A+ Questions

[Gumby]

At our shop, techs are required to have A+ before we will consider hiring them. The real interview is what we call the Machine From Hell. We cause 4 hardware errors and 4 OS errors to the machine, with different difficulty levels on each. Then the prospective tech is to write down what he finds and fix it if he can. It really weeds out the wanabees. And as I remember from my time on the machine, it also shows how they work under pressure.

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The problem with your machine sir is that the nut behind the wheel has a screw loose.

[bob_penfold]

Everyone here has a lot of great opinions. And a lot of good information.

But, in my opinion the A+ certification is easy if you know what you are doing. It has helped me get my foot in the door several times before getting better certs. Now I have certs coming out of my ears and do not plan to stop anytime soon. I would like to run my own consulting company some day and people take you more seriously the more letters behind your name. If you think about it from a customer's point of view. Are thay going to feel good paying $150.00 an hour for someone who is not certified. Or someone who recognized by software vendors as capable of working on thier product.

Yes there are paper people, but they will not last. They will screw up and get fired.

Just speaking from experience.

Bob Penfold, CCNA, MCSE(NT4.0), CNA, CompTIA A+

Next up MCSE (2000), Network+, iNet+, Server+, Linux+, CCA, SCNA, SCSA, and CCDA. Should be done in the next two years.

[DanDustoff]

An A+ certification gets you a job and separates the haves from the have-nots. You may have all the experience in the industry and believe that it's not necessary, but your future employer will recognize this as a lacking feature. The industry presents standards, however trivial this test may seem, and it is the standard, along with proven experience, that employers look for while searching through 150 resumes.

The best techs I used to work with weren't all certified, but knew it was something they needed, as certified newcomers who knew squat about troubleshooting would get better pay (like me). Memorization is the key to passing the test. Hours of study are involved, along with a good financial investment. Those that would choose not to become certified may unfortunately be unrecognizing to their own potential or industry necessities.

With the streamlining of hardware and the reduction of proprietary hardware-filled machines, techs don't always need to know all the old "nerdy" nuances and tricks from the Win95 and DOS 5.0 days. The floor level of knowledge has risen though, and diversified. Addendums, modifications to or qualification levels of the A+ test may be looming ahead and present the industry workers with other challenges and qualifications. With a staggering market and market growth, the A+ certification will become more than a standard. It will become a qualifier as jobs reduce and competition increases. Staying ahead with becoming certified may become staying even with the rest of the playing field.

[raptorGT]

You are now the proud owner of a brand-new Asus motherboard with the i815-EP chipset. There is only a DVD-ROM on IDE bus #1 of a possible 2 connections and configured as the "master" or "master/only drive". You've checked the cables and the red stripe is on pin-1 and the power is plugged in. During the Quick POST, you notice only the hard drive appears in the list and not the DVD-ROM. What is the best answer possible for this?

A) The drive is a piece of crap.
B) The drive is not plugged in anywhere.
C) The drive is a Sony Proprietary and is missing the OEM card.
D) The drive is a Compaq and there is a bus-mastering jumper configuration error.
E) It not compatible with this system because the system is an Apple.
F) Because the system's Direct Video Device is acting as a voicecoil actuator and creating ground loop interference with the voltage oscillator.

You have 15 seconds. Good Luck!


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SoyoTek K7VIA with AMD Athlon 750TT (7.5x133 - Iced by GlobalWin), 1024Mb PC133, 2x30Gb WD HDs, 50x CD, 8x4x32 Philips, 100Mb Netgear NIC, nVidia GeForce2 GTS 32Mb DDR, SB Live! X-Gamer, Kenwood 200W amp with twin 4-way 15" speakers, powered 10", and 2x3.5" satellites with an NEC Multisync XP21 CRT, MS Intellimouse Explorer Pro, steel-framed IBM click-touch keyboard.

[Uukla the Mok]

First off, I would like to say that I am an A+ Certified Computer Technician, and I am proud of it. However, I would have to agree that being A+ Certified does not necessarily mean that you know the types of things that an A+ Certified Computer Technician should know, it just means that you have passed the test. What means more than passing the test is how you studied or learned for it. I took a 9-month long, 10 hours per week course at a Vocational/Technical institution that included hands-on and customer-relations work. I learned not only the knowledge needed to pass the test, but the troubleshooting skills that make me viable in real-world situations. People that are A+ Certified because they took 'cram-session' classes give a bad name to the A+ Certification itself due to their general ineptitude and lack of proper troubleshooting skills.

Also, in reply to people who are complaining about the test being 'dated' (old information), I took the most recent revision and found it to be much better than what you all are describing (you don't need to know the pin outs of parallel cables, etc.).

