How hard is it to get an A+ Certification?

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: Shawn
What do you need to know about IRQs? It's been a while.

That they cut them off the test.

I just checked the sample questions... it looks like it's actually easier now... a byproduct of technology evolving... nobody really needs to play with IRQs anymore. You should still crack a book though, so you don't miss questions like this:

A technician is upgrading the memory on a laptop that has a front-side bus speed of 400MHz. Which of the following memory module types has the minimum data transfer rate necessary to support this upgrade?

A. PC2700
B. PC2100
C. PC3200
D. PC1600

I've been around computers a long time but I don't know this off the top of my head right now. Those who've recently upgraded may but that's not the point.

A user is scanning a document and changes the settings to scan the same document in color. This will cause the uncompressed file size to increase by:

A. two times
B. three times
C. four times
D. eight times

First one should be D, because it says minimum and they all are of the DDR standard.

Second one isn't possibly that simple as to have a double, triple, etc... Looks like they severely dumbed it down.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: Shawn
What do you need to know about IRQs? It's been a while.

That they cut them off the test.

I just checked the sample questions... it looks like it's actually easier now... a byproduct of technology evolving... nobody really needs to play with IRQs anymore. You should still crack a book though, so you don't miss questions like this:

A technician is upgrading the memory on a laptop that has a front-side bus speed of 400MHz. Which of the following memory module types has the minimum data transfer rate necessary to support this upgrade?

A. PC2700
B. PC2100
C. PC3200
D. PC1600

I've been around computers a long time but I don't know this off the top of my head right now. Those who've recently upgraded may but that's not the point.

A user is scanning a document and changes the settings to scan the same document in color. This will cause the uncompressed file size to increase by:

A. two times
B. three times
C. four times
D. eight times

Yeah, I didn't know the first one. The second one I just guessed that R-G-B data would require 3x the space which i think was right.

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: Shawn
What do you need to know about IRQs? It's been a while.

That they cut them off the test.

I just checked the sample questions... it looks like it's actually easier now... a byproduct of technology evolving... nobody really needs to play with IRQs anymore. You should still crack a book though, so you don't miss questions like this:

A technician is upgrading the memory on a laptop that has a front-side bus speed of 400MHz. Which of the following memory module types has the minimum data transfer rate necessary to support this upgrade?

A. PC2700
B. PC2100
C. PC3200
D. PC1600

I've been around computers a long time but I don't know this off the top of my head right now. Those who've recently upgraded may but that's not the point.

A user is scanning a document and changes the settings to scan the same document in color. This will cause the uncompressed file size to increase by:

A. two times
B. three times
C. four times
D. eight times

Yeah, I didn't know the first one. The second one I just guessed that R-G-B data would require 3x the space which i think was right.

Hmm I can't seem to find much that would show any constant for the second one.

http://knol.google.com/k/jaffa...nning/3g15mgyrpfb21/2#

Describes over a 12x increase in file size based on a standard office document scanned in color, no compression.

Strange.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: foghorn67

Originally posted by: thecoolnessrune
This is ATOT.. Everyone has 20+ Certs and read 50+ 1000 page books for each in the matter of a month or so.

No, seriously. It's easy as sin.
The only thing I did was cram all the SCSI specs right before I took the test.
It's the only thing that needs to memorized. The rest is just common sense crap.


And for those who have SCSI specs memorized already, I don't work with it everyday. I mean I do, but setting up a new array doesn't even require that kind of memory.

They don't put the SCSI specs on there anymore.

I was sadly disappointed that after memorizing the IRQ's they weren't on mine. Now they are gone forever too.

Latest revision doesn't deal with any of our great old technologies. =p

lol yea i remember the book i flipped through...it had even the oldest scsi specs as things to remember. basically a++ is mostly stupid rote memorization of minutia, and almost nothing about actual problem solving.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: Shawn
What do you need to know about IRQs? It's been a while.

That they cut them off the test.

I just checked the sample questions... it looks like it's actually easier now... a byproduct of technology evolving... nobody really needs to play with IRQs anymore. You should still crack a book though, so you don't miss questions like this:

A technician is upgrading the memory on a laptop that has a front-side bus speed of 400MHz. Which of the following memory module types has the minimum data transfer rate necessary to support this upgrade?

A. PC2700
B. PC2100
C. PC3200
D. PC1600

I've been around computers a long time but I don't know this off the top of my head right now. Those who've recently upgraded may but that's not the point.

A user is scanning a document and changes the settings to scan the same document in color. This will cause the uncompressed file size to increase by:

A. two times
B. three times
C. four times
D. eight times

Yeah, I didn't know the first one. The second one I just guessed that R-G-B data would require 3x the space which i think was right.

I would pull C out of my ass for the second question. Say they're scanning in black and white. One bit works (0 for black 1 for white?) Now they have that same bit as well as RGB. Very primitive reasoning, but I'd pull C out of my ass.

I would also guess C for the first one too, PC3200 = 400 MHz DDR, right?

 

[Shawn]

How much is the test? $168 for both tests or $168 for each test? Cause that's damn expensive for something I'm not even sure will help me. :-/

 

[mcmilljb]

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: Shawn
What do you need to know about IRQs? It's been a while.

That they cut them off the test.

I just checked the sample questions... it looks like it's actually easier now... a byproduct of technology evolving... nobody really needs to play with IRQs anymore. You should still crack a book though, so you don't miss questions like this:

A technician is upgrading the memory on a laptop that has a front-side bus speed of 400MHz. Which of the following memory module types has the minimum data transfer rate necessary to support this upgrade?

