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I just took the A+ a couple weeks ago. There were no modern questions at all on it. You'll be fine.
None on DDR3. Nothing on Windows 7. The only thing about Vista on mine (the q's are random) were "Where is the location of the users folder on Vista" and it gave you choices. Of course the correct answer is C:\users\%username%
It was a made up question demonstrating the awkwardness of some of those that you will see on the test. There were only a couple of these Q's on the test anyways.
Spend your time brushing up on the skills you want to use in a new job. The A+ pretty much gets you in the door at a retail store working in their Geek Squad or equivalent. If you are looking at going into corporate IT, choose a skillset and learn it, so you can accurately portray that knowledge in an interview.
Then you haven't been job searching for anything above a super-entry level IT position. Granted, I'll give you that some things vary geographically, but I've done a fair amount of interviewing in my career, on both sides of the table, including my own job searches for Exec level positions, down to the entry-level tech support job my wife has now. There's nothing laughable about it...that's just the way the job market's been for the past 6 years or so that I've cared about it. If all you have is the A+...you have nothing substantial and will be passed over for most jobs. If you have more than just the A+ such as a defined skillset or experience, they will outweigh the A+ anyway.
That can be the case some times where some kid has an A+ with zero experience. But as I pointed out, that's not always the case. I've seen several positions which require 5-10 years, and A+ or equivalent that pay well over 50k. If it wasn't required, they wouldn't say 'required'.
Not always. One of the first lessons we always taught in internviewing and resume writing was that the job's "requirements" were for their absolute ideal candidate...and not everything is set in stone. When I used to do the interviewing from the employer side of the table, I would gladly consider people who didn't meet all the requirements. What you know, and how you came to know it are more important that what papers or certs you can show me. When my wife was job searching three years ago for entry level, you still didn't see A+ mentioned that often. She has no cert at all, and had no trouble getting interviews for jobs that "required" them. In fact, her current job she's had since then "required" it.
I just passed both A+ exams. I can tell you that most of my first exam didn't even really ask me about ports and IRQs, everything was pretty much situation-based. Most of what you have to know is how to actually solve problems, what steps to take, and where certain tools and utilities are located in 2K, XP and Vista. I found that my first test, the Essentials test, was more than half very much just like the Practical test. I got 840 (93%) on both. I found that my A+ class and studying what I was told to study by study guides actually helped me little to not at all. The practice exams from ProLogic came the closest to simulating the actual exams, so look those up. They're legit and I'm not a spambot
"COME ON! All 4 of those are correct depending on the situation! CompTIA has their own opinion on which one is correct. So expect BS Q's that I partially believe are there simply so people do not score 100%."
^ Agreed. Many answers I just felt like I was guessing, hoping that CompTIA agreed with me on what was best practice. Like I mentioned though, the PrepLogic simulations get you in track with CompTIA's thinking of how things should be done.
Well, take it from me - You won't see a question like that on the exam, so don't worry about it. There are no true/false/matter of opinion questions on the A+, it's all 4 question multiple choice. It also sounds like you need to find a different instructor if possible; somebody who would pick that kind of argument with you has probably fed you some other B.S information as well.I was slightly discouraged when I heard about having to retake the test every 3 years, but honestly, it really shouldn't be an issue as long as you stay on top of things.
Oh, and talk about BS questions, I was taking a prep test, and one of the questions was "Intel is generally more reliable and performs better than AMD. True or False?" Honestly... how the hell do you answer that? I put true because right now, Intel currently owns the performance crown in BOTH the enthusiast/high-end price segment AND the midrange/mainstream segment (Last I checked, SB Core i3s were on par with AMDs Athlon II x4s in applications that weren't heavily optimized for multiple cores or threads, namely Photoshop and such), and the answer was marked wrong. When I tried to contest the question with the instructor, the guy called me an Intel fanboy, despite the fact that I own an even number of Processors from both manufacturers, then said something about how AMD kicked Intel's trash back in 2004, but the test did not say "Intel has ALWAYS been better than AMD. True or False?". It irked me to say the least, and I've been needing to vent. Maybe he just can't stand a 17 year old contesting his knowledge in front of the class.
. ... I'm glad I got it though.
Because later down the road, you should be certified in something else besides A+. The only reason to recertify in most cases is if your job requires it. The rest is more effectively learned via experience.