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JohnO
Guest
|
 Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 12:40 am Post subject: Good Riddance, 2003 A+ Exams |
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For anyone keeping score, the 2003 exams were crap. Good riddance to
the Core and OS.
:-)
More seriously, I just sent 68 of the top high school and college
computer maintenance students through the new 2006 A+ exams. (The
exams are part of the SkillsUSA Championships national computer repair
contest.)
I've been doing this for seven or eight years, and every year the
number of students that pass is right around 75%. This year, 95% of
them passed. The key is that these students spent the entire school
year preparing for the 2003 exams, and had no idea they would be
seeing the new exams. Yet, 95%. No way these students are suddenly
smarter than last year. BTW, the average score for all exams was 815!
Commercial Plug Warning!!!
I owe CompTIA and Pearson VUE a plug for helping make these exams
happen. Thanks, guys.
-John O |
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Sean Cleary
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 7:03 am Post subject: Re: Good Riddance, 2003 A+ Exams |
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On Jul 2, 12:40 pm, JohnO <t696...@yahoo.com> wrote:
| Quote: | For anyone keeping score, the 2003 exams were crap. Good riddance to
the Core and OS.
:-)
More seriously, I just sent 68 of the top high school and college
computer maintenance students through the new 2006 A+ exams. (The
exams are part of the SkillsUSA Championships national computer repair
contest.)
I've been doing this for seven or eight years, and every year the
number of students that pass is right around 75%. This year, 95% of
them passed. The key is that these students spent the entire school
year preparing for the 2003 exams, and had no idea they would be
seeing the new exams. Yet, 95%. No way these students are suddenly
smarter than last year. BTW, the average score for all exams was 815!
Commercial Plug Warning!!!
I owe CompTIA and Pearson VUE a plug for helping make these exams
happen. Thanks, guys.
-John O
|
wild! maybe I should try again. Do you have any study books or courses
you could recommend? |
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JohnO
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:34 pm Post subject: Re: Good Riddance, 2003 A+ Exams |
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On Jul 3, 11:31 pm, Sean Cleary <seanearly...@hotmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | On Jul 2, 12:40 pm, JohnO <t696...@yahoo.com> wrote:
For anyone keeping score, the 2003 exams were crap. Good riddance to
the Core and OS.
:-)
More seriously, I just sent 68 of the top high school and college
computer maintenance students through the new 2006 A+ exams. (The
exams are part of the SkillsUSA Championships national computer repair
contest.)
I've been doing this for seven or eight years, and every year the
number of students that pass is right around 75%. This year, 95% of
them passed. The key is that these students spent the entire school
year preparing for the 2003 exams, and had no idea they would be
seeing the new exams. Yet, 95%. No way these students are suddenly
smarter than last year. BTW, the average score for all exams was 815!
Commercial Plug Warning!!!
I owe CompTIA and Pearson VUE a plug for helping make these exams
happen. Thanks, guys.
-John O
wild! maybe I should try again. Do you have any study books or courses
you could recommend?
|
But of course! Of the five I've reviewed, Mike Meyers' newest A+ book
is the best. I like the way he breaks the chapters apart for the
various exams, then has a section that goes beyond the cert. Nicely
done, and he covers all the subjects well.
As for test prep, well, I can only recommend some stuff that I helped
create...www.heathkit.com. You can't order online, but if you call the
800 number they will sell you just the CD. Not cheap, but darn good.
-John O |
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Patty
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:48 am Post subject: Re: Good Riddance, 2003 A+ Exams |
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On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:34:09 -0700, JohnO wrote:
| Quote: | On Jul 3, 11:31 pm, Sean Cleary <seanearly...@hotmail.com> wrote:
On Jul 2, 12:40 pm, JohnO <t696...@yahoo.com> wrote:
For anyone keeping score, the 2003 exams were crap. Good riddance to
the Core and OS.
:-)
More seriously, I just sent 68 of the top high school and college
computer maintenance students through the new 2006 A+ exams. (The
exams are part of the SkillsUSA Championships national computer repair
contest.)
I've been doing this for seven or eight years, and every year the
number of students that pass is right around 75%. This year, 95% of
them passed. The key is that these students spent the entire school
year preparing for the 2003 exams, and had no idea they would be
seeing the new exams. Yet, 95%. No way these students are suddenly
smarter than last year. BTW, the average score for all exams was 815!
Commercial Plug Warning!!!
I owe CompTIA and Pearson VUE a plug for helping make these exams
happen. Thanks, guys.
-John O
wild! maybe I should try again. Do you have any study books or courses
you could recommend?
