How to Study for the CompTIA A+ 1001 Exam
Introduction
Hello and Welcome! If you are looking for some resources and advice on how to study for the CompTIA A+ 1001 Exam, look no further!
If you don't know what the CompTIA A+ exam is, please visit CompTIA's official website Here. To summarize, CompTIA is one of the world's largest Information Technology certification organizations and has distributed over 2.5 million certifications since its inception. These certifications, including the A+, are generally considered standard certifications within the industry. Many jobs either require or recommend applicants attain the certifications, especially the Triad (A+, Net+ and Sec+) certifications.
The CompTIA A+ certification focuses primarily on technology and skills that are involved within IT support professionals. By passing the exam, you ensure your employer that you are competent in how to install, configure, maintenance, and troubleshoot any common technology that is required to support business operations. Therefore, this certification is a great way to break into the industry and shows you are qualified for entry-level IT support technician/help-desk jobs.
The A+ exam is broken down into two parts: the 1001, which focuses on mobile devices, networking technology, hardware, virtualization and cloud computing, as well as network troubleshooting, and the 1002, which focuses on installing and configuring operating systems, security, software troubleshooting, and operational procedures.
This exam may sound easy, but even as a student about to graduate with a 4 year degree in Information Technology, I found that I did not know a lot of the information covered within the exam. If you utilize the resources found in this article, you should be squared away to take and pass the CompTIA A+ 1001 exam!
Books
CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Tenth Edition (Exams 220-1001 & 220-1002) 10th Edition
Author: Mike Meyers Price as of 5/22/2021: $23.53 Buy Here |
CompTIA A+ Core 1 (220-1001) and Core 2 (220-1002) Exam Cram 1st Edition
Author: David Prowse Price as of 5/22/2021: $34.61 Buy Here |
Depending on what kind of learner you are, books may or may not be the best resource for you for the A+. However, I believe there are two books that have been created for the A+ that may be extremely useful and are worth checking out.
All-in-One
First, Mike Meyers' All-in-One Exam Guide. This resource is probably the most popular resource for the A+, and for good reason: it has nearly everything you need! The book encompasses every objective of the A+ in great detail, so much so, that the book has an excess of 1300 pages. This book is designed for people who are completely new to Information Technology, so if you have some experience like me, you may find yourself skipping over many parts of this book, and that's okay, since I know when there is something I don't completely understand, Meyers will deliver an ample amount of information in a very easily understood format.
This wealth of knowledge is also my biggest critique of the book as there is simply too much irrelvant information, even for new people attempting to break into IT. As an example, Meyers will spend pages talking about the structure the internet in the United States. While this may be interesting knowledge, it is completely irrelvant to the A+, and is too vague to provide any needed info for IT purposes.
Despite that, this book offers a great amount of information for a relatively low price, and as a result, I believe it is worth checking out.
Exam Cram
The next book I would recommend checking out is David Prowse's Exam Cram. Unlike Meyer's All-in-One, this book gets right to the point with very specific information. This book is much more suitable to someone already knowledgeable of technology and simply wants a resource to help study for the A+.
The Exam Cram book has received the highest reviews of all A+ books, and anyone who has used it has only recommended its content. This book also comes with some practice tests to help assert your knowledge, as well as a wealth of online resources for free, such as more practice exams and simulations. The only complaint about this book is that it is not a wealth of knowledge like the All-in-One, and you may need to do more research about the topics on your own.
Video Resources
For many, this is where you will get most of your information. Many notable figures in the CompTIA community make their own video series on the different certifications, including Mike Meyers, Professor Messer, and Jason Dion, among many more.
Mike Meyers
Meyers' hosts his video series on multiple platforms, including LinkedIn, Udemy, and his website, Total Seminars.
While I have not purchased his courses on Udemy and Total Seminars, I have utilized the LinkedIn course, which is free for a limited time thanks to Microsoft. His videos are much more straight to the point than in his book, All-in-One. Your best bet is to watch the video for an easy and quick explanation, absorb the visuals provided, such as looking at the physical hardware and simulated environments, and then reading the chapter in the book to develop a stronger understanding of the material.
Professor Messer
Professor Messer has so far been my favorite teacher when it comes to the A+ 1001 exam. His videos are free and open to everyone, and he gets directly to the point, 1:1 with the exam objectives. I recommend watching his videos after the Mike Meyer's courses to get a stronger feel for exactly what the A+ wants. Play his videos on 1.5x speed, trust me. Take plenty of notes as well. You can find his 1001 Training Course Here.
Once you finish his course, I recommend for the next few days or weeks until your exam you watch some of his study group videos which are recorded live streams. He provides a couple practice questions and simulations as well as test-taking advice and career advice in his after show. Many people recommend it, and I would have to agree with them. His videos are listed on his channel Here.
Finally, he has additional resources such as structured notes found on his website, for a price.
