I got my A+ in less than a month!
Hey y'all, I just passed my Core 2 this morning and wanted to share how my experience was with passing both exams. It took me less than 4 weeks to pass both, about 2 weeks for each Core. Started studying for Core 1 on 1/22/2025 and got certified on 2/14/202. Here's what I did:
**Core 1 (1101):*\* I started by going to the library and asking if they have free access to Udemy, and they did! So I got a library card and got to studying. I used Professor Messer's and it was a pleasure to watch his lectures. He has great personality and good pacing. I would play the lesson's driving to and from work and would rewatch at home if needed. I then took Dion's practice exams which went like this:
- Practice Test 1: 73%
- Practice Test 2: 83%
- Practice Test 3: 82%
At this point, I just studied flashcards and used the CompTIA A+ study app (not offical) to study ports and some networking stuff like IP addresses. Then watched a CompTIA A+ Core 1 Exam Cram video on the way to the testing center. I took the actual Exam on 1/31/2025 and passed with a 720.
**Core 2 (1102):*\* After passing Core 1, I started studying for Core 2 immediately. But this time I used Andrew Ramdayal instead of Messer since his class was shorter lol. I began by taking a practice exam from Dion to get a baseline, which I scored 63% on. Then I watched the entire class from Andrew, taking notes as we went a long. I did this during 10 days. Then for the last 4 days, I took a practice exam everyday and studied the answers that I got wrong. All through Dions Practice Exams and my scores were:
- Practice Test 1: 63% (86% after a retake 2 weeks later)
- Practice Test 2: 71%
- Practice Test 3: 76%
- Practice Test 4: 76%
- Practice Test 5: 82%
- Practice Test 6: 90%
The morning of, I watched a 50 minute Practice Exam on YouTube and drove there, took the exam and passed with a 751!
Core 2 PBQ Tip:
The first PBQ was a set of 3 computers with Host, Domain, Network, and GPO as blank and I needed to fill them all. When you click on each computer, a CMD opens up but I couldn't remember exactly which commands to use. Then I remembered the help /? command which gave me everything and I started using commands like ipconfig, hostname, gpresult to get all the information and just filled them in once done.
I don't work in IT, but have had experience building PCs growing up. This was a hard certification to get because of all the info you need to retain but it was a great experience overall. Hope your journey goes as well as mine did. and BTW, I was SWEATING during both exams lol.