[KTTD2000]

Hey, again folks. After reading some of the more replies I had to respond again. I am a known as the bench tech at work because my primary role is in house service. This means I work on anything and everything and have to answer customers questions as well. Most bench techs that have been around for as long as I have a great deal of knowledge. Bring me an 8088 and I'll work on it because I can. I got my A+ just because it opens doors. I had the company I used to work for purchase the book, read it over a 3 month period and then took the test. That was over 3 yrs ago. A lot of people are saying why should a good tech need to know about certain things that are on the A+ test. You should know the I/O address of all the COM ports and LPT ports, this is important stuff to know. When a customer ask you this question you are going to look real smart saying I have to look that up. Someone walks threw the door and ask for a 16X64 DIMM you better know what they are talking about. I don't call this useless information. These are things I knew before I took the test. If you are going to study for the test, know the information and retain it and use it. How many of you out there really know what a JUMPER is? Most people would say it's the little plastic thing, that little plastic thing is really called a SHUNT. Most people say the IDE controllers are on the motherboard, this too is wrong. The Controller is on the hard drive, hence the name IDE. I don't care that people are A+ cert. to be honest, it means nothing if I don't know your true ability. My mother could study for the test and pass it. She would not be a good tech though. I'm not saying learn all kinds of computer jargon so you can talk a good game. I am saying if you are in the field and if you do take the test, retain the information that you thing is the most useless because one day, it will be presented to you and when you don't have to go look it up and know the answer from your brain this will make you look good. Computers are my life, I make them my life because I'm a computer geek and damn proud of it. Certs are important and the having that stupid little A+ on your resume makes a difference. I know this first hand. If you don't fix computers because you enjoy it, you are in the wrong damn field and need a new one. I'll shut up now.

Just another A+ Bench Tech trying to make a dime in this world.

[pikachu2]

here's a good hands on test... give a tech a computer with and inertnet account set up, but with a bad modem (have replacement ready, but no driver). and have another computer standing by. hand him and old ISA multiple ide/serial/fdd/parallel controller and tell him/her to enable it as an LPT2 only. make sure that the card does not have any jumper settings indicated on the board so that the internet must be used as a tool to complete the job.

I am a 'proof is in the pudding' guy. Sure, i can admire someone for having all of the certs they want, but you have gotta have a good personality and be HONEST.
It is funny what pride in your rep and those certs can do to your relationships with people when you SCREW UP. that is the real character builder. if i'm paying somebody 150/hr to some guy because he has certs and screws up my network or loses my data.... their consulting company better be bonded, all it takes is one guy to put you in the poorhouse.

MY QUESTIONS:

1.if you have a plug and play modem that is automatically set to IRQ 5 and you have an integrated sound card that is not being detected even though it is enabled in the BIOS what could the problem be?
A-scsi card in wrong slot
B-Irq conflict
C-Bad Windows License
D-wrong driver for modem

2.how would you propose to fix the problem?

A-Buy new sound card
B-Remove Modem from 'Device manager'and reboot.
C-Physically remove modem from computer to allow the sound card to be detected.
D-Replace hard drive
E-c or d would work

3.Essay Question... You have 2 computers; 1 with windows 95, the other with windows 98se. the customer does not want the same operating systems on each computer. The customer has ROAD RUNNER CABLE service, so he as a NIC in the 98se computer. he wants the computers to share an internet connection and also share files & printers on each machine. He does not want the shared drives to be seen through the internet connection.----- WHAT EQUIPMENT ARE YOU GOING TO NEED? including total #ethernet cables. What protocols are you going to enable and or disable to accomplish this task?


[This message has been edited by pikachu2 (edited October 03, 2001).]

[Britster]

I had a job candidate in today as a matter of fact. I ran him through my standard aptitude tests.

Firstly I asked him to complete the "Computer Technician" Brainbench.com test. This test is quite difficult to do well in if you don't have any real experience.

Secondly, I gave him a machine that I reserve just for testing candidates. It's an old Compaq Deskpro 5133 - yuk!

I told him the machine refuses to POST (look for consufused look - POST?). The hard drive has Win95 on it and I would like you to test the sound card and modem.

It had a bad SIMM - Basic test - Will highlight his testing methology.

I had also disabled the hard drive controller from within the BIOS - Medium test - Not only does he need to be able to diagnose the fault, he also needs to know that a Compaq's diagnostics are on a partition on the hard disk so he'll need to create a diags disk to to re-enable the controller.

