The New 2003 A+ Exams
Think the A+ exams haven't changed much in their latest revision? Think again!
by Faithe Wempen
12/17/2003 --
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| Exams |
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A+ Core Hardware (220-301) and A+ Operating System Technologies (220-302). |
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CompTIA |
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| Status |
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Live as of November 2003. Available at Pearson Vue and Prometric testing centers worldwide. |
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| Reviewer's Rating |
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"Hit those new topics extra hard, even if you think they are too obscure to be included." |
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| Test Information |
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Apx. 80 questions each. 90 minute time-limit. Standard (non-adaptive) format. Cost: $145 (U.S.) each, with discounts available for employees of corporate CompTIA members. |
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| Who Should Take This Exam? |
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Hardware technicians and those seeking to learn PC hardware basics. |
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| Test Objectives |
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Click here. |
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I went into the 2003 A+ exams feeling very confident. I'm the undisputed Alpha Geek my social circle. I've had much more than the requisite six months of experience that the A+ is supposed to measure. I've written several books on A+ preparation, including my own A+ textbook ("PC Maintenance: Preparing for A+ Certification," 2004 EMC/Paradigm Publishing). And this would be the third time I had taken the A+ exams. (Yes, I know, A+ certification is "for life," but those of us who write about exams for a living have to retake them every time a new version comes out, so we can tell you all about them!)
Well, I did pass both of them, but not with a stellar score. And I left the testing center marveling at how fast the industry is changing and how I had better study up on the latest technologies, not just for certification but for my own skills.
Still Heavy on the Memorization&
My biggest complaint about the A+ exams has always been the amount of raw memorization that students must do to prepare for the tests, and it's still very much the case with this release of the exams. And a lot of it is information that most people will never need in real life. When was the last time that you needed to know the default I/O address for a port? Or how many pins are in a certain type of socket? Or the available switches for a command-line utility? You'll need exactly that kind of data to score high on these tests. Yet on the job this is just the sort of information that you would probably look up as needed rather than memorize. I think it was Einstein who said something to the effect of never memorizing something that you can easily look up. He had a point. But that won't help you pass the A+ exams.
So to prepare for these tests, we A+ techies memorize everything we can get our hands on. We memorize tables of IRQs and DMA channels, CPU specs, memory speeds, and printing processes. We draw diagrams. We count the number of pins in ports. We end up with our heads stuffed with all this virtually useless knowledge, to the point where normal people pray they don't get stuck next to us at cocktail parties.
But I digress.
What To Study
In the past people have complained about the revisions of the A+ exam, saying that the test revisers did not go far enough in throwing out outdated questions and introducing new ones. Surely nobody can say that this time! To say that the new 2003 A+ exams are updated is an understatement. More like gutted and rebuilt from scratch. The exams are weighted extremely heavily toward the latest technologies, including Pentium 4, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394a, and Serial ATA. On the software side, there are OS questions covering the full range of Windows products from NT 4.0 up through XP and from Windows 95 through Windows Me, but the bulk of the questions cover 2000 and XP.
Also, as I pointed out in my recent CertCities.com articles on what's new in the A+ objectives (go here and here), there are a lot of topics that, while not specifically new, are receiving new emphasis. For example, SCSI is now represented more heavily, especially booting from SCSI devices and troubleshooting SCSI installation. Networking and cabling have also been more heavily emphasized.
I can't tell you "what's on the test," of course, but here are some tips for avoiding some of the point-losing pitfalls I encountered:
- Cable types. Don't rest on your Ethernet/WiFi laurels. Study the other networking cables like fiber optic, Token Ring, 10Base2, and so on. Pay attention to connector types, maximum lengths, EMI shielding, and recommended uses.
- USB and FireWire. Sure, you know the differences between the plugs, but do you know the differences in their standards-number of supported devices, speeds, etc.? Can you differentiate between USB 1.1 and 2.0? What about IEEE 1394a?
- IRQs and I/O addresses. Memorize the defaults for all common devices. I know. It stinks to have to do that. But do it anyway.
- CPU specs. Make sure you know the specs on CPUs from the Pentium on up, including slot/socket types, speeds, motherboard bus speeds, and compatibility between systems. For example, which other CPUs could replace a certain CPU without changing the motherboard? Which motherboard FSB speeds would be appropriate for a certain CPU? Dig deep here.
- Upgrade paths. Again, this is one of those things we all just have to memorize, and I wished I had brushed over my notes a few more times before the test. Given any existing OS and any newer OS, you should be able to tell whether a valid upgrade path exists, what file to run to start the setup, and what compatibility issues may arise.
- Boot options. Pay close attention to the various options for booting each OS, including things like modifying BOOT.INI and MSDOS.SYS, displaying and using Startup menus and Safe mode, and so on.
- Cleaning supplies. We all have our personal favorite methods of cleaning PC components, but is your way the "officially correct" way? Find out before test time. For example, what do you use to clean the dirt off the outer plastic parts of the cases? Soap? Ammonia? Plain water? (Don't tell the officials, but I use Glass Plus on almost everything external. And I haven't killed any hardware with it yet.) I left the test vowing to look this up in several reference books to see what the latest consensus is.
Test-Specific Gripes
I have two major gripes about this edition of the exams. One is that some of the questions weren't worded as well as they could have been, and some even contained some outright errors in them. For example, one of the questions misspelled LMHOSTS as IMHOSTS (or perhaps this was intentional to be tricky? If so, foul!), and one question wanted me to choose two correct answers when in fact three of the four items presented were correct. Still another one implied the wrong polarity of charge on a laser printer's drum. It's a new-ish test, so I can forgive a certain amount of that, but I hope they get some good technical editors on the job to clean up this sort of thing soon.
My second gripe is that the randomizing engine in the testing software threw me several nearly identical questions. For example, in one it asked me to choose three correct answers (out of four checkboxes), and then three questions later, it asked me the exact same thing as a multiple-choice question where I was supposed to choose the incorrect one. So I hope the instructional designers will read this and take a look at correcting that kind of problem.
Final Thoughts...
Here's the most important piece of advice I can offer you based on my experience: Study the new stuff! Go through my earlier articles (links above) where I broke down the new topics for each objective and hit those new topics extra hard, even if you think they are too obscure to be included. Make sure you get study guides based on the latest objectives, or see if there are updated addendums available online for your existing study guides.
As for me, I'm headed off to do some extra research on the newest technologies, so I can continue bringing you the latest A+ tech info here on CertCities.com! 
Have you taken these exams? Share your thoughts by posting below!
Faithe Wempen, M.A.,is a Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor and an instructor in the Computer Technology Department of Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis. She is the author of over 50 books on computer hardware and software, including A+ Jumpstart: PC Hardware and Operating System Basics. She also co-owns the Sycamore Knoll Bed and Breakfast.
More articles by Faithe Wempen:
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