I'm fully A+ Certified now.

Judas · Mar 17, 2005, 09:46 PM

After apparently blowing through 2 of the tests. I'm now a fully Certified A+ Techy.

I was given 2 hours to write each test, course i walked into the first thinking Hardware, hmm, shouldn't be to bad, walked out in about 15 minutes with a PASS.... a week later (today) i wrote the OS portion, i must say, some of the questions.. WHY?.... oh well, another 15 minutes later, i walk out with a PASS.....

Both of which required me to have at least an 85% to pass, apparently i'm in the 90%-95% area.... and quite shockingly, i got a better result doing the OS portion which i thought i may fail.

Win me!

Now i can my butt out of of damn Burger King fryers and into something i rather enjoy doing.

I have to wait 3-6 weeks for my actual Certification papers to show up. But i get these others that allows me to get a job before that.

Now to find a job

shouldn't be to hard to get one...

Choices.... i think i may take a stab at Futureshop.

Vikingod · Mar 17, 2005, 09:48 PM

Congrats Judas, that is no small feat. Good luck on the job hunt, you are going to need it, lol.

Judas · Mar 17, 2005, 09:51 PM

well i may just go in and write up a few more cert. tests..... i wonder what would be the next thing on the list? there so many i can do..

technonerd · Mar 17, 2005, 09:54 PM

I'm going to take A+ cert too, this november I will.

Good luck finding job hehe. Yeah futureshop is a good way to start

Why not open your own business. I know somebody who open his own business and makes about 1 to 5 grands profit each month right now. He started two years ago and had a very tough time at 1st year but now he's doing great.

Gratz on passing and again Good luck.

During my A+ study, I will be taking +Net (networking Certificate) and maybe i'll take MSCE also(That's after A+ test and +Net).

fireball · Mar 17, 2005, 10:00 PM

Congrats Judas!

**MIG-31** · Mar 17, 2005, 10:01 PM

many congratulations judas

Judas · Mar 17, 2005, 10:05 PM

Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by technonerd

I'm going to take A+ cert too, this november I will.

Good luck finding job hehe. Yeah futureshop is a good way to start

Why not open your own business. I know somebody who open his own business and makes about 1 to 5 grands profit each month right now. He started two years ago and had a very tough time at 1st year but now he's doing great.

Gratz on passing and again Good luck.

During my A+ study, I will be taking +Net (networking Certificate) and maybe i'll take MSCE also(That's after A+ test and +Net).

i've been somewhat running a rogue/freelance business of my own since i was 15.... building/repairing/ whatever to computers....

Sometimes i would get really busy.. then i'd have the dry spells... atm, were i live it just isn't busy at all computer wise...

However, there is a 5 year plan in the works.. involving quite a bit....

Ubergrendle · Mar 17, 2005, 10:20 PM

Props to you Judas. Back in the early 90s I worked for Computer City in Toronto before they went bankrupt and got bought out by Futureshop. We didn't have A+ certification at that time so basically I was able to weasle my way into the technical counter work based on pure ability.

It was a world of difference back then, the 486 was king and people were skeptical about this "Win95 business". LOL.

Futureshop, although a joe-job retail job, is still 10x better than flipping burgers or serving coffee. Even if you make the same amount of $ (unlikely) the work will be much more enjoyable... plus you'll get discounts. Be advised that tehy watch staff very, very, very closely, so don't do anything irregular with the merchandise. I saw a guy get fired for taking home a used mouse for a written-off computer system at our repair department. :/

The vendors will treat you well. I got alot of Packard Bell, Microsoft, and HP swag in the day. If you're doing sales, enthusiasm is contagious...the 18 year old who gets cranked on technology inspires confidence in buyers, vs the sleazy 'lifer' who's trying to make a sale.

Geminiwave · Mar 17, 2005, 10:31 PM

dude MAD PROPS! That is FREAKIN AWESOME!

