-: Welcome to this course on the CompTIA A+ 220-1101
or the Core 1 certification exam.
This certification
is considered an entry level certification
for technical professionals who configure,
operate and troubleshoot desktops, laptops, tablets,
mobile devices, wearables, smart devices,
networking equipment, virtualization
and cloud computing services within their careers.
Now the A+ certification
is used to validate your entry level competency
as a proven problem solver
with the ability to think on your feet
and perform critical IT operations and support tasks
in today's modern digital enterprise and workplaces.
As we go through this course and prepare you for the exam,
you're going to learn the technical knowledge and skills
that are required to support a growing hybrid
and remote workforce using cloud-based technologies
as well as on-premise hardware and software solutions.
You're going to be able to build, configure, operate
and support desktop and server hardware
as well as mobile devices
like smartphones, tablets, smart watches, and laptops.
In addition to all of that, you're also going to be introduced
to a wide array of Internet of Things devices or IoT devices
that have vastly increased
in their usage in our work environments.
Now, the A+ certification is designed
as an entry level certification
for people who are trying to get their first position
within the IT support industry.
Most candidates who sit for this exam
have no experience or background in IT.
So I'm going to be sure to take things very slowly
as we build upon your knowledge
across all five domains of the A+ Core 1 exam.
The level of knowledge expected from you on test day
is the equivalent to that
of someone who's been working in the field
as a help desk support technician,
desktop support technician, field service technician
or another type of IT support professional
with about nine to 12 months of hands-on experience.
But don't worry.
As we go through this course together,
I'm going to give you lots of opportunities
to practice what you're learning
and gain experience very quickly
by performing hands-on demonstrations
that you can replicate yourself at home as well.
Now, the CompTIA A+ exam does not have any prerequisite
because this is considered
the first professional level certification
in the IT operations and cyber security career pathways.
Now on the A+ exam, they are not going to assume
that you have knowledge from other certifications
or workplace experience before you sit for this exam.
Instead, you're simply expected
to review the 28 exam objectives
from the CompTIA, A+ Core 1 exam objectives.
Now these are spread out across five domains
or areas of knowledge
that you're going to receive questions on
when you sit for your official certification exam.
Domain one is known as mobile devices,
and it makes up 15% of your exam questions.
This domain is focused on your ability
to install and configure laptops
and other mobile devices such as smartphones,
tablets, and wearables,
as well as your ability to support applications
on these various devices
and to ensure connectivity for your end users.
The second domain is known as networking,
and it's going to make up 20% of your exam questions.
This domain is focused on your ability
to explain the types of networks and connections
that are available in the workplace.
This includes TCPIP, wifi,
small office and home office equipment and configurations
and much more.
As we go through this domain,
we're going to be focused on both your internal network
which is known as the LAN or local area network
as well as your external network connectivity,
things like your cable modem, fiber modem
or other types of internet connections.
When we get to domain three,
we're going to be focused on hardware,
and this is going to make up 25% of your exam questions.
This domain is focused on your ability to identify,
use and connect hardware components and devices,
including how different devices are used
to support a remote or hybrid workforce.
When you think about this domain,
I want you to be thinking about motherboards and processors
and memory and storage drives and expansion cards
and things like that
and how we combine all of those together
to create a functioning computer, workstation or server.
Domain four is virtualization and the cloud,
and this is going to be 11% of your exam questions.
Now this domain is actually the shortest
and smallest domain on the exam,
but it is critically important
in today's modern enterprise networks
because most organizations have placed a heavy emphasis
on migrating their servers and systems
and data centers into the cloud.
You're going to be expected to be able to compare and contrast
different cloud computing deployment
and delivery models, as well as your ability
to understand how virtualization works
to support these cloud-based architectures.
The fifth and final domain
is known as hardware and network troubleshooting,
and it makes up 29% of your exam questions.
This domain is focused on your ability
to troubleshoot real world devices
and network issues very quickly and effectively
using the CompTIA's seven step troubleshooting method
and applying your knowledge
from all of the other four domains
in order to answer questions
about how you might solve a given problem
or identify a particular cause
for an issue being experienced by your end users.
Now, as we go through this course,
we're not going to be covering these five domains
and their 28 objectives that are listed underneath them
in the same order presented
in the official CompTIA exam objectives,
which you can download from lesson than two of this course.
Instead, we're going to cover each of these objectives
in what I consider to be a more logical order
for you to learn the concepts
as we go through this course together.
Now, as we move through the course,
we're going to start out by covering the hardware components
in a workstation or server.
This is going to be covered in sections two
through section seven,
then we're going to move into virtualization
and cloud computing concepts in sections eight, nine.
After that we'll move into networking
in sections 10 through 14.
