This is exactly how I studied to take the two core exams that make up the compTIA A plus certificate exam. Bear in mind, my methods may not work for you. For me, as a Bachelor of Arts with an English degree, the CompTIA was the first real exam I took since the Highschool SATs. It was a difficult yet rewarding experience that spanned from August to January in about 6 months, where the majority of the actual studying took about 2 weeks before the actual bookings of each exam. During these 6 months I was working full-time at TJ Maxx before switching jobs as a sales lead at another retail store; joined two metal bands; beat the Legacy of Kain series completely (on PC); reached a 400th day Duolingo streak for Russian, and drank coffee for the first time in my life.
I learned a lot about myself and what worked best for me when it came to studying material from a field I knew nothing about. First of all, here is a list of the main study resources I used:
The Main Study Resources Used
https://www.professormesser.com/free-a-plus-training/a-plus-videos/220-1002-training-course/
Professor Messer’s videos.
https://www.udemy.com/course/comptia-220-1001-exam/
Jason Dion’s Udemy course for compTIA A plus.
https://uniontestprep.com/comptia-a-core-series-exam
Union Test Prep Study Guides
Mike Myer’s Textbook.
Fiverr.com
For hiring OS experts to help tutor you.
Have the Right Attitude Going In:
Even though I had zero experience regarding IT, I had an indelible connection with computers all my life. My father was an IT technician and professor (yet I didn’t seek his help at all), and in college I was surrounded by engineers and tech nerds. I drew back on memories of my friends giving me lectures about the most basic components such as CPUs and hard drives. The month after the Covid crisis began, I had also begun building my first gaming PC.
Despite being an English major and never needing to take actual standardized exams, studying at and graduating from a university actually gave me the vigorous discipline and study habits necessary for continuously being in that flow state of studying and making sure I didn’t slack off too hard, too much.
I was already a hard, studious student with a strong desire to rise above my peers.
The fear of failure was more of a boon than an impediment. I told all my friends that I was taking the compTIA exams and the mere idea of having to confess to failing an exam was a burning motivation to go study outside of my house every day.
By the way, don’t be scared or intimidated by how hard you heard the exam is going to be. My one friend who was a System Engineer told me “dude, you’re gonna’ pass. That test’s for boomers just getting into IT.” While his words aren’t true, that kind of casual encouragement was exactly what I needed to hear when I needed it for preparing for the second core exam.
Timeline of How I did it:
The first step I took towards actual studying was booking the test. Truly, Mike Myers was absolutely right in that “pressure makes diamonds,” as I didn’t get actual in-depth studying accomplished until I saw the clicking timer on the calendar marking down the days until my first exam. It was the exact same for my second exam- without the pressure of imminent success…or failure, I ended up going to work daily and gaming with my friends for months until I booked the second exam. Thus for each core exam I booked an exam with only four weeks available to prepare for the exam date.
Join a Discord or Online Study Group
I joined a discord and ended up in a study group with other peers trying to get into IT as well with the compTIA A plus cert. Not only did being in a group allow us to share invaluable knowledge about aspects of the exam we were unfamiliar with, it made us gauge our level of progress and understanding with others. Doing shared practice exams on streams and hearing about how others failed their first attempts at Core 1 resulted in my natural competitiveness motivating me to study harder.
Learn the Material First
The first thing I finished was watching the Professor Messer Videos from front to back. I took notes by hand, pausing a billion times per video just to copy the notes I saw on the screen. Taking notes by hand gave me mental assurance that I was making physical progress on my learning. Occasionally, I’d glance at my notes before going to bed at the end of the day, but not always. Just the mere knowledge that I jotted it down was like security and mental assurance — proof that the lesson had been covered.
It took me about a week to watch all of the Messer videos for both core 1 and core 2 each.
At first, I began the process of reading Mike Myer’s textbook cover to cover, which I borrowed from my local library, but stopped at Chapter 6, as the chapters were out of order (I realized only later that the Appendix conveniently listed the chapters to the objectives). I then treated the textbook more as a supplementary material, used to cover in detail the topics I didn’t truly understand at first glance.
By then, I had three weeks left before the actual exam.
Evaluate with Practice Tests
These were the weeks to begin doing the practice exams, two of which I bought from Messer’s website and from Jason Dion’s Udemy course. I had terrible scores, about 50–65% the first time I took each exam, and the low scores were enough to frighten me into improving these numbers. The best thing about the explanations for my wrong answers were the objective numbers provided for the question’s topic.
When there are only two weeks left before the exam, I completely shut off from entertainment. No games, no even picking up the guitar. It was going to work, then returning home and to the cafe or holing up in my room with the textbook and Messer videos.
