Welcome to the ITFreeTraining free course on CompTIA 220-1001 and 220-1002 exams otherwise
known as A+. This free training course will take you through all the exam objectives for
the A+ exam and help you get ready to take the exam.
To start with, who is CompTIA? CompTIA’s full name is Computing Technology Industry
Association, but everyone just calls them CompTIA for short. CompTIA was founded in
1982 and offers certifications to the IT Professional just like a lot of vendors do - for example,
certifications offered by companies like Microsoft and Cisco.
Unlike vendor-based certifications, CompTIA was founded based on their certifications
being vendor neutral. That is, these certifications are not tied to any one vendor. CompTIA certifications
look at technology as a whole across the entire IT industry. If you have complete certifications
like Microsoft and Cisco, these certifications will be heavily based on their products. You
would expect this, as these certifications are provided by the vendor that made the product.
However, if you want to learn just networking or just about hardware from all vendors, completing
a vendor certification will primarily assist you only with that vendor’s products.
As CompTIA is vendor neutral, the topics they cover are not tied to one vendor. The idea
behind this is that they give you the skills that you can later apply to any vendors’
products. You will, however find that CompTIA tends to stick to the main vendors. For example,
when required to use a device or operating system, CompTIA will generally use Windows,
Linux, Android and iOS.
CompTIA uses test centers all around the world and, thus, certifies in over 120 countries.
CompTIA to date has certified over 2.2 million people. Thus, a CompTIA certification is a
well-recognized certification to have in the IT industry.
So, what is the A+ certification? The A+ certification is the entry level technician certification.
It is the certification that many IT professionals will obtain first when starting their IT career.
To give you an idea how long the A+ certification has been around, the first certification was
obtained in 1993. The certification has changed a lot since then and gets updated approximately
every three years. This ensures that it is up to date with the current industry and technology.
I will have a closer look at what the A+ certification covers later in the video, but a basic run
down is that it covers hardware, networking, operating systems and mobile devices. You
will find that many IT jobs require or at least ask if you have a certification. Since
the A+ is an entry level certification it is a good place to start.
A+ is considered one of the top certifications to have, particularly when you are starting
your IT career. Of course, there are other certifications out there that are harder and
attract higher incomes. However, if you are just starting your IT career, the A+ certification
is a good place to start.
CompTIA certifies over 220,000 people a year with the A+ certification. If you are looking
to start in the IT industry, the CompTIA A+ certification is definitely worth looking
at.
The CompTIA certification is a little different to other certifications in that, in order
to obtain one, you need to pass two exams. These exams are 220-1001 and the 220-1002
otherwise known as Core 1 and Core 2.
These exams were released on 15 January 2019 and are expected to be retired about 2022,
most likely in January. At that time, CompTIA will most likely release an updated A+ certification.
Once you complete both exams, you will have earned your CompTIA A+ certification. You
can take the exams in any order; however, it is recommended that you take Core 1 before
Core 2. Core 2, although covering different topics to Core 1, assumes that you know Core
1.
Traditionally the first exam was called the hardware exam and the second exam the software
exam. You can see that the Core 1 exam is still mostly hardware - covering the areas
of mobile devices, networking, hardware, virtualization, cloud computing, hardware and network troubleshooting.
The Core 2 exam covers operating systems, security, software troubleshooting and operational
procedures. You can see why you would normally take Core 1 before Core 2, as troubleshooting
software problems generally assumes you know how to configure things like networking and
hardware.
Even though the exams have different objectives, the format of the exams is the same. Both
exams have a maximum of 90 questions. You may be wondering why the number of questions
is not fixed. To understand why, consider that the test contains multiple-choice and
performance-based questions. The exam has questions of different difficulty and type.
Since the questions are of different difficulty and types, they are scored differently. Because
of this, different test takers may get a different number of questions, however the maximum number
of questions will be 90.
The time limit for the exam is 90 minutes. If you consider that you may have 90 questions,
this does not seem like a lot of time, but most of the questions are multiple-choice
and not too lengthy. In a moment I will have a look at an example question.
CompTIA recommends having 6 to 12 months of experience in the lab or in the field before
attempting either of the exams. The passing score is 675 for the 1001 exam and 700 for
the 1002 exam. Both exams will scale the result to 900. Your level of experience and how fast
you learn will determine when you will be ready to sit the exam.
Each exam costs approximately $219 US dollars. Remember you have to sit two exams, so about
$438 US dollars. The cost may vary depending on which country you are in. Let’s have
a look how you can save some money on exams.
