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A+ exam vouchers. $200 for both hardware and OS.

I

ironk

Senior member
I don't know if this has been mentioned here before, but if you are planning on taking the A+ certification exam, you can get a discount on them. I saw the following in a newsgroup, so I will post it here:


On Fri, 21 Dec 2001 04:03:05 GMT, Funny <Me@home.com> wrote:

">Where is the best deal on Comptia Test Vouchers?
>Please help!
>THanks
>🙂

Total Seminars has a great deal on test vouchers: not only are they a
bargain ($100 per A+ voucher when you mention this newsgroup), you can
also talk to a live person, and pay by money order if you prefer to
avoid the credit card route.

We're also just a cool company, as evidenced by our web site, where
people come to ask and answer questions pertaining to A+ and various
other techie topics. Our site also offers the Tech Files, which are
brief discussions of tech topics relevant to the A+ exam, and even a
Break Room with games for when you need to unwind from your studies.
And hey, we're the folks who put out those great books by Mike Meyers!
We *must* be cool! ;-)

Seriously, anyone wishing to purchase our $100 A+ vouchers can give us
a call, Monday through Friday 9-5 CST, at 1-800-446-6004. Tell 'em I
sent you from the A+ newsgroup!

Cheers,

Cindy Archer
Total Seminars, LLC
www.totalsem.com "


This was posted in December 2001, so I think that its still valid. Make sure you call and find out.
 
You need to buy some kind of hardware and OS to take a test now? Is this the same lame A+ test that 25% of the questions are on good customer service?

rich
 
That sounds like a good deal. This is one of those certifications that someone (like me) who knows alot about computer hardware could pass without any formal training, just maybe some study notes. I say the more certifications, the better. You never know, it may be the deciding factor for you next job. I know, I know, experience counts the most, but when you don't have too much experience...

EDIT:

Could I just take these vouchers to CompUSA and take the exams there? Or are they for use at certain places?
 
Not bad. Too bad I already got a job as a Network Admin and don't need to take the tests. I plopped down $500 for a course over the summer that actually helped me out tremendously because before the summer, I had never opened a computer before and now I have 5+ under my belt from scratch + 10 other redos at work. Next test/course will be for MCP networking and then build up to MCSE from there.
 


<< That sounds like a good deal. This is one of those certifications that someone (like me) who knows alot about computer hardware could pass without any formal training, just maybe some study notes. I say the more certifications, the better. You never know, it may be the deciding factor for you next job. I know, I know, experience counts the most, but when you don't have too much experience...

EDIT:

Could I just take these vouchers to CompUSA and take the exams there? Or are they for use at certain places? >>



Actually if you check the A+ test statistics, it is people who think that they know the information without using a test prep that fail the most often. As someone mention earlier, a major part of the test is non-technical and is customer relations based. Since the test is adaptive, if you miss a couple of these customer relations questions early, the bulk of the test will be custore relations orientented. If you planning on taking the A+ Cert, go ahead and buy one of the test prep guides and take the sample tests. Most of these guides, like most other cert guides teach the test. Is is better to spend some extra $$$ and buy a study guide than to fail the test and pay for a re-test
 


<< I am thinking to take the A+ test. Can someone tell me how I do this?
Buy voucher then......???? >>



Once you purchase a voucher, then you need to locate a traing center or testing center. Try Here
 
Here are the steps for it from totalsem.com:

"Total Seminars offers discounted vouchers for the A+ and Network+ Certification Exams. Here's how the program works.

Step 1: Purchase a voucher from Total Seminars.

Step 2: After processing your payment, we send a voucher number to you via e-mail and physical mail.

Step 3: When you register for the exam at Prometric (http://www.2test.com), you have an option of paying by credit card or by voucher. Select voucher and type in the voucher number you purchased from Total Seminars.

Step 4: Study for the exam! You have paid for the test, saved money, and can spend the rest of your time until test day studying madly! It's as simple as that! "

 
Thanks for all the info, everyone. I've been building and repairing PC's (and Mac's for a while) for many years, and
was surprised at the stupid, not really relative to actual hands-on work questions that a practice site that I played
with some time ago said was part of the exams. I'll probably bite the bullet and grab this voucher deal and get the
A+ cert that I should have years ago.

Any recommendations on a good study book and a good (cheap) place to buy it, or a good study site?


P.S. The funny thing is, I've talked to several people who had A+ and other certifications (Cisco, etc.), and had
NO clue on how to actually do anything hands-on. Having the certs should be used as proof of one's skills and
commitment, and not one's ability to remember study material long enough to pass a test. Sadly, this isn't always
the case.
 
hahaha, let me tell you just cuz you knwo alot about computers doesn't mean you'll pass this test


i thought i knew alot and then i got the A+ cert book....


i'm dying on the technicalities here

i/o addresses, irq/com assignments, hexadecimal, pin number crap


 
The test was revised about a year ago, from what I've heard from friends the new one has Windows 98/2000, Small amount of Networking, Customer Service (BS!), DOS, and NT the Hardware has been upgraded also to be more relivant. I took the A+ in 1999 and it was a breeze. I read the sudy guide I found on the net 30 Minutes before to re-memorize the IRQ tables and such and passed with an 83. The OS I studied the same and passed with a 87.

Just wish the NT 4.0 test had been that Easy...

Also I've built machines since 1997 and been working in PC's since 95, so I have a good deal of knowledge. I'm just glad we don't have that many jumpers in the sytems anymore.
 