I wish I could do something like that. I can pass the A+ hardware test no prob but JEEZ I cant pass the others. Its weird though too because I've been freelancing for computer building too...cept I've been making squat doing it. Its because I have all these friends who pay me in gratitude and food for my hard work(obviously they buy all their own parts and then I have to teach them how to put it togeather...and offer tech support. I'm such a good friend. blech)

Anyway I repair OSes all the time. Dunno why I cant get the cert there.

e v o · Mar 17, 2005, 11:01 PM

congrats Judas, you're a god damn animal

Judas · Mar 17, 2005, 11:04 PM

here's the thing.... my first 2 years i did computer work for free.... i figured it was a pretty good trade off because other people worth putting thier trust in me and i was getting educated at the same time... ALL work i did was self taught.. i had very little internet help at all.. aside from dropping an error in google occasionally if it completely eluded me....

only thing i printer up was the installation the slot A amd...... as it was the first time i would have every fully built a computer from scratch

after the first 2 years, i started charging 50 bucks a pop.. not hours or anything.. some computers took me a good week or 2 to fix... other a meer few hours..... i even went as far as to put what parts i had available into people machines for nothing, just to get the sucker working a little better...

a year after that i started charging 100 bucks a pop.... then just a little over a year ago.... i started charging between 200-300 bucks.... hours still not conisidered..

One major job i did was building a mini starter Net Cafe kind of system, single public computer with a office computer.... a print server and connecting them both to the net and each other.

I had to rebuild the 2 rigs that they supplied.... and i had to run the cabling and drill the holes... and setup everything...

i quoted them 500 bucks..... + the price for the cabling and router, nothing more... i also quoted them that i estimated it would take 8 hours....

came down one day and let them know that i would be starting the next morning rather early.

Got up went to work, and it took about 7 and a half hours for me to complete.... ran into a few snags like one machines CD-ROM failing..... did a hot swap from one comptuer to another and back again just to get it done... and let them know. The router i sold them was a 704P... my old one... has a printer port on it so it was best for them as they had a printer they wanted to use but wanted it to work easily. Well, printer server off the router was the most flawless setup i've every had for network printing so i figured why not.

in the end, i've got a happy customer... and as far as i know... both machines are running top notch and haven't had a snag at all since.. (i also setup the public computer for with an administrator account and a guest... automatically logging in as guest... and removing thier ability to get into just about any folder... all they needed was e-mail, web and maybe a few basic games.....

Judas · Mar 17, 2005, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evolve1

congrats Judas, you're a god damn animal

compliment i suspect? odd

PoopyTheJ · Mar 17, 2005, 11:11 PM

I know I'm late but Congrats bro!

technonerd · Mar 17, 2005, 11:26 PM

BTW Judas, what is your suggestion for studies on A+ ?

Any info would be help, like what kind of book you study on and a website you use(notes, practise exam, etc)

I'm using Cram Exam 2 and will get Myers fifth edition.

tks

riles9262 · Mar 17, 2005, 11:42 PM

wtg man, I hope it lands you a new job soon

Judas · Mar 18, 2005, 12:10 AM

actually, i didn't study at all... i have no books... i had no websites to lead me in the right direction.... or wrong..

however, i wasn't sure what my OS test was going to ask... so i did a quick google search for an example exam.. (which btw.... holds very little in comparison in terms of various hardness or pricise questions)

i'm not allowed to due to the terms and agreements i signed on for me to write the exam, tell you any exact questions that i was asked.... however.. here's a website that i figured was fairly good....

Certification-Crazy

check out some of the links posted.... i ran into a few links that required registration.. but i just exited those sites and picked another.....

as far as recommending what to know or study.... well, i guess i'm getting a taste of my own medicine as i asked the same questions and never really got a good responce... and now i understand why..

you must know your hardware basics... and although i never once touched a scsi drive, i'd suggest you look at how to setup a scsi array..... one thing i managed to sneak my way through on the test... (had a rough idea which apparently got me through)

know your sockets....
cpu's
i'd even recommend you know a few more related to software stuff..... such as protocals.... be it network/internet/mail/internal hardware related.

