A+ Certification

mensreas

best of luck to you in your exams!!!!

Zorba

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Wrong its 177 euros per exam and you need to do two to get the qualifications everyone does the essentials and one of the Electives so it comes to 354 euros to get the A+ qualification. I'm taking the exams in New Horizons in Strand Street Dublin.

Sounds like your tutor is creaming off some extra profits from you Mensreas, I'd pull him up on that!

So it cost me 600 odd quid for the course materials and now it's gonna be another 354 yo yos for the exams :eek::eek: Glad work are paying for it that's all i can say, jesus at that price i better pass the feckers !!

Snake Plisken

Zorba wrote: »

So it cost me 600 odd quid for the course materials and now it's gonna be another 354 yo yos for the exams :eek::eek: Glad work are paying for it that's all i can say, jesus at that price i better pass the feckers !!

What the hell did u spend 600 yoyo's on?

mensreas

I paid somewhere in the region of €1500 for my A+ but that includes exams, material, labs etc plus i think it was worth every cent the tutor bends over backwards to accomadate you, small class (was only me for the essitanals class:D and theres 9 in the techinans course which is apperantly normally bigger than he would take.

Lazarus2.0

If youre going DIY on the preparation for this exam instead of taking a course then really there is little to it that a course wont cover for a lot less bucks . Familiarise yourself with opening up a machine and swapping parts (HD , RAM , CMOS battery , etc ) - if youre going alone on the prep you'll be fairly familiar with this in any case , i expect . Get your hands on a laptop and mess around a bit with its innards so you know the basics of pulling it apart . Set up a network , even if it's only 2 machines . Try it wired and wireless . Having practical knowledge of the aforementioned wont guarantee you pass but it will get you very close .
Meyers Comptia A+ book is very good if you have the diligence to work through it and the tests at the end of each chapter give you a good idea on whether you got the gist of the topic or whether you need to work on it a bit more . There are loads of quizzes/tests to be found online if you want to assess how you are doing .
There's a big emphasis (even in the Essential exam) on handling the customer - Meyers covers it but it's pretty obvious really . Tell the idiot he's not an idiot , dont babysit their kids when you got your head stuck in their PC , listen to the customer politely as he explains how his computer was working fine til the cat must have stepped on the 'format this hard drive' key ..... and his pron is none of your business .

I took the exam (essentials and it tech 602) last october and applying actual experience and commonsense re customers saw me through very comfortably . That's in hindsight , of course . I was sweating when I clicked the'End Test' button !

I still have a few freeware resources on disk somewhere - PM if you want them , folks .

To stay on topic Prometric run tests out of FAS in Loughlinstown , south Dublin

Zorba

Snake Plisken wrote: »

What the hell did u spend 600 yoyo's on?

For the course from Kilroys college, which consists of the course on 2 cds basically, one specialist and one essentials not sure which i'm meant to be studying but they seem to have all the same topics on them !

Kur4mA

Hi folks! I am thinking about getting A+ certified and was going to do the course work via www.ecollege.ie which is basically FAS online. The cost of the course is 120 Euro and from looking at some of the other sites this seems very low. Has anyone done it there before?

mensreas

kyub wrote: »

Hi folks! I am thinking about getting A+ certified and was going to do the course work via www.ecollege.ie which is basically FAS online. The cost of the course is 120 Euro and from looking at some of the other sites this seems very low. Has anyone done it there before?

I done the fas online A+ for a while about two years ago and what i found is they just tell you everything about everything and its up to you to sift through the bs that is never going to be asked. In saying that it was the old course (hardware and software) so maybe they have changed it. I currently have 9 massive A4 folders full of info and i didnt even complete the course!!!!!

Kur4mA

Do you reckon using the sample papers would allow me to sift through the BS a bit better if the fas online one is still the sameish?

mensreas

kyub wrote: »

Do you reckon using the sample papers would allow me to sift through the BS a bit better if the fas online one is still the sameish?

BIt of a loaded question really depends on the quailty of your sample papers ie how relevent they are to the exams. This is the crowd that we get our books from and they are very good might be worth a look! http://www.gtslearning.com/

I have a dose of questions on the esstinals course if your intrested pm me.

Snake Plisken

wouldn't bother with GTS as found them pretty crap books, go with Mike Myers and get CBT nuggets videos and you'll be fine, I passed my IT Tech exam today got 900 out of 900 on this exam and 850 out of 900 on the essentials so will be getting my Cert posted to me in a couple of weeks onwards to Network+ now will sit that in May/June timeframe. I'm doing it through FAS fulltime course.

Kur4mA

Do you reckon I should go for the All-in-One guide?

Snake Plisken

kyub wrote: »

Do you reckon I should go for the All-in-One guide?

yes I would go for the Mike Meyers All in One guide, if you read the reviews on Amazon.com or Proprofs nearly all recommend it. It comes with some practice tests on a CD as well.