After we do that,
we're going to move into our coverage of mobile devices
in sections 15, 16, and 17.
Then we're going to move into printers
and multifunction devices in section 17, 18 and 19.
Finally, we'll move into our coverage
of troubleshooting of all the hardware, networks,
mobile devices and printers in sections 20 through 26.
Now, if you're like most of my students,
the CompTIA A+ exam
is going to be your very first certification exam.
So I want to point out that even though
I'm going to be bouncing around a little bit
as we go through these domains,
and I'm not going to be teaching them that purely linear order
going from one to five,
I am doing this to best train you to pass this exam.
The ordering of the exam objectives provided by CompTIA
is not intended to be a table of content
for instructors to use when they teach the course.
But instead it's a grouping of similar content areas
for the test writers to create questions from.
So don't worry about the fact
that we're going to be going out of order
in terms of these domains or objectives.
By the end of this course,
we are going to cover each and every one of these domains,
and you're going to feel confident
in your ability to pass the certification exam
if you follow me throughout this course.
Now at the beginning of each section of this course,
I'm going to take the time to state which domain
and associate objectives we're going to be covering
in the lessons for that section of the course.
And each lesson has in parentheses
after it's titled the objective number inside of it
so you can easily reference each one
if you need to go back and study a particular objective
or particular concept
as you review for that certification exam.
For example,
if you see a lesson called configuring virtual machines,
parenthesis OBJ 4.2, this lets you know
that this lesson is going to teach you
about how to set up a virtual machine on your system.
And this comes from domain four,
virtualization and cloud computing in the exam objectives.
Specifically, it's objective 4.2.
This objective states
that you have to be able to summarize aspects
of client side virtualization.
So you could see how I put all of that together
in that title to make sure you know exactly where you are
in the course at any given time.
Now on test day, when you sit down to take the exam,
you're going to get a mixture of questions
from across all five domains and all 28 objectives.
Also some exam questions might even combine objectives
from different domains into a single question
to test your knowledge a bit more in depth.
For example, if you get a question
about using a power supply tester
to determine if the power supply unit
in a given workstation is faulty,
this question is actually mapped to two objectives,
objective 3.5,
install or replace the appropriate power supply,
and objective 5.2,
troubleshoot problems related to motherboards,
RAM, CPU and power.
So just be aware that the lessons in this course
are going to build upon themselves,
and the questions on the exam
might not always be straightforward,
especially when you get to those troubleshooting questions
that might require you to analyze information in more depth.
And sometimes they're going to require you
to combine different concepts from across the course
to get that correct answer.
Now, to get A+ certified,
you actually need to take and pass two different exams.
These are referred to as Core 1 and Core 2.
This course is built
to help you learn everything you need to know
to take and pass the A+ Core 1 exam
for the 220-1101 version.
CompTIA does release new versions of the exam
about every three years.
And you must take and pass both Core 1 and Core 2 exams
from the same version to get certified
as an A+ technician.
Now the current version of the exam
is called a 220-1101
which is for the Core 1 exam,
and the 220-1102 is for the Core 2 exam.
These two exams were released back in April, 2022
and they should remain as the current version
until they're retired sometime in the summer of 2025.
You do not have to take both parts Core 1
and Core 2 on the same day though.
In fact, I recommend that you don't do this.
Instead, I want you to study for the 220-1101
which is the Core 1 exam, take that exam and pass it
before you move on to studying for the Core 2
or 220-1102 exam.
Between these two exams,
you have a ton of information to study and learn.
So make it easier on yourself by taking the Core 1 first,
then go ahead and take the Core 2 once you're ready.
Now, as I said earlier,
this course you're watching right now
is designed to cover only the Core 1 material.
When you're ready to study for the Core 2 exam,
you can get a good textbook
or you can buy our Core 2 course
that'll fully prepare you for that exam as well.
Now, speaking of the exam,
when you sit down to take the Core 1
of the CompTIA A+ certification exam at your testing center
or online using the web proctoring service,
you're going to have 90 minutes to answer up to 90 questions.
For the most part,
you're going to be answering multiple choice questions
but you will also have a few multiple select questions
where they're going to ask you to pick the best two
or three correct options for a single question,
and you'll get a handful
of what they call performance-based questions too.
Now, these PBQs or simulations,
as most of my students like to call them,
require you to perform some kind of job function
in a simulated environment.
For example, the exam might ask you to create a RAID array
using a text-based menu system,
or they may ask you to configure a mobile device
in order to send and receive emails.
If you're asked to do either of these as a PBQ,
the exam would provide you with a simulated computer
or mobile phone to use,
and you're then going to click on the proper areas
using your mouse and into the configuration details,
using your keyboard
and then submit that PBQ for grading by the system.