OS wise, sadly, there is ALOT of stuff still pertaining to even windows 3.1 and even the first NT.... serprised to see alot of stuff related to upgrading from any os to any other os...

And never once did i run into anything even remotely related to unix/linux.

But also remember.... no one test is the same, as far as i understand... the test are adaptive.... get an answer right, it asks you harder question related to something else usually, get it wrong and it askes you a easier question related to the same subject.... not always.. but usually. seems to be random as well.

Now as far as i understand.. that's all i can explain without breaking the agreements....

No_Style · Mar 18, 2005, 12:38 AM

Kudos to Judas. I'm exceptionally impressed by your freelance work.

I'm glad my upcoming college certification surpasses A+ certification so I don't have to dive into Win 3.11.

We're covering (or covered) Cisco, work with WinNT 4.0, Win2K, WinXP, Win2K3, Novell, CPU and their Sockets from the humble 486 all the way to LGA775, RAID, SCSI (narrow, wide etc..), chipsets.. the list goes on and on.

And here's the funny thing, you'll be using only a fraction what you learn on a daily basis.

Oh, and try to get into a government tech support place

The place I'm in at the moment, is very nice. Although, I could have gotten in without any of the college education since most of my skills were acquired a long time ago.

P.S - Here's a nice little assignment I had. Install, WinNT 4.0 workstation from another WinNT4.0 server. Doesn't seem bad? Do it all with only sliding in a floppy disk at boot up. My first purely unattended network installation. I had to build the diskette from scratch with little documentation on the net. It was a neat experience to say the least.

Ev!L-aLphA · Mar 18, 2005, 12:56 AM

congrats man thats great news

Dyre Straits · Mar 18, 2005, 01:03 AM

Extreme Congrats to you, Judas!

This is something I've been considering for quite some time myself. How long from the time you decided to 'go for it' to the time you got your Certification? Also, just how much cost was involved?

Drakon · Mar 18, 2005, 02:34 AM

Congrats Judas

The_Neon_Cowboy · Mar 18, 2005, 04:40 AM

Writen?

was this not taken on a PC? the adaptive test? where an AI chooses the hardness and the next question based on your pervious responces???

TJ- · Mar 18, 2005, 04:47 AM

cool man,, i spose the test was easy if you passed in 15 mins

how much did you pay for the course..?

Judas · Mar 18, 2005, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dyre Straits

Extreme Congrats to you, Judas!

This is something I've been considering for quite some time myself. How long from the time you decided to 'go for it' to the time you got your Certification? Also, just how much cost was involved?

Well... after getting rather pissed off with my current employer.... lack of hours.... and it's just not me... and i can somewhat understand it... i mean, no business.. no hours right? (it's been dead here)

anyways.... i said Start of march i was going to get around to signing up to write the test...

first week of that month i did...... passed....

then asap.. i went and signed up for the second (last)... wrote it.. passed today.... (getting money to do it slowed me down)

each test was $225 CANADIAN each!... so $550 later, i'm certified...

I took no course, all self taught with plenty of help from DH and a few other sources....

And yes, the tests were on a computer...

pr0digal jenius · Mar 18, 2005, 05:42 AM

good job bud...take those papers to parties, so when things get anyone asks you can whip em out "actually, I AM a certified nerd"

PangingJr · Mar 18, 2005, 05:48 AM

Congratulations.

BWX · Mar 18, 2005, 05:51 AM

Congrats Judas.. I've been wanting to do that for a while now. Hopefully soon.

Callisto · Mar 18, 2005, 05:52 AM

Great work

!

Tipstaff · Mar 18, 2005, 07:43 AM

Contgrats Judas!

If you can't wait for the package to come from them I can give you a head start on using the logo sheet they send you. It's great for adding them to resumes, plus if you have a reasonable printer you can watermark them into resumes and business cards. If you want a copy of it lemme know.