The modem was an older Lucent chipset based PCI WinModem - Great test - Only someone with serious experience will know the Compaq/Lucent issue (It's great to watch the candidate set up a dial up account, click connect and watch as the machine reboots itself as the on-card speaker carries on making sound. Oh? You think the modem is bad? Try this one then - Hand him another Lucent modem).

For the record: Today's candidate performed excellently and we now have a new tech.

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Does the damn thing work - NO,
Did you screw with it - YES,
Does anyone know - NO,
HIDE IT!

[tgelvin]

I took my A+ Feb 2000, and basically that should tell all right there... CompTIA has updated their tests and now if I took it I would have to study more for Windows 2000 and NT4 rather than Windows 3.xx... this is where all the IRQ questions are coming from... any good experienced tech should know this by now... Win9x,ME,2K,NT4 all do a pretty good job assigning IRQs for the most part, but knowing them for the older machines (which are still being used and repaired) is still a good idea.

However, the A+ is just that it was made for.. a beginners cert... It was designed for the techs that HAS an entry level job for the past 6 months... not for us EXPERIENCED techs with umpteen years... but now it seems like that should be changed to something like an ENTRY level employee that has ZERO experience. This way as an employer, I would know they have the basic knowledge and now it's time to give them some experience and have them work for two years then take an ADVANCED A+ test that can only be sponsered by the employer. Like all of you employers, you know that if you hire someone that has the A+ cert you're gonna have to teach them everything you already know... so why not do it this way??

Another change I would like to see would be the change in the state/federal laws... Car mechanics must be ASE certified by law in some states... so should computer technicians... Why??? to further weed out the ID10t that worked on the system before me.

There should be more customer service questions to the A+ test...

That my 2bits worth!

Tim
http://www.timscomputershop.com

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*JUST DO IT AND BE PREPARED*

[Evilmage]

I think the A+ exam should include situation questions.

The computer loads up with the error cannot find reference dude.dll

What do you do?

Better than more or less worthless questions like, what is the address of the parallel port?

[rkwlaw]

I have noticed that alot of you think that the A+ tests are no longer valid for today. I agree with you, but it does give you a good base from which to start. If it is as easy as some of you say, why have some of you failed it? The older hardware and software were alot harder to work on then what you guys have today. I have worked in the computer industry since 8088's were popular. Plug and Play was Plug and Pray back then. Maybe the test has to be easy to accomodate the new breed of technician.

[iateyourcat]

You boot your machine and it says "cannot find ntloader."

You

a) Wipe the drive and reinstall from the restore cd.

b) Replace the motherboard, hard drive, cdrom, floppy, memory, processor and finally all the cables.

c) Stare at if for two hours and give it to another tech.

d) Remove the disk from the floppy disk drive.

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=-iateyourcat-=

[Hippie_Techs]

<font face="Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva" size="2">Originally posted by bigcrit:
I agree with most of the above. The tests are out dated. They lack the need to have real world experience. As far as bench tech's ?? Well I'm not a bench tech...ooooohhhh they must have an abundance of knowledge! Unfortunately most bench techs I deal with are limited to say the least. As I have noticed by most of the posts angry too. Just because you can;'t pas the test doesn't mean it's weak. I am a Network Administrator for my company and started out doing desktop support and I WOULD take a newbie A+ Tech to work for me. At the very least they show the drive to succeed and the willingness to try and ultimately acclompplish something! unlike arrogant wannabe's who claim to be Guru's. I don't mean to offend the masses who post here but....The industry requires certs and if you get passed over for someone with a cert than DON"T COMPLAIN you are all aware and most of you have been warned by your employers to get your certs. Everyone here sounds like all those LOSERS who complain about paper MCSE's. They claim that the cert has no value....well I say you get the cert too and increase it's value.....after all you have all this wisdom. Unfortunately you waste evryone's time with your whining because.

A. Your lazy
B. You aren't capable of passing the test.
C. You lack the skills
D. Your stuck in a deadend and are afraid to do something.

So for everyone trying to get certified. Ignore these nay sayers. One day you'll be there boss.

My 2 cents.

</font>

I don't mean to offend the masses who post here but....
I think it was a little too late at this point to say this. You offended me. I am a bench tech and proud of it. These posts were intended to be a sounding board for constructive criticism about the A+ Cert. While some of the other techs chose to sound a little angry, they didn't direct it at anyone specifically. You chose to lump us all together as "arrogant wannabe's who claim to be Guru's". Not only that, but you posted it twice. I suggest you tone down your posts and try not to be so negative. Some of us here are actually quite good at what we do and we don't like being flamed for no good reason. So in the future, try to think before you post. There are real people on the other side of Cyberspace.

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In the immortal words of Socrates, "I drank what?"