I just checked out the website and the price they have listed is $107 for one and $214 for two. Is the $100 deal only if you call? $200 for both is better than $214. Also are the vouchers only good for Prometric or are they good also for Vue?
 


<< Any recommendations on a good study book and a good (cheap) place to buy it, or a good study site? >>



I am using Mike Myers A+ Certification guide. Its a all round one of the best guides.

Link

Also the Exam Cram series is good as well.

Link to exam cram.

You also might want to check the newsgroups:

alt.certification.a-plus





<< Is the $100 deal only if you call? $200 for both is better than $214. Also are the vouchers only good for Prometric or are they good also for Vue? >>



Yeah, I think thats only good if you call the number and mention that you got the offer from a newsgroup. The vouchers are only good for Prometric. Although I have seen other places offering vouchers for VUE. Check Google Newsgroups: Google

I just found out the skinny for VUE. It appears that you can get discount vouchers from them, but you will have to order them in packs of 10. Following is the link:

Vue vouchers
 
I can't imagine that anyone would need a study guide for the A+ test. If you know enough about computers to be able to read this message you're pretty much guaranteed a 100% score. It really is insultingly easy. It is one of many certs required for any kind of PC repair job but has no real value otherwise.
 
If you take the A+ test even if you have experiance you BETTER use a guide to study it has lots of things on the test that ARE NOT everyday computer stuff !!!

Examples Core test material:

Data/bus speeds of all CPU's 8086/8088 and above
Memory types, Cache, Motherboards, Power Supplies, ATX, AT. I/O addresses, IRQ , DMA, Laser & Dot Matrix Printers in detail.

The OS test
Conventional DOS memory management, Covers windows 9X and goes heavy into Windows 2000 setup troubleshooting and configuration.

The test is not a cake walk I would advise a good book.

The best is by Mike Meyers
Book

Great Study Dump shows you the type of questions on the test

Dump
 
Man, what do they feed these guys that take the A+ tests???

Most of the A+ certified people I know are idiots. Ask them anything and they shrug. Tell them to do something and they shrug. <sigh>

I remember there were like 3 or 4 guys that just graduaged college and came in to our place looking for work. Anyways, my boss is an idiot also and when the people said to him that they were A+ certified, he was like, "wow, cool. we can set you up on something."
Set them to test hard drives, laptop drives, exabytes and DLTs, and printers. What a joke! Needless to say, after a week or two, they were fired. All the stuff they supposedly tested were bad. They didn't even know what to do with a laptop hard drive or the tape drives.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, they offered their services to us for $60,000 - $80,000 starting salary. BWHAHAHAHA!!!!!! 🙂

Can you tell they didn't get that? And got fired after no more than two weeks? 🙂


Moral of story: A+ is a joke.

Now if only I can find a somewhat decent job with my Nortel DMS 500 Certification...... hell, I even know some Shiva and Sonnet!
 
I took the test in August. I wish I knew about these vouchers then !
(Company policy change,everyone in my position had to be A+ )

The tests were revamped around april I think.

I didn't have any questions about customer service.

I had some easy questions and a few that were were not.

If you want some good examples of some of the questions, you can
check out
http://www.mcsebraindumps.com/exam.php?exam_id=33 &
http://www.mcsebraindumps.com/exam.php?exam_id=32

Just don't trust the answers !!

I also heard that the prices are going up.
You may want to get those vouchers NOW!


An e mail I received
"We want to let you know that as of February 1, 2002 the cost of all CompTIA certification exams will increase an average of about 7 percent. "
 
I took the A+ exam many years ago. It was exactly 3 months after I used my first Windows computer (had previously only used an XT). I did not get any questions wrong on either test and completed both tests (about 60 or 80 questions each) in about 20 minutes. I took a look at that sample exam tokeniso linked and was shocked to see that most of the questions are still the same and the overall difficulty has not changed either.

The people who write the exam have no computer experience at all and lack even the most rudimentary of life skills so some of the senseless jibberish they write can be tough to match up with the totally unrelated answers. For example, from the above sample exam: What is a new printer cable? USB, Parallel, Serial, or SCSI . I had lots of questions like that when I took it, that's why it took me so long. Another winner: What would you put Silicon lubricant on to service? k/b, mouse, printer rollers, r/w heads Uhh... I guess it depends which component you'd most like to destroy now doesn't it. I was very frustrated by the senseless questions when I took the exam - I'm amazed that in all these years no one has noticed that many of the questions don't even make sense.

The rest of the stuff is all common knowledge: terminators, common I/O addresses, rudimentary modem commands, IRQ assignments, printer technology, etc.

If you don't know what IRQ 2 is for, I/O's 1F0 and 3E8 are jibberish to you, and you've never heard of a charging corona then you'll have some trouble.
 
Even if you know alot about computers

saying "yeah i'm a+ certified" is alot better than saying "yeah i know alot about computers"
 


<< Even if you know alot about computers >>





<< saying "yeah i'm A+ certified" is alot better than saying "yeah i know alot about computers" >>



AMEN to that.

So what's up with the Network+ test? I might wanna check it out.
 
I took the newest A+ exam, computer-based but non-adaptive (right after they got rid of the old one...I had decided I needed to study for it (waste) and missed out on the old test which was adaptive and had some people finishing both tests in 10 minutes total), the new one is probably adaptive at this point. I wouldn't put too much faith in what most of these 9 year olds are saying ("I never used a computer and aced it"). I didn't find it difficult, but the questions seemed to be worded to trip you up if you read them too fast and even then, some of the questions were "questionable". Still passed both tests easily. Still waiting for it to be worth anything on my resume.
 
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