- Tip

Judas · Mar 18, 2005, 07:48 AM

heh.... i've already a pretty damn nifty resume...

thanks though

Callandor · Mar 18, 2005, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

I was given 2 hours to write each test, course i walked into the first thinking Hardware, hmm, shouldn't be to bad, walked out in about 15 minutes with a PASS.... a week later (today) i wrote the OS portion, i must say, some of the questions.. WHY?.... oh well, another 15 minutes later, i walk out with a PASS.....

Both of which required me to have at least an 85% to pass, apparently i'm in the 90%-95% area.... and quite shockingly, i got a better result doing the OS portion which i thought i may fail.

Well done!

Yeah, some of the questions in the OS section, you really have to wonder...

But overall, the hardware test isn't too bad, alot of uneccesary info there as well (well, or so you think at first

), but it ain't too bad in fact.

Now to write my exams.

Edit: Okay, I have to finish this bloomin semester first.

Mar 17, 2005, 09:48 PM	#2
Vikingod Int'l Fish Liaison Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: By the light of lamp I sit and type... Posts: 16,187 Rep Power: 109 System Specs	Congrats Judas, that is no small feat. Good luck on the job hunt, you are going to need it, lol. __________________ *How You Can Help DriverHeaven By Using Digg*

Mar 17, 2005, 10:00 PM	#5
fireball DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 2,899 Rep Power: 0	Congrats Judas! __________________ [color=gray][/color]

Mar 17, 2005, 10:01 PM	#6
MIG-31 HardwareHeaven News Mod Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Nottingham,UK Posts: 55,770 Rep Power: 444 System Specs	many congratulations judas __________________ Please Post Your News Submissions Here

Mar 17, 2005, 10:20 PM	#8
Ubergrendle Semper ubi sub ubi Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Toronto Posts: 702 Rep Power: 0	Props to you Judas. Back in the early 90s I worked for Computer City in Toronto before they went bankrupt and got bought out by Futureshop. We didn't have A+ certification at that time so basically I was able to weasle my way into the technical counter work based on pure ability. It was a world of difference back then, the 486 was king and people were skeptical about this "Win95 business". LOL. Futureshop, although a joe-job retail job, is still 10x better than flipping burgers or serving coffee. Even if you make the same amount of $ (unlikely) the work will be much more enjoyable... plus you'll get discounts. Be advised that tehy watch staff very, very, very closely, so don't do anything irregular with the merchandise. I saw a guy get fired for taking home a used mouse for a written-off computer system at our repair department. :/ The vendors will treat you well. I got alot of Packard Bell, Microsoft, and HP swag in the day. If you're doing sales, enthusiasm is contagious...the 18 year old who gets cranked on technology inspires confidence in buyers, vs the sleazy 'lifer' who's trying to make a sale. __________________ Veteran of the PC Microchannel / EISA wars of the late 1980s.

Mar 17, 2005, 10:31 PM	#9
Geminiwave I Have lovely Breasts Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: In the closet... Posts: 5,395 Rep Power: 62	dude MAD PROPS! That is FREAKIN AWESOME! I wish I could do something like that. I can pass the A+ hardware test no prob but JEEZ I cant pass the others. Its weird though too because I've been freelancing for computer building too...cept I've been making squat doing it. Its because I have all these friends who pay me in gratitude and food for my hard work(obviously they buy all their own parts and then I have to teach them how to put it togeather...and offer tech support. I'm such a good friend. blech) Anyway I repair OSes all the time. Dunno why I cant get the cert there. __________________

Mar 17, 2005, 09:54 PM	#4
technonerd DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Posts: 594 Rep Power: 0	I'm going to take A+ cert too, this november I will. Good luck finding job hehe. Yeah futureshop is a good way to start Why not open your own business. I know somebody who open his own business and makes about 1 to 5 grands profit each month right now. He started two years ago and had a very tough time at 1st year but now he's doing great. Gratz on passing and again Good luck. During my A+ study, I will be taking +Net (networking Certificate) and maybe i'll take MSCE also(That's after A+ test and +Net).

