Oct. 22, 2023, Post by Curtis
The CompTIA A+ is a low-level IT certification that may help you get your foot in the door for an entry-level IT job. Although it is a low-level certification it does take a fair amount of time to prepare for, depending on how effective your study skills are.
The 2 most important ingredients to pass the CompTIA A+ are:
The practice tests will let you know when you are ready to take the real test and will also let you know what to add to your flashcards.
Outlined below are a few simple steps to pass your A+ exam as quickly as possible.
A good place to start is to spend some time watching video courses. Don't take notes but do make flashcards instead.
The point of watching video courses is to get started on your flashcards and more importantly, to get an idea about the scope of the material. It's good to start by getting the overview first.
You can take some paid courses but I wouldn't spend much money on them or spend a lot of time on them.
These are the courses that I took when I was studying for the A+ that I thought were very good:
Taking practice tests is one of the fastest ways to learn.
Be careful where you are getting your practice tests as some of them have incorrect answers. If you take practice tests with incorrect answers, you are literally moving backward. Choose a repeatable source for your practice tests and instead of spending money on courses, spend your money on practice tests.
Don't start taking practice tests too soon as there is not an endless supply of good practice tests out there and you don't want to exhaust the supply before you're ready to test. You want to have at least a few unused practice tests left for when you think you might be ready to take the real test. You'll need these tests to verify that you are actually ready, by getting a high score on more than one practice test.
Don't take the actual test until you are sure that you can pass it. Failing a test wastes time and money.
Flashcards are the best way to commit things to memory fast.
But do not take handwritten flash cards. Use software for this.
The advantages of software-based flashcards are:
Going back to the effectiveness of using practice tests to study with, I find that making flashcards in question/answer format is most effective.
This obviously depends on the amount of time you spend studying. If you study all day every day it will take much less time than if you study 1 day per week so I'll answer this question in the number of hours.
If you're moderately intelligent and moderately tech-savvy, it should take you around 200 hours of studying to pass both tests. That's 100 hours each.
There are a lot of factors that go into how long it will take you to pass the A+
My 200-hour estimation can be reduced or increased dramatically depending on these factors.
Some people who a smart or tech wizards may pass after taking just a few practice tests or even none at all.
People who aren't as smart or are just bad test takers may fail several times. I failed the second test the first time I took it.
I wouldn't spend any more time than necessary getting your A+ as the real learning begins after you start working in IT. If you're able to get a job in IT without an A+ then there is no need to get it. There is a pretty good chance you will be able to get an entry-level IT job without any certifications.
Read my article about How To Get A Help Desk Job With No Experience and get started in IT as soon as possible.
It's probably harder than you expect.
For most situations, I would say no.
It's not entirely worthless. If you don't have anything IT-related to put on your resume then it will definitely help. But I think your time would be better spent going for a higher level cert, namely, the CCNA. The CCNA is much harder and will take longer, but the A+ has a fraction of the value that the CCNA has in the job market.
Just a few months at an entry-level job in IT will look better on your resume than the A+ and chances are you can get a low-level IT job without it.
If you've already started down the road for an A+ or have another reason that makes sense for you to get it then knock it out. But if not, I would skip ahead to the next cert as you will need to get better certs eventually anyways. So why not make the most of your time and start that now?