But of course! Of the five I've reviewed, Mike Meyers' newest A+ book
is the best. I like the way he breaks the chapters apart for the
various exams, then has a section that goes beyond the cert. Nicely
done, and he covers all the subjects well.
As for test prep, well, I can only recommend some stuff that I helped
create...www.heathkit.com. You can't order online, but if you call the
800 number they will sell you just the CD. Not cheap, but darn good.
-John O
|
Do you have anything for Network+ which I'd like to take sometime in the
near future?
Patty
A+ 2006 |
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Barry Watzman
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:37 am Post subject: Re: Good Riddance, 2003 A+ Exams |
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I teach a college course in both PC hardware (it's the hardware half of
A+, without the software) and Networking (it is, literally, a Network+
certification course). I'm A+ & Net+ certified (plus quite a few other
certifications), a degreed EE and I've been in the computer industry for
more than 30 years.
For the hardware course, we were using the Mike Meyers "Managing and
Troubleshooting PCs" book. This book was TERRIBLE; it is full of
errors, it made me cringe. We have switched books for the upcoming fall
semester (to a textbook by Jean Andrews), and in all fairness, there is
a newer edition of the Mike Meyers text out also (I hope to God they
fixed all the errors as well as updating it, which it needed, it was
based on the 2003 exam). Also in all fairness, this is NOT the Mike
Meyers A+ book, this is a course textbook and lab book also. But I have
used (and been happy with) the Mike Meyers A+ books in the past, and I
was aghast at just how many errors this particular textbook had, plus it
was outdated.
For the Network course, we are using the Sybex A+ book. I'm not crazy
about it, but my issues are not so much that it has errors in it, but
I'm just not crazy about it's approach, I think that there are probably
better books out there. To me, it seems to fail to present overall
context, it jumps in with some of the hardest material in the early
chapters, it uses terms which won't be explained until later chapters,
it just lacks a good "flow" of the material for a person with ZERO
background in the material to begin with.
When I did my own Network+ exam (too many years ago) I used the Mike
Meyers book which I thought was pretty good at the time. Actually,
although it's now very old and it was never a Network+ book, one of the
better books I've studied networking from was an old Microsoft book for
what used to be a Microsoft exam called "Network Essentials". The exam
and book no longer exist.
JohnO wrote:
| Quote: | For anyone keeping score, the 2003 exams were crap. Good riddance to
the Core and OS.
:-)
More seriously, I just sent 68 of the top high school and college
computer maintenance students through the new 2006 A+ exams. (The
exams are part of the SkillsUSA Championships national computer repair
contest.)
I've been doing this for seven or eight years, and every year the
number of students that pass is right around 75%. This year, 95% of
them passed. The key is that these students spent the entire school
year preparing for the 2003 exams, and had no idea they would be
seeing the new exams. Yet, 95%. No way these students are suddenly
smarter than last year. BTW, the average score for all exams was 815!
Commercial Plug Warning!!!
I owe CompTIA and Pearson VUE a plug for helping make these exams
happen. Thanks, guys.
-John O
|
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JohnO
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 5:49 pm Post subject: Re: Good Riddance, 2003 A+ Exams |
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| Quote: | I teach a college course in both PC hardware (it's the hardware half of
A+, without the software) and Networking (it is, literally, a Network+
certification course). I'm A+ & Net+ certified (plus quite a few other
certifications), a degreed EE and I've been in the computer industry for
more than 30 years.
For the hardware course, we were using the Mike Meyers "Managing and
Troubleshooting PCs" book. This book was TERRIBLE; it is full of
errors, it made me cringe.
|
We've heard the same thing about that one from instructors, too. At
first glance it has all the right classroom elements, but the bugs...
I speak with Mike regularly, and I'll have to ask him what's the deal
with that title.
| Quote: | For the Network course, we are using the Sybex A+ book. I'm not crazy
about it, but my issues are not so much that it has errors in it, but
I'm just not crazy about it's approach, I think that there are probably
better books out there. To me, it seems to fail to present overall
context, it jumps in with some of the hardest material in the early
chapters, it uses terms which won't be explained until later chapters,
it just lacks a good "flow" of the material for a person with ZERO
background in the material to begin with.
|
(You meant Sybex *Net+* book, right?)
I think many (most?) of the books aimed at the x+ certs do this. Sybex
is definitely hit or miss...their latest A+ book desperately needed a
revision before it was released.
| Quote: |
When I did my own Network+ exam (too many years ago) I used the Mike
Meyers book which I thought was pretty good at the time. Actually,
although it's now very old and it was never a Network+ book, one of the
better books I've studied networking from was an old Microsoft book for
what used to be a Microsoft exam called "Network Essentials". The exam
and book no longer exist.
|
I read that one too, and I agree it was a great book. IIRC it opened
my eyes to what all that net tech stuff was all about. MS Press used
to buy content from someone else, but in this case I don't remember
who actually wrote it.