Relearn the Material In Between Practice Tests
Every single question I got wrong, not only did I try to memorize the answer, I also immediately reviewed the Professor Messer video for the objective topic, and took notes again. This is what I call “relearning the material,” as I’m really covering in the blanks where I didn’t pay as close of an attention to in the core material during my first sitting-through of the Messer videos. Most importantly, linking questions back to their objectives was the single-handedly most important mental exercise I did for this exam. Perhaps multiple-choice exams have spoiled you in school into thinking there would be easy pull-from-the-bank questions exactly as you saw it for the actual exam just as your High school teachers and even college Professors probably did out of benevolent laziness or careless indolence. The actual A+ core exams pull from an answer bank of over 8,000 questions, the chances of you getting lucky with sheer rote memorization is slim, thus it is far better to understand the concepts.
Make Your Own “Almanac”
On blank sheets of printer paper, I began making big “cheat sheets,” listing procedural steps or port numbers, and so on. These were the simple facts that I simply had to memorize rotely, it was simply impermissible to get these wrong on the exam as they were freebies. I had about six pages of printer paper for each core exam, crammed with must-know numbers and Windows commands.
Redo Practice Tests until Perfection
As I went back and re-watched all the objectives, I highlighted or marked with a red-colored pen on the objectives sheet packet that I printed out every lesson that I was confident of understanding fully. When the objectives were almost completely marked in yellow or red check marks, I redid the tests I purchased, getting consistently higher grades with every exam and attempt. I estimate that the subsequent graded attempts were somewhere around 65%, 80–85%, then 90%-97% per exam.
But even then, I was not fully ready.
Learn the PBQs
I don’t know why I took the last few days until the exam to learn the PBQs, when in my opinion they are the most accurate representation of what an IT tech does on the field. If it was up to me, in the interest of actually educating people studying for their career, I would have the compTIA exams be composed of 50% PBQs, and 50% multiple-choice questions. Anyway, I tried to replicate the actions on my command console or virtual machine as I alt-tabbed between Professor Messer and Dion’s videos and my hands-on learning client of choice.
I did not sign up or pay for any third party lab course, although looking back, I would have signed up for one just to take considerable pressure off of my mind. In fact, instead of paying a bunch of money for the official CompTia lab simulations, I paid two Linux experts on fiverr.com to teach me Linux. In total, it cost me only 40$ (not including the tips) but it was worth it in learning a brand new OS and for preparing for questions asking about Linux!
Last-second Cramming
I don’t share the sentiment with people claiming to relax or do nothing the day before an important exam. Even my mother told me things like “it won’t make a difference;” that it’s better to be “relaxed and do something stress-free” like watching a movie or playing games. I disagreed with this study advice all my public school and college educational career, and I still do today. In an exam full of questions designed to trick and punish you for your lack of remembering the most seemingly insignificant technology or terminology, it just seemed obvious that I would take every second before the compTia A plus exam to cover any details I missed in the Myer textbook or in my notes.
Taking the Actual Exam
I didn’t eat breakfast during the first exam. I was so nervous I was having stomach cramps during that exam and thought I failed because of it. I ate two eggs and toast for my second exam. I was still nervous, but the eggs helped.
I’m the kind of test-taker that doesn’t get nervous while taking the exam itself. However, due to the number of obscure questions (which I’m certain are part of the secret “ungraded” section of the compTIA), I remember feeling concerned with the amount of questions I was flagging on the exam computer for review. Before submitting, I made sure to complete the PBQs I could not fully understand and to finalize my choices for the multiple choice questions I could not ascertain.
Seeing the “pass” on your screen is an elation that makes preparing and studying for all those weeks worth it.
Learn from your Mistakes, Remember what Worked
Don’t let anyone tell you that fear isn’t a good enough motivator, my crushing fear and dread of failing the exams, on top of my hard studying and work ethic enabled me to pass the compTIA core exams on my first try each. It took six months between my passing the first exam in October to finishing the second today, in January. I’m the first person in my study group to have been CompTIA A plus certified.
Looking back, I could have immediately booked for the second exam, but procrastinated on it because I was far more afraid of peoples’ opinions on how hard the second exam was than I was of postponing my own success and path to a future career in IT.
If you didn’t pass on your first attempt, it’s obvious you should drill questions listed from the objectives you got wrong from the printed-out sheets after your test results until you assure that you never get those topics wrong again. If you did succeed, remember what habits and approaches to studying lead to your success, and try to replicate or improve on them for future certs. After all, IT progression is built on the acquisition of certificates, and the A plus after all, is only just the beginning.
