CompTIA A_ Certification All-In-One Exam Guide, Seventh Edition - Michael Meyers [14]
I have broken most of the chapters into four distinct parts:
Historical/Conceptual Topics that are not on the CompTIA A+ exams but will help you understand more clearly what is on the CompTIA A+ exams.
Essentials Topics that clearly fit under the CompTIA A+ Essentials exam domains.
Practical Application Topics that clearly fit under the CompTIA A+ Practical Application exam domains.
Beyond A+ More advanced issues that probably will not be on the CompTIA A+ exams—yet.
* * *
NOTE Not all chapters will have all four sections.
The beginning of each of these areas is clearly marked with a large banner that looks like this:
Historical/Conceptual
Those of you who fall into the Old Tech group may want to skip everything except the Essentials and Practical Application areas in each chapter. After reading those sections, jump immediately to the questions at the end of the chapter. The end-of-chapter questions concentrate on information in the Essentials and Practical Application sections. If you run into problems, review the Historical/Conceptual sections in that chapter. Note that you may need to skip back to previous chapters to get the Historical/Conceptual information you need for later chapters.
After going through every chapter as described, Old Techs can move directly to testing their knowledge by using the free practice exams on the CD-ROM that accompanies the book. Once you start scoring above 90%, you’re ready to take the exams. If you’re a New Tech—or if you’re an Old Tech who wants the full learning experience this book can offer—start by reading the book, the whole book, as though you were reading a novel, from page one to the end without skipping around. Because so many computer terms and concepts build on each other, skipping around greatly increases the odds that you will become confused and end up closing the book and firing up your favorite PC game. Not that I have anything against PC games, but unfortunately that skill is not useful for the CompTIA A+ exams!
Your goal on this first read is to understand concepts, the whys behind the hows. Having a PC nearby as you read is helpful so you can stop and inspect the PC to see a piece of hardware or how a particular concept manifests in the real world. As you read about floppy drives, for example, inspect the cables. Do they look like the ones in the book? Is there a variation? Why? It is imperative that you understand why you are doing something, not just how to do it on one particular system under one specific set of conditions. Neither the exams nor real life as a PC tech works that way.
If you’re reading this book as part of a managing and troubleshooting PCs class rather than a certification-prep course, I highly recommend going the New Tech route, even if you have a decent amount of experience. The book contains a lot of details that can trip you up if you focus only on the test-specific sections of the chapters. Plus, your program might stress historical and conceptual knowledge as well as practical, hands-on skills.
The CompTIA A+ certification exams assume that you have basic user skills. The exams really try to trick you with questions on processes that you may do every day and not think much about. Here’s a classic: “To move a file from the C:\DATA folder to the D:\ drive using Windows Explorer, what key must you hold down while dragging the file?” If you can answer that without going to your keyboard and trying a few likely keys, you’re better than most techs! In the real world, you can try a few wrong answers before you hit on the right one, but for the exams, you have to know it. Whether Old Tech or New Tech, make sure you are proficient at user-level Windows skills, including the following:
Recognizing all the components of the standard Windows desktop (Start menu, notification area, etc.)
Manipulating windows—resizing,