It is possible to get exam vouchers which can make the costs of the exams cheaper. If
you look at these two web sites, you can get discounts on exam vouchers. Often training
courses and books will have exam vouchers included making the exams cheaper. Unfortunately,
as this course is free, we cannot offer you any exam vouchers, but if you are planning
to purchase any products, have a look to see if they include any vouchers. CompTIA has
a number of bundle deals on their web site. Even if you are not planning on buying a course,
you should be able to get a discount.
There are some basic prerequisites that CompTIA recommends before starting this course, but
nothing major. First, have some basic computing skills. For example, be able to complete some
basic tasks in Microsoft Windows. Nothing too advanced; just be able to get around Windows
and use some applications.
Next, search and access information on the internet. Nothing too difficult; being able
to use Google and do things like access online sites like internet banking is enough.
Also, having some basic knowledge of computing concepts. You don’t need to know a lot of
detail, but have a basic understanding of how to switch a computer on, login, use the
mouse and run some applications.
If you find that you are lacking those skills, you may want to consider the CompTIA IT Fundamentals
course. This course is optional if you are new to computing. It is a pre-career certification
that helps gain basic competency for computing. Also, it’s not a bad course to look at if
you are not sure if the information technology field is the right career for you.
The IT Fundamentals course is an optional course and aimed at the beginner or for students
in middle school or high school. It covers the foundations of IT, but if you already
have an idea of how to use a computer and a basic understanding of computing you won’t
need to do this course.
In order to start studying the CompTIA A+ exam you will need some study material. I
would recommend a good training course, like this one. In this training course we cover
all the exam objectives, but it is always good to supplement a course like this with
a good book. We would recommend the all-in-one CompTIA A+ certification by Mike Meyers. Mike
Meyers is a well-respected industry expert and always delivers quality training material.
If you want another free training course on A+, have a look at Professor Messer who offers
an excellent A+ training course. I would next recommend that, once you have completed your
study, to obtain some sample exam questions. There are many different places you can obtain
these. Doing some sample exam questions will give you an idea of how well you know the
material.
Lastly, obtain the exam objectives from CompTIA. You want to do this when you start studying
and before sitting the exam. This is because the exam objectives can change. Our course
does cover all the exam objectives from when the course was created, but best to check
in case something has changed.
Let’s have a look at a sample multiple-choice exam question. Given the following different
types of networking, which could be blocked by a person walking between the two devices
communicating? By having an understanding of the different ways that networking devices
work, it is easy to eliminate the wrong answers. Out of all the different types of networking,
IR or infra-red can be easily blocked by a person or object blocking the signal, so C
is the correct answer.
The exam will contain multiple -choice questions as well as performance-based questions. Let’s
have a look at a performance-based question.
This example is from the CompTIA web site, so feel free to visit their site and give
the question a go yourself. The question is interactive in nature. Don’t worry too much
if you don’t understand the technical side.. Once you have completed this course you will
better understand what the question is asking.
Be sure to read the question carefully. This question is essentially saying some changes
were made after a cyber attack and now one of the executives cannot access the internet.
To answer this question, it requires you to have some understanding of how networks operate
and how to troubleshoot them.
Below this you can see the instructions. Make sure you read them carefully. In a lot of
questions, it will say the solution must only meet certain criteria. Thus, there may be
multiple solutions, however only one will meet the required criteria. In this case,
changes to the access control list must be made to allow all computers to access the
internet and only correct the connectivity issues. In other words, only fix the access
to the internet, don’t allow or deny other services in the process.
Many questions, not only the performance-based questions, will allow you to hide or show
additional information. For example, in this case I can hide the left part of the screen
to show the complete diagram. Make sure you look out for extra buttons or tabs that may
contain critical information before completing the question.
Many interactive questions will have areas that you can click on to access additional
information or tools. If I click on the workstation icon this will open a command prompt. To see
what commands I can execute, I will enter in help and press enter.
A lot of these simulations will have a partial set of commands implemented but not all. To
start troubleshooting, I will enter in IPConfig to get the network configuration of the computer.
The question says there is a problem accessing the internet so I will attempt to ping Google.
The ping comes back with a response so I know this computer can access the internet, at
least for ping commands.
I will next click on the second workstation and run the IPConfig command to get the network
configuration. Like before, I will run the ping command. Notice this time a response
is not received back from Google. This must be the computer that is having problems accessing
the internet.