Kur4mA

Brilliant! Thanks for all the help guys.

Barlow07

Snake Plisken wrote: »

wouldn't bother with GTS as found them pretty crap books, go with Mike Myers and get CBT nuggets videos and you'll be fine, I passed my IT Tech exam today got 900 out of 900 on this exam and 850 out of 900 on the essentials so will be getting my Cert posted to me in a couple of weeks

Congraulations on passing, now go have a drink before you start N+.

Michael Meyers book you recommend, is this the one?
A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Sixth Edition (A+ Certification All in One Exam) (Hardcover)
thanks

Snake Plisken

Thanks its a great relief to get both A+ exams done and in the bag

Yep thats the one its on Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0072263113/ref=s9_asin_title_3?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=19AX4AACZVND76EH95Z3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=139289791&pf_rd_i=468294

Barlow07

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Thanks its a great relief to get both A+ exams done and in the bag

What are you doing at the moment work wise? I would suggest you try get a part time job working with PC's if you havent already now you have A+, may need to start at the bottom but you will quickly work your way up.

Kur4mA

I just bought it. I'll see how I go self-studying with this and the forums you guys linked to.

Snake Plisken

Barlow07 wrote: »

What are you doing at the moment work wise? I would suggest you try get a part time job working with PC's if you havent already now you have A+, may need to start at the bottom but you will quickly work your way up.

Well I'm doing this on a full time FAS course at the moment, after I've finished the N+ we do some work placement for 12 weeks, really want to get into a company who will provide decent training on networks etc, so hopefully I"ll find a good company.

Barlow07

Good luck with N+, i plan on doing that after A+ once i get my act together.

The Michael Meyers A+ book, did you buy that yourself or did your tutor in FAS recommended it to help you with the A+ course? The reason i ask is i am thinking more of signing up with a college instead of self study course or online, but i'm thinking it would be no harm in buying the book and reading through it myself.

What would you think?

TestTransmission

What would ye guys recommend to do as i work varying shifts and wouldnt be able to attend courses.work does have the online course,buts its the old exam.Could i get by with this and a book perhaps??

Barlow07

I'm going to do try the self study guide for A+; i was just wondering what hardware i might need to have for when i begin.

I know the obvious one is a PC that works, but anything else?

Snake Plisken

A lot of the A+ is around the PC, also the OS's you'll need XP and Windows 2000, couple of things I didn't have experience with before doing the course was Scsi drives but its fairly straight forward although if you can get your hands on some its an advantage even if it's for a short while, also setting up Raid Array's, also good bit on Printers (mostly laser but also covers inkjet, thermal dot matrix etc) and small amount on scanners. Also it would help if you've messed around with network routers and wireless stuff as its also covered.

TestTransmission

Hi guys,out of these books which would you recommend for studying for the a+
Restricted to this as i only have a laser card.

http://www.eason.ie/search/results?q=comptia&commit=Go

Snake Plisken

jackncoke wrote: »

Hi guys,out of these books which would you recommend for studying for the a+
Restricted to this as i only have a laser card.

http://www.eason.ie/search/results?q=comptia&commit=Go

If you check out Amazon readers reviews The Sybex A+ complete gets the higher ratings, so I would probably go with that, have a read of the comments here, problem is your not getting great value for money buying from easons, could you not buy one of those V3 temp visa cards? it would deffo be worth getting one for this purchase as you'll save a good bit of money.

http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Complete-Study-Guide-Deluxe/dp/047004831X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203630209&sr=8-1

TestTransmission

cheers

Kinetic^

Got a hold of some materials for this, going to hit the books hard and try sit the A+ in about a month.

Question though, do you sit the Essentials and IT Technician on the same day or what?

Snake Plisken

Kenny 5 wrote: »

Got a hold of some materials for this, going to hit the books hard and try sit the A+ in about a month.

Question though, do you sit the Essentials and IT Technician on the same day or what?

You can if you feel confident enough or else you can space them out by a week or two, its up to you

Kinetic^

Snake Plisken wrote: »

You can if you feel confident enough or else you can space them out by a week or two, its up to you

Ok thanks.

cronos

bbability wrote: »

I'm thinking of doing this myself. I've been pondering around the net looking at the options of doing it on-line. Another institute that offers an online version of the CompTia courses is http://www.cmit.ie. The cost is 650 euro and it looks like there's 10 per cent off until the end of Jan. Anyone else think this is a good offer???

As far as I know there is more options to do the exam outside Dublin with Thomson Prometric (otherwise known as the Driver Theory Test Centers)

Like the original poster I too don't work directly in IT but would love to get some qualifcations under my belt. Comptia seems to be the way to go. In my workplace our IT Dept is based over 100 miles away so yours truly is in the firing line to be the eyes and ears for the probems. However the gas thing is I'm findong myself telling the IT Support staff how to fix the problems rather than the other way around....:rolleyes:

If thats the case why did you call them in the first place :P