Don't worry too much about these simulations
just yet though.
I'm going to make sure you are well prepared for them
before you sit down for the real certification exam
by covering all the concepts needed
to answer these questions during our time together,
and by doing lots of hands on demonstrations for you
as we go through the concepts,
then these things are things
that might come up as a simulation question too,
so I want you to understand what I'm doing
when I go through these demonstrations.
Now, as far as the number of questions
you're going to get on the exam,
you might have noticed, I said up to 90 questions.
Well, in truth, you're going to get somewhere
between 70 and 90 questions.
If you get more simulations or PBQs,
you're going to get less multiple choice questions
and vice versa.
Now, most candidates I see
get between three to five simulations on the exam
and about 80 to 85 multiple choice questions come test day.
Also, when you take the exam, those simulations
are going to be your first three to five questions
that you get on the exam
and then the rest of your exam
is all going to be either multiple choice
or multiple select questions.
Now the CompTIA A+ exam is a graded exam
and you have to score at least 675 points out of 900
in order to pass the exam.
Each question is weighted a little bit differently
based on its difficulty and complexity.
So not all questions are going to count
for the same number of points either.
Now the score to pass the exam on test day
is roughly equivalent to about a 70 to 75% or higher
when you sit for that exam.
Now, as soon as you finish the exam,
you are going to receive your score
and whether or not you've passed that exam.
Now to take the exam,
you do have to pay an exam fee to cover the cost of testing.
And you do this by buying an exam voucher.
Now you can do this by going to store.comptia.org
and buying it from their Web Store.
In the CompTIA Store,
you're going to see that vouchers cost about $250,
but this does depend based on where you live in the world
because CompTIA uses regional pricing.
Remember the A+ exam is a two-part exam
with separate tests for Core 1 and Core 2.
Therefore you need to buy two exam vouchers,
one for Core 1, and one for Core 2.
Each attempt of the exam does take one exam voucher.
Now each A+ voucher you purchased
can be used for either exam though, either Core 1 or Core 2
as long as the voucher you purchased says A+ on it,
you can use it for either of those two exams.
Now I know that many of you are trying to get certified
in order to get your first job in IT.
To help you save some money on your exam voucher,
you can visit iontraining.com/vouchers
to purchase your exam voucher directly from us
instead of going to the CompTIA Web Store.
Because our company
is a certified platinum level CompTIA delivery partner,
and we help tens of thousands of students
pass their exams every year,
CompTIA gives us a discounted rate for those exam vouchers
and we pass the savings onto our students.
So if you take one extra step
and go over to diontraining.com/vouchers
and purchase your exam voucher from us,
you're going to save an extra 10% or so
off the regular CompTIA of voucher prices
and you're going to receive access
to our searchable video library
that you can use for your last minute studies
before test day as a free bonus.
Now, before we begin studying for the exam,
I want to give you my four tips for success in this course
that are going to help you better study for your exam.
First, we provide closed captions
for every video in this course,
that's caption by real humans
to ensure you get a high level of accuracy.
Many of my students who speak English
as their second language,
really love having these captions available
so they can read along while I'm teaching.
To turn them on, simply click the CC button
in the bottom of your video player.
There's also a transcript available
for each video that you could access and search
with specific keywords or phrases within the video too
by clicking on that CC button.
Also, when it comes to speaking,
some people say I speak too fast
and others say I speak too slow.
Either way,
you're able to control the speed of instruction
by adjusting the playback speed.
If I happen to be talking too fast for you,
you can slow me down by going to 0.75 or 75%.
If I'm talking too slowly for you,
you can speed me up by going to 1.5x or 150%.
Either way, faster or slower, the choice is yours,
so you can learn most efficiently.
Next, I want to point out
that all the information
I'm going to teach you throughout this course
is also available as a downloadable study guide
in PDF format.
In lesson two of this course,
you can download it, print it out
and then use it to take notes on
or highlight and circle things that are important
as we go through the course together.
This PDF is great for offline studying
before you take your final exam too
because all of your notes are in one place.
Finally, I want you to know that we have a Facebook group
set up specifically to help you succeed with this
and other certification exams.
If you have any questions or you get stuck on something
or you just want to talk to other students
who are studying for the same exam, you can do all of that
by going to facebook.com/groups/diontraining.
If you join the group on Facebook,
we have people ready to answer any questions you might have
as well as having other students helping you too.
Currently, we have over 35,000 students in that group.
So if you have a question about the A+ Core 1 exam
or any of the course content,
I guarantee that somebody over there
is going to have the answer for you really quickly.
Now with all the basics out of the way,
let's get started studying
for the CompTIA A+ Core 1, 220-1101 certification exam
in this course.