Subtitles of the Movie

If you're totally brand new to the A Plus Certification, there are some basic questions you may have about the ah actual testing process and let me go through them with you right here. First of all there are no prerequisites for this test. You don't have to hold any other certification or have had any other kind of you know special experience or anything. Ah, you just have to go take the test and that involves passing two exams. Now these exams are going to be multiple choice and if you remember from high school or college, that's, this helps a little bit because with a multiple choice question you can usually see, and generally there're four choices on these questions, A, B, C, and D. You can always locate one answer that's obviously not right. Usually you can locate a second answer that's probably not right and it comes down to a 50-50 choice. And if you really know your subject matter the correct answer just jumps out at you. So for the most part these things are multiple choice tests. Now, you do need to be aware that occasionally A Plus has used adaptive testing. Now adaptive testing, if you've never had one of these, they terrify everybody but they really shouldn't. Ah, I've taken these things on the Microsoft side, some of the old Microsoft Exchange tests used to be adaptive and, and I found I loved them because with an adaptive test they will ask you a question on a certain subject matter and if you pass it then they don't, they tend to not ask you any more questions on that subject matter because they've asked you a certain level of difficulty and after you've satisfied that difficulty level then they assume, Okay, well this clown knows what he's talking about when it comes to printers so we won't ask him any more printer questions. The problems with an adaptive exam is you can tell where you're weak and where you're not doing so well because if you get a question about a printer and then you get another question about a printer, and then two questions later you get another question about a printer, well this kind of indicates to you that, Hey, wait a minute, maybe I've missed those first two and they're still trying to determine you know whether I know what in the heck I'm talking about when it comes to printers. And that does put pressure on you so when you get third or fourth question it kind of starts to put pressure on you. Now what I do like about adaptives, ah, one of the Microsoft exams on ah Exchange ah 5.5, I passed the exam in like five minutes. I mean I was only sitting in the chair five minutes because as they asked me a certain level of difficulty questions I had had a lot of hands-on with Exchange and I knew it, and so, they just, I, you know, it was weird. Ah, after five minutes the thing started scoring my test and I thought, oh, great. I failed this thing. And boom, I passed it. So adaptives, don't let them scare you. However, right now as of when this video is being made, they are using multiple choice and not adaptive. But I just wanted you to know what that was. Now. When you get ready to achieve your A Plus certification you need to be aware there are three tracks to this certification. First there's the primary track and there are two exams required on any track that you do. Okay. The first one is the essentials exam, and you will take this in every track. The essentials exam tests your ability to install, configure and maintain standard PC technology. And of course this is hard drives, memory, motherboard, that sort of thing. Just standard PC stuff. Now. The second test that you will take on the primary is the 220-602 or IT Technician Exam, or you may hear it called the IT Tech Exam. This is the same as Essentials, and I'm going to show you ah some of the breakdowns a little bit later on, but there's just a little more focus on diagnostics and troubleshooting because an IT technician has to take a sick machine and figure out what's wrong with it pretty quickly. Okay. So the next track is the Help Desk Technician. Now you're going to take the Essentials exam, and then you'll take the 220-603 Help Desk Technician exam and this concentrates on the skills you need as a Help Desk Technician. Now, one thing you need to be aware of here. A Help Desk technician usually takes a phone call from an angry, upset, irritated user and so, one in five questions on this test, or a full 20 percent of this test, involves communicating with people who need assistance, disarming people who are mad, how are you going to deal when somebody calls you up and the first thing they do is curse you out because their computer's not working. If you get, you know, if you, if you return any kind of conflict, or if you get confrontational with them it's going to be real tough to help them, and, and get them to where they need to be. The third track is the Depot Technician. Now, on this track you will take the Essentials exam, and then you would take the 220-604 Depot Technician exam. This is targeted toward those people who work behind the scenes. Maybe you're in a repair shop and somebody out front take the computers and they just hand them to you and say, This is, they, you know, they say it won't do that and that sort of thing. If you're in a large company there may be Help Desk technicians but then there's a place where they deliver PCs, or, or, you know that sort of thing, ah toward actual repairs. Now understand you've don't have to take out three of these. Pick one track, okay, and also on the Depot there's a strong concentration on the hardware there. Now. Which track should you take? Pick whichever one you want. You only have to do any one of the tracks which means pass two exams. Now, the general rule out there is, take the primary track. Just do the primary track unless you've got an employer or a potential employer that says, We're looking for a Help Desk technician. If you had the Help Desk, you know, track of the A Plus, I believe I can get you on here. Well, in that case, take that track. But for the most part, just take the primary track, and, and be done with it because once you pass two exams you're A Plus certified. You don't have to update this, you don't have to come back and retest or anything. Once you're A Plus, you're A Plus, and most employers that I've ever dealt with don't really question any farther than, Did you pass the exam? Another thing is they won't ask you for your score. Ah, they won't say, Well, did you make an 86 or a 93, or whatever. Ah, this is a pass-fail. So once you've passed, you've passed. So that's the testing basics and a little later on we'll get into where do I go test and what exactly does that look like.