Well, I feel so sorry for that "Ste" who took the time to write that reply...What a sad, unhappy and ignorant ***...
Anyways, "Deathawk", it's not hard but you have to know the objectives because there's a lot of tricky questions that will try to confuse you; if you have a doubt you will choose the wrong answer. Also, make sure to read the questions carefully; a lot of them seem to address certain topic and in reality they're asking about something else.
One important thing: MAKE SURE that you know Networking, Security and Printers/Scanners...There are a lot of questions about that, especially Networks. For a minute, I thought I was taking the "Network +" exam...Learn EVERYTHING about networks, especially Wireless and the OSI Model (the different layers of a Network)
Also, very important, you NEED to know by memory the DEFAULT IRQs and I/O addresses in a PC. Believe me, you will find a lot of questions about IRQ or I/O conflicts. Make sure you know EVERY SINGLE connector type in a PC, PCMCIA Cards for Laptops (Type I,II and III) and their use (Memory, Hard Drive,etc.); Mini PCI Cards for Laptops. System Requirements for Windows 2000/XP; Global States.
That's pretty much the most important points you must know.
Remember that the 2006 Exams are focused only on Windows 2000/Pro and Windows XP Home and Pro; there's no Windows 9x questions. But you have to know Command Line commands, the basic ones (COPY, MD, etc.) to navigate through directories and run utilities like (Syscheck, Format, CHKDSK, and those similar to run the Recovery Console in XP)
I didn't spend much time studying for it, but it depends on your level of knowledge. These are the books I used:
CompTIA A+ Complete Study Guide, Deluxe Edition (Hardcover)
by Quentin Docter (Author), Emmett Dulaney (Author), Toby Skandier (Author) (October 30,2006)
Amazon:
www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Complete-Stu...6978526?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173635887&sr=1-1
It's pretty good and very focused on the exams objectives, but...if you're new to any topic like Networks you might find it difficult to understand because of the way they wrote the book. I'd recommend this other book as well:
A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Sixth Edition (A+ Certification All in One Exam) (Hardcover)
by Michael Meyers (December 2006)
AMAZON:
www.amazon.com/Certification-All-On...6978526?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173637791&sr=1-1
This one is much easier to understand and goes deeper in the topics, gives you extra information and is very fun, that guy is funny!
You can always buy the official from Comptia at their website:
www.Comptia.org, where you can also download the Objectives for each exam.
I'd recommend everyone to purchase both (at least the Michael Meyers') because, as always, you will find things on one book that the other one is missing or doesn't cover in detail.
Well, I think that should be enough information. If anybody has more questions, feel free to reply. Oh, one more thing: I passed the exams on February 26th and in less than 10 days I had my A+ IT Technician Certification credentials in the mail. They were pretty fast, considering that they say that you will get it between 4 to 6 weeks. While you wait for the "paperwork", you can log in on the Comptia website and get your Comptia Career ID, download the Logos, and Publish your credentials to an employer so they can verify that you are already certified (and also you can check the progress of your Certifications) Okay, that should be it. Good luck everyone!