I will next click on the router to get some information about it. This will give me some
network information. Notice that there is a second tab which has the access control
list. Always make sure you have a good look around for extra tabs or buttons. The last
thing you want to do is get a question wrong because you missed something.
Later in the course, we will go through the content required to answer this question.
For the present, know that to answer this question I need to remove a rule that is causing
the problem. In this case, I know that the rule is this one.
Once I have deleted the rule, notice that if I go back to the previous computer and
run the ping command again, this time I will get a response back. Although these simulations
don’t have all the features and tools an operating system would have, you will be surprised
how realistic they can sometimes be.
Performance-based questions will have this format. You need to click, click and move,
or run certain commands to fix a problem. This tests if you know the course material,
as well as being able to apply it.
To see how I did, I will now press the submit button. Notice that after a short delay I
got four out of four for this question.
Performance-based questions will often be worth multiple marks. If you get some of the
question correct you may get partial marks. You can see why you may not get 90 questions
in the exam. The number of performance-based questions you get and how much they are worth
will change the total number of questions you will be asked.
Regardless of what questions are asked and how they are asked, we are confident that
this course covers all the exam objectives. However, we don’t present them all in the
same order they appear in the exam objectives. We, instead, present them in an organized
way that we feel provides the best building blocks to learning. But, don’t worry, we
cover them all.
The objectives will be broken down into topics for quick access. This means more videos,
but also means you won’t be having to look through a very long video trying to find the
bit that is relevant to you. In some cases, there may be an overlap of material. Every
video is designed to be able to be viewed without watching the others, so sometimes
we need to quickly mention something that was talked about in a previous video. However,
you will find a specific topic on a particular video will go into a lot of detail about that
topic. For example, one video may quickly mention all the different types of connectors
a computer may have, while another video will go into a lot of detail about how that connector
can be used.
When you are ready to take the test, all you need to do is go to the Pearson VUE web site
and book the exam. Pearson VUE has test centers in over 120 countries and you will be able
to perform a search to find a test center near you.
Before booking the exam, check the requirements for the exam. Most exams have the same requirements,
no personal items like books, phones or calculators. You won’t be able to take any bags into
the exam either. The test center should have an area to leave your personal items or, if
you’re lucky, a locker to store them in.
You will need two forms of ID when you sit the exam. One will need to be a photo ID.
It is best to check before attending the exam if your ID will be accepted or not.
You won’t be able to take a pen or paper with you; however, you will be given something
that you can write on. Usually it will be a dry erase board and a non-permanent marker
to make notes on.
Make sure that you arrive at least 15 minutes early. Usually if you arrive early, they will
let you start early. You will only need to wait if all the computers are in use, but
I have never seen that happen. In one case, I attended an exam and the testing center
did not have a copy of the exam on their computers. They then had some problems downloading it;
lucky I was early!
Before you sit the exam, go through an updated list of the exam objectives. Exam objectives
are subject to changes, although this does not happen that often. But going through the
exam objectives will also serve as a checklist to make sure that you have not missed anything.
The exam will also have a mark question feature. Generally, with these exams I run through
the exam doing all the questions that I know straight away. Any questions that I am not
sure about or have to think about I mark. You will be able to go back to all the questions
that you have marked at the end of the exam. Remember it is pass or fail, so get all the
easy questions done first and then spend the rest of the time on the difficult questions.
Before finishing, I would like to share a story of the first exam I ever sat. This was
a Windows NT exam and back then there weren’t many testing centers. I had to travel about
an hour by train to get there. So, after I finished work, I took the train up to the
testing center.
I located the entrance to the testing center and had some free time before the exam. I
did some last-minute studying and then decided to enter the testing center. I went through
the door and up the stairs and found my way to a closed door. No windows, no door bell,
nothing. I then called the testing center and because it was outside business hours,
I got a recorded message. I had no idea what to do.
Then after a few minutes the door opened and someone walked out. I quickly saw my chance
and entered to find myself in a computer lab. I found a staff member who showed me to the
computer to do the test.
What I know now and did not know then, is that sometimes these testing centers will
be part of a training organization. The students who use the computer lab had access, but I
did not. If I attended during business hours this would have probably been o.k. So, something
to think about before attending your testing center. Are you sure you know exactly where
it is and how to get in? If it is outside hours, is there a special way to get in? This
is particularly important because you pay a lot for these exams, and you want to make
sure you are in the right place and you can get in.
This is only the first video in the CompTIA A+ training course. I hope to see you in the
other videos from us and if you take the exam, best of luck.