Jason Dion
When people mention Dion's courses, they often mean his Udemy course listed Here. It is approximately 3 hours, so it's a pretty small course. What makes Dion's course a buy to many people is that it provides test taking help, well-structured practice exams, as well as in-depth Performance Based Question (PBQ) video explanations. The main utility I have gained from purchasing his course were the practice examinations. While there were some grammatical errors and odd questions, I felt that it reflected the A+ well, even in retrospect. I got a very similar score on the A+ when compared to what I got on Dion's practice exam, and many others have said the same thing. If you decide you want to try out his resource, wait for a sale, and take it after your studies and not before so that you can gauge your understanding of the material.
Another resource from Dion that I have not tried myself are actually his video courses found on his Website. The reason I am posting it here is because it is a relatively unknown resource and that there is something special about it. Dion actually has a 100% pass guarantee, where if you take the course and finish all of the material and end up failing, Dion will pay for your retest, free of charge. In my opinion, this speaks volumes of the confidence Dion has in his training course and thus it may be worth investigating more into.
Exam Objectives
I have referenced the "Exam Objectives" multiple times already, but I have not actually told you what it is. CompTIA actually hands out a PDF of all of the topics that the exam will be quizzing you on. Please note that this does not contain everything you need to know, nor does it go into great detail about what specifically you need to know under any topic. It may list RAID for example, but it is up to you to know what it is, how to use it, what the specifics of the different RAID levels are, and everything else that may be relevant. The exam objectives are also not all that may be on the exam, and CompTIA reserves the right to put anything they want on the exam. Do not be worried though, if they do, it will still be similar to the objectives and it won't be common.
You can find the objectives list Here.
Practice Tests
One of the best ways to practice is to take practice exams and then study the material you got wrong. There are dozens of resources out there for practice examinations, and many of them are free. Some notable free ones that I have utilized are Exam Compass and Crucial Exams.
Going back to Dion, he has another course on Udemy that provides a couple more practice exams if you want some additional assurance of your skills.
My resources
I have created two Quizlet flash-card sets to help out with my studies. This One has a list of questions, terms, definitions, and more that I have picked up during my studies that I needed to review.
My other one details Port Numbers. It is very important to understand what port number the protocols operate on, as well as the protocol name and its function. The A+ really hammers on this subject, so study it well!
My Advice
As a final word of advice, being knowledgeable on the material is only half the battle; you need to understand. The CompTIA A+ is mostly a multiple-question examination, but this does not mean that each question is always one right answer and 3 wrong ones. Instead, it is generally 2-4 right answers, and only 1 best answer. They do not make the best answer obvious either, and I often found myself flipping a mental coin in my head for my choice. Always re-read the question, and if you have time, come back and think about it again. Here is an example question of what to expect: (Not an actual question I had on the Exam)
Your computer is not turning on. You turn on the ceiling light and check to make sure the cable is plugged in, and try turning it on again, but it does not boot. What is the NEXT thing you should do to resolve this issue?
- Test the power of the outlet with an outlet tester.
- Check the computer cable.
- Reseat the motherboard power connector.
- Verify your home is not experiencing a blackout.
As you can see, all of these answers are technically correct, so which one should you pick? The best way to tackle this problem is to isolate the wrong answers, which in this case is definitely 4. The question states that you have turned on the light to look at the cable, which signifies there is already electricity in your home. When you first read this problem, you may have glossed over that statement, even though it was actually pretty important. The other 3 answers all could be potential issues, so which is it?
So what would be the answer? 2 would be the right answer. The while 1 and 3 are a good choice, they are not the Next thing we should do, since they require more effort and time to test, while it may only take a few seconds to see that the cable is loose or damaged. You might have tried to cross out 2 as well in the previous paragraph, but that is wrong, since we only checked to make sure the cable is plugged in, and not that it was plugged in securely or had any damage. This is how many of the questions on the CompTIA A+ exam are structured, so you have to be prepared for this.
Communities and Where to Reach Out for More Information
Fortunately for us, the CompTIA community is very friendly and supportive! I recommend checking out the CompTIA Reddit Here. You can easily see how your fellow peers are fairing on all of the CompTIA examinations. Members also generally provide resources they have studied from as well, so you might find some goodies there too :).
Another great place to meet some people and create study groups is on Discord
Conclusion
The pathway I have taken for passing this exam are as follows: All-in-One + Meyer's Videos -> Professor Messer's videos + Free Practice Exams -> Dion's Course + First Exam -> Messer's Study Groups + Quizlets -> Exam Cram + Exam Objectives Review -> Dion 2nd Exam + Free Practice Exams = 814/900 within 3 weeks.
This study path + grade is not representative of what you may get or do. If you little experience in the IT field, then you may take longer or need to utilize more resources, and vise versa if you have a lot of experience.
By now, I hope you have some information on what resources to utilize for your exam! Good luck!