CompTIA A+ Update : Millions Served

CompTIA A+ certification validates foundation-level knowledge and skills necessary for a career in IT support. It is the starting point for a career in IT. The international, vendor-neutral certification proves competence in areas such as installation, preventative maintenance, networking, security and troubleshooting.

There are two exams required to be A+ certified: one is 220-701 essentials which validates a candidates knowledge of computer technology, networking and security, the other is 220-702 practical which validates a candidate?s knowledge of dealing with real time scenarios and situations.

The essentials exam also focuses on an individual?s skills to be able to communicate effectively with other professionals and non professionals and to act professionally at all times.

The Practical exam isn?t really a practical exam as such but the questions are more geared towards what you would be doing in real scenarios.

The types of job someone could look for when compTIA A+ certified are IT Technician, help desk and IT support specialist.

Many companies such as Dell support, Microsoft support, Lenovo and IBM, require their employees to be compTIA A+ certified.

You are required to score a minimum of 675 out of 900 for the essentials exam and 700 out of 900 for the practical exam. There are 100 questions on each exam.

You do not have to study at a school or with a training provider unless you want to; I didn?t. I bought the appropriate study books such as compTIA A+ all in one exam guide by Mike Meyers (the current version is the 7th edition).

I also used a book called PC Technician Street Smarts by James Pyles.

Practice exams in order to help you gauge how well your studies are coming along. Now you have to be very careful with the internet and practice exams because many of the exams you can purchase, and especially free exams, are normally ?brain dumps?; these are exams that have the exact same questions that are in the exam pool that you could get when taking the exams. Using brain dumps is cheating, plain and simple, and whilst taking a certification exam you are monitored on camera and with some exams there are other methods employed by the invigilators to determine whether someone has used ?brain dumps? to study such things as how quick you are and other methods.

For my own studies, practice exams I used were ProProfs: Knowledge Sharing Tools & Free Online Education (this is the only free exam I know that is legit). I?ve also used practice exams for the other major providers such as Cisco Network Simulator | IT Practice Exams | IT Training | Boson.com LearnSmart Systems | CompTIA A+ Certification, CCNA Training, MCITP and MCSE Training & More Transcender IT Certification Prep Training Products ? Practice Exams and More and Total Seminars: Home

The best exam in my opinion was the Boson Ex-Sim Max. Most sites will let you download demos so you are under no obligation to buy.

There is a few reasons why I found the Boson Ex-Sim Max is better than the others I used. The questions were clearly laid out, and the explanantions of the answers were clear and concise. The explanantions also had links which showed the reasoning behind those answers and they further backed up the explanantions.

The exams can also be used as another study method to supplement your books.

I also felt that the Boson Ex-Sim Max product gave a true example of how your studies are coming along where as some practice exams will only say if you have scored 700 points then you have 70%.

I said above that the essentials exam minimum score is 645 and the practical is 700 but these scores do not equate to 70% and 75% as some questions are weighted differently. For example, a question with a two part answer may be worth 10 points whilst a question with one answer may be worth 20 points. Do not make the mistake of trying to just pass; you should try to learn everything that might be in the exam and then pass with flying colours.

There is a website that can tell you whether an exam you are using is legitimate or not. It is called CertGuard | IT Certification Exam Security & Integrity. You put the url of the website you are looking at in the certification search bar and certguard will tell you if the site is safe or not.

In order to book your exam, you can do so through either Computer-Based Testing Provider for Certification and Licensure Exams: Pearson VUE or Prometric Services: Testing and Assessment (or the equivalent end i.e. UK or AU etc etc for your country). You will find your nearest five test centres on those sites and simply book using your credit//debit card.

There are discount vouchers available from places such as CompTIA Vouchers ? A+ Certification Exam CompTIA Voucher Test Discount at Prometric / VUE Testing Centers that will get you some money off and if you pay VAT, as I do in the UK, then the VAT is quashed.

Once having passed the CompTIA A+ certification, it would be beneficial to continue your studies with another CompTIA certification such as the Network+ exam.

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Source: http://millions-served.com/comptia-a-update/

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