-: Before we dig into the content
of the CompTIA 220-1101 Core One exam in this course,
I think it's important for us to quickly discuss
some exam tips and tricks.
This is going to help you better study for the exam
as we go through this course.
It's going to help you focus your efforts
to get the most out of the material.
Now I know for most of you,
this is going to be your first certification exam
in the world of IT and cybersecurity.
And even if it isn't,
it's likely going to be your first CompTIA certification exam.
Now you're soon going to find out
that these certification exams are not like the exams
you took back at high school or college.
One essential difference between the certification exams
and the tests you've taken before
is that for the certification,
you only need to be able to recognize and not regurgitate
the different pieces of information
from your studies come test day.
Now, this means that you don't need to memorize
the terms from this course or the textbook word for word.
Instead, you need to be able to recognize them
from the answer choices that are given to you
in the questions.
There are no fill in the blank questions on the exam.
It's all going to be multiple choice or multiple selection,
so you're simply going to have to choose the answer
from a multiple choice style question,
instead of having to fill something in.
In my opinion, this makes certification exams a lot easier
than traditional exams that you took back in school.
Another important thing to remember
when you're taking the exam
is that there's not going to be any trick questions
come exam day.
Now, every question is precisely worded
to match the material that you've been studying.
If you need to, take the time to read each question
multiple times to ensure that you understand exactly
what the question is asking you.
And that way, you make sure you're answering the question
that you're really being asked.
Now, as you read the questions and the answers,
always be on the lookout for distractors
or what I like to call red herrings.
Generally, there is at least one of the four
possible answer choices that are written
to try and distract you from the correct answer.
If you can identify which one it is
and you throw it away as a possibility,
you've now exponentially increased your chances
of guessing the correct answer from the remaining choices.
Another thing to remember
is that if you see a word in the question,
that's bolded, italicized, or in all uppercase,
you need to pay especially close attention to that word
because the test writers decided that that keyword
was really important for you to consider.
Also, remember that you must answer all these questions
based on your CompTIA A+ knowledge
and your studies from this course
and the official CompTIA A+ student textbook,
not your personal workplace experience.
Now, your workplace may use
different troubleshooting methodologies or different terms
for a specific component or configuration.
On test day, you always need to select the answer
from the textbook or these videos
when you're answering a question on the certification exam
because that's what the test writers are using
when they create the exam questions.
Now on exam day, you may get a question
that asks you to select the best answer.
Sometimes questions have several right answers,
but one is always going to be the most right answer
because it's true the most often or in the most cases.
In the world of IT and cybersecurity,
there is rarely 100% correct answers in the real world
because most things are situational.
But for the exam, you need to think which one is the answer
that would be used most of the time in the most cases.
When you're in doubt, always choose the answer
that is the correct for the highest number of situations.
Also, try not to fight the exam or the test questions.
And instead, try to understand what is the key concept
that they're asking me about in this question
when you're reading it.
This is going to help increase your score, I guarantee it.
So if you remember these exam tips,
it's going to help you score higher on the exam
and lead to less frustration for you
as you're preparing for this certification.