through it a little tougher than it had to be. Anyway, I started reviewing some of the info from the book with the offical CompTIA A+ Prep study app, which gives you a ton of review questions and some practice tests. I think the difficulty of these questions and exams are not as difficult as the real deal, but they did a good job of helping me memorize some of the information that should be more easily recalled in order to solve the more difficult questions on the exam.

I bought Professor Messer’s success bundle and was using that as my primary study resource after having finished the Mike Meyers book. I liked Professor Messer’s approach to teaching better than Mike Meyers. He got straight to the point, and none of the information he gives seems to be useless. Admittedly, I probably could have gotten away with only buying Professor Messer’s practice exams, but his notes were nice to have as well. The exam tips I didn’t find all that useful, and while I listened to his lectures a ton, I mostly would play them on YouTube (I have a premium subscription, so I can lock my phone and get the audio). I really can’t say how useful his practice exams were. You get 3 practice exams in each book. The exams have a free response section up to six questions and then 90 questions of multiple choice. He actually gives you three of the longest possible exams that you could get which is nice. I took one exam per week in the final three weeks leading up to the exam, and tried to create my test conditions as accurately as possible. The exams were great as far as telling you not only why the correct answer is correct, but why the other answers are wrong. He also links to the associated videos for each question on the practice exam. The questions were very close to what you would get on the exams. Seriously, buy his practice exams if you plan on taking the A+.

All in all, it took me 3 months of daily study to pass both my 1001 and 1002. I’ve been studying computers for longer than that, but without much structure and focus. I have done some things that I think really helped like building my own PC and playing CTFs (they often led down rabbit holes)

The Day of the Exams

I scheduled both exams on the same day. If I had to do it over again, I may not do that but I passed both so I can’t say it was a terrible idea. I was only a little nervous because I had no idea what the questions would be like. I really didn’t want to have to take this exam again if only because of the insane price tag, but also because of the time spent studying for it. I ate some protein waffles and poured myself some hop tea and logged on. The check in process was interesting since I took it from home. My suggestion is to log on as soon as possible (30 minutes ahead of time) in case there’s any hiccups. I didn’t have any, but I could see them being a potential issue. I had to clear off a desk with absolutely nothing else on it, as well as take pictures of the room I was in. During my practice exams I only took about half the time given (~ 45 minutes), but the day of the exam I took far longer. I think I finished the first exam with only 15 minutes left. The second I finished faster but I think I was just in test taking mode. I think the biggest piece of advice I can give about the exam itself is pretty traditional exam advice. Skip the free response (you can flag questions for review) and head straight for the multiple choice. If you can’t answer the question immediately, go back to it later. You can definitely get bogged down in the free response, but the multiple choice, at least in my opinion, are pretty straightforward. In case you’re curious, I ended up passing my 1001 with a 799 out of 900, and my 1002 with a 789 out of 900.

What’s Next?

Believe it or not, I actually really liked studying for the A+. I learned a lot, and I feel like I got something for all that studying I did. I have a few thoughts on what to do next. My first instinct is to go for a networking certification. Initially I was thinking Network + because its still CompTIA (whose difficulty I think I have a better idea of) and I can use professor Messer’s study materials. But then I started talking to some people at work (I recently started working in an IT department) and it seems like CCNA might be the way to go. From what I can gather it’s significantly harder than the Network +, but it also holds some actual weight to it. I’ve already started to gather up some materials for the CCNA, and plan on making a post about it soon. I haven’t scheduled the exam yet, but honestly I’m just giving myself a little break before I take another plunge into studying.

In addition to CCNA, I’ve also started to study some Python and might go for a low hanging fruit in the PCEP (a cheap and basic python cert). I don’t really have a goal as a programmer, but I like python and it’s got an endless amount of uses. I recently bought a python humble bundle and it includes some great python books. I’m going through ‘Python Crash Course’ at the moment, and playing around on code combat.