-John O |
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JohnO
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 5:51 pm Post subject: Re: Good Riddance, 2003 A+ Exams |
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|
On Jul 5, 4:03 pm, Patty <p...@iainttellin.com> wrote:
| Quote: | On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:34:09 -0700, JohnO wrote:
On Jul 3, 11:31 pm, Sean Cleary <seanearly...@hotmail.com> wrote:
On Jul 2, 12:40 pm, JohnO <t696...@yahoo.com> wrote:
For anyone keeping score, the 2003 exams were crap. Good riddance to
the Core and OS.
:-)
More seriously, I just sent 68 of the top high school and college
computer maintenance students through the new 2006 A+ exams. (The
exams are part of the SkillsUSA Championships national computer repair
contest.)
I've been doing this for seven or eight years, and every year the
number of students that pass is right around 75%. This year, 95% of
them passed. The key is that these students spent the entire school
year preparing for the 2003 exams, and had no idea they would be
seeing the new exams. Yet, 95%. No way these students are suddenly
smarter than last year. BTW, the average score for all exams was 815!
Commercial Plug Warning!!!
I owe CompTIA and Pearson VUE a plug for helping make these exams
happen. Thanks, guys.
-John O
wild! maybe I should try again. Do you have any study books or courses
you could recommend?
But of course! Of the five I've reviewed, Mike Meyers' newest A+ book
is the best. I like the way he breaks the chapters apart for the
various exams, then has a section that goes beyond the cert. Nicely
done, and he covers all the subjects well.
As for test prep, well, I can only recommend some stuff that I helped
create...www.heathkit.com. You can't order online, but if you call the
800 number they will sell you just the CD. Not cheap, but darn good.
-John O
Do you have anything for Network+ which I'd like to take sometime in the
near future?
Patty
A+ 2006
|
Sure we do. I'm not as well-versed on Net+ as I am on A+, but I do
know that our Network+ test prep is pretty strong stuff.
-John O |
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MF
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:09 am Post subject: Re: Good Riddance, 2003 A+ Exams |
|
|
"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:468db922$0$24695$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
| Quote: | I teach a college course in both PC hardware (it's the hardware half of
A+, without the software) and Networking (it is, literally, a Network+
certification course). I'm A+ & Net+ certified (plus quite a few other
certifications), a degreed EE and I've been in the computer industry for
more than 30 years.
For the hardware course, we were using the Mike Meyers "Managing and
Troubleshooting PCs" book. This book was TERRIBLE; it is full of errors,
it made me cringe. We have switched books for the upcoming fall
semester (to a textbook by Jean Andrews), and in all fairness, there is a |
newer edition of the Mike Meyers text out also (I hope to God they fixed all
the errors as well as updating it, which it needed, it was based on the
2003 exam). Also in all fairness, this is NOT the Mike Meyers A+ book,
this is a course textbook and lab book also. But I have
| Quote: | used (and been happy with) the Mike Meyers A+ books in the past, and I was
aghast at just how many errors this particular textbook had, plus it was
outdated.
For the Network course, we are using the Sybex A+ book. I'm not crazy
about it, but my issues are not so much that it has errors in it, but I'm
just not crazy about it's approach, I think that there are probably
better books out there. To me, it seems to fail to present overall
context, it jumps in with some of the hardest material in the early
chapters, it uses terms which won't be explained until later chapters, it
just lacks a good "flow" of the material for a person with ZERO background
in the material to begin with.
When I did my own Network+ exam (too many years ago) I used the Mike
Meyers book which I thought was pretty good at the time. Actually,
although it's now very old and it was never a Network+ book, one of the
better books I've studied networking from was an old Microsoft book for
what used to be a Microsoft exam called "Network Essentials". The exam
and book no longer exist.
snip
|
Net Essentials - YES! One of the best books/exams on basic networking ever.
In Microsoft's endless stupidity, gone. .....
I used the Sybex, David Groth, Net + book for a couple classes in a
previous incarnation of the test and thought was quite good. It was
deceptively simple and to the point - yet covered everything on that
particular test. I'm disappointed to hear that Sybex isn't maintaining its
level of quality.
I used the Jean Andrews book to get my A+, 9 years ago- not that long ago,
is it? It was the best. But I also used Scott Mueller's book - while I
wouldn't want to teach from it, Mueller was da bomb.
I looked at Jean Andrews book for the 03 objectives - it wasn't the best.
Hope it has been improved.
Courseware to avoid in my opinion is Element K - and thus any class that is
going to use that courseware.
Regards
Mike |
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