A. PC2700
B. PC2100
C. PC3200
D. PC1600

I've been around computers a long time but I don't know this off the top of my head right now. Those who've recently upgraded may but that's not the point.

A user is scanning a document and changes the settings to scan the same document in color. This will cause the uncompressed file size to increase by:

A. two times
B. three times
C. four times
D. eight times

Yeah, I didn't know the first one. The second one I just guessed that R-G-B data would require 3x the space which i think was right.

I would pull C out of my ass for the second question. Say they're scanning in black and white. One bit works (0 for black 1 for white?) Now they have that same bit as well as RGB. Very primitive reasoning, but I'd pull C out of my ass.

I would also guess C for the first one too, PC3200 = 400 MHz DDR, right?

So you assume RGB is just 3 bits? That color image would suck! It's actually 8 bits for a typical black and white bitmap, and 3 8-bit fields for RGB in a bitmap. That comes to 3 times the size of a typical image. I believe that's what they're going for.

I personally hate the whole FSB, "quad pumping", marketing crap they liked to spew. I prefer just to know the operating speed because that's what I am want to know. If it's 400MHz quad pumped, then it's running at 100MHz and therefore I would want PC-1600 since it operates at 100MHz. If it's 400MHz double pumped, then I have 200MHz then I would choose PC-3200. It's a silly marketing game in my opinion.

*edit* read that typical as "old" lol. Most have much higher n-bits for color now. I forgot I learned about bitmaps on simple 8-bit bitmaps.

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: Shawn
How much is the test? $168 for both tests or $168 for each test? Cause that's damn expensive for something I'm not even sure will help me. :-/

sell BD-UP5000. then you'll have way more than enough

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

employers still look for A+?

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo
employers still look for A+?

it's not going to get you a job but it might keep you out of the discard pile.

the first round of resume cuts aren't necessarily made by technical people who are familiar with what exactly certs imply or the intricate details of what your perspective job might entail, but HR people who see cert > no cert

 

[BurnItDwn]

As others have said, I don't think an A+ cert would be a challenge to get if you're already "in the know", however, it may not help with your employment seeking either. I suppose if you are just looking for some sort of temporary work until you can find something in the biology field, it might help land you some entry level work, but there's no guarantee...

 

[RagingBITCH]

It was cake. Whenever I took it it asked a bunch of stuff you'd never use in a real world environment nowadays, but stuff you should have known from the '90s or early '0x

 

[Elbryn]

Originally posted by: Shawn
How much is the test? $168 for both tests or $168 for each test? Cause that's damn expensive for something I'm not even sure will help me. :-/

if you're a biology major trying to get into IT and dont have a history of IT experience/work you need to have something else that demonstrates your value. would you hire a fresh out of school biology major to fill an entry level IT job over ECE/CIS/MIS majors everything else being considered equal?

that said A+ is cake. might as well go through and get net+ and server+ while you're at it and make a trifecta out of them.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: Chronoshock
They are easy to get, and not worth very much (in the IT world, experience is 90% of the game). I would save your money, I think the testing fee is a few hundred bucks.

My first IT position required an A+. I clocked well over $1500/wk on a bad week. This was for Time Warner cable almost 10 years ago. (damn I miss those days.)

Experience is definitely more worthy, but don't count out how much a "low cert" like the A+ can get you.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: mcmilljb

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: Shawn
What do you need to know about IRQs? It's been a while.

That they cut them off the test.

I just checked the sample questions... it looks like it's actually easier now... a byproduct of technology evolving... nobody really needs to play with IRQs anymore. You should still crack a book though, so you don't miss questions like this:

A technician is upgrading the memory on a laptop that has a front-side bus speed of 400MHz. Which of the following memory module types has the minimum data transfer rate necessary to support this upgrade?

A. PC2700
B. PC2100
C. PC3200
D. PC1600

I've been around computers a long time but I don't know this off the top of my head right now. Those who've recently upgraded may but that's not the point.

A user is scanning a document and changes the settings to scan the same document in color. This will cause the uncompressed file size to increase by:

A. two times
B. three times
C. four times
D. eight times

Yeah, I didn't know the first one. The second one I just guessed that R-G-B data would require 3x the space which i think was right.

I would pull C out of my ass for the second question. Say they're scanning in black and white. One bit works (0 for black 1 for white?) Now they have that same bit as well as RGB. Very primitive reasoning, but I'd pull C out of my ass.

I would also guess C for the first one too, PC3200 = 400 MHz DDR, right?

So you assume RGB is just 3 bits? That color image would suck! It's actually 8 bits for a typical black and white bitmap, and 3 8-bit fields for RGB in a bitmap. That comes to 3 times the size of a typical image. I believe that's what they're going for.

I personally hate the whole FSB, "quad pumping", marketing crap they liked to spew. I prefer just to know the operating speed because that's what I am want to know. If it's 400MHz quad pumped, then it's running at 100MHz and therefore I would want PC-1600 since it operates at 100MHz. If it's 400MHz double pumped, then I have 200MHz then I would choose PC-3200. It's a silly marketing game in my opinion.

*edit* read that typical as "old" lol. Most have much higher n-bits for color now. I forgot I learned about bitmaps on simple 8-bit bitmaps.

You're the most correct...

PC3200 and 3x were the answers they were looking for.

 

[VinylxScratches]

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo
employers still look for A+?

I've been applying for tons of IT Technician roles and they're almost a requirement or a plus. Either that or any MS Cert is required or a plus.