Mar 17, 2005, 11:01 PM	#10
e v o HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,037 Rep Power: 47 System Specs	congrats Judas, you're a god damn animal __________________

Mar 17, 2005, 11:11 PM	#13
PoopyTheJ DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Ohio Posts: 1,588 Rep Power: 64	I know I'm late but Congrats bro! __________________ [COLOR=Blue]“Alright boys, let’s start her up and see why she doesn’t work.” - John Fritz "I aim to misbehave" Malcolm Reynolds ATI Catalyst Beta Tester[/COLOR]

Mar 17, 2005, 11:26 PM	#14
technonerd DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Posts: 594 Rep Power: 0	BTW Judas, what is your suggestion for studies on A+ ? Any info would be help, like what kind of book you study on and a website you use(notes, practise exam, etc) I'm using Cram Exam 2 and will get Myers fifth edition. tks

Mar 17, 2005, 11:42 PM	#15
riles9262 Driverheaven brewmaster Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: British Columbia, Canada Posts: 4,842 Rep Power: 70 System Specs	wtg man, I hope it lands you a new job soon __________________ A beer a day keeps the doctor away.

Mar 18, 2005, 12:38 AM	#17
No_Style Styleless Wonder Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 6,034 Rep Power: 0	Kudos to Judas. I'm exceptionally impressed by your freelance work. I'm glad my upcoming college certification surpasses A+ certification so I don't have to dive into Win 3.11. We're covering (or covered) Cisco, work with WinNT 4.0, Win2K, WinXP, Win2K3, Novell, CPU and their Sockets from the humble 486 all the way to LGA775, RAID, SCSI (narrow, wide etc..), chipsets.. the list goes on and on. And here's the funny thing, you'll be using only a fraction what you learn on a daily basis. Oh, and try to get into a government tech support place The place I'm in at the moment, is very nice. Although, I could have gotten in without any of the college education since most of my skills were acquired a long time ago. P.S - Here's a nice little assignment I had. Install, WinNT 4.0 workstation from another WinNT4.0 server. Doesn't seem bad? Do it all with only sliding in a floppy disk at boot up. My first purely unattended network installation. I had to build the diskette from scratch with little documentation on the net. It was a neat experience to say the least. __________________ "The Best Style Is No Style" Specifications Here Last edited by No_Style; Mar 18, 2005 at 12:50 AM.

Mar 18, 2005, 12:56 AM	#18
Ev!L-aLphA \| n f e c t e D Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: California Posts: 4,111 Rep Power: 60	congrats man thats great news __________________ R.I.P 8/8/04 4/21/08

Mar 18, 2005, 02:34 AM	#20
Drakon DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Floatin'... Posts: 4,957 Rep Power: 56	Congrats Judas

Mar 18, 2005, 04:40 AM	#21
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 90 System Specs	Writen? was this not taken on a PC? the adaptive test? where an AI chooses the hardness and the next question based on your pervious responces??? __________________

Mar 18, 2005, 04:47 AM	#22
TJ- DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Infinity Posts: 3,679 Rep Power: 0	cool man,, i spose the test was easy if you passed in 15 mins how much did you pay for the course..? __________________ new sig comming soon

Mar 18, 2005, 05:42 AM	#24
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	good job bud...take those papers to parties, so when things get anyone asks you can whip em out "actually, I AM a certified nerd"

Mar 18, 2005, 05:48 AM	#25
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 69	Congratulations.

Mar 18, 2005, 05:51 AM	#26
BWX unplugged Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: USNY Posts: 19,665 Rep Power: 109 System Specs	Congrats Judas.. I've been wanting to do that for a while now. Hopefully soon. __________________

Mar 18, 2005, 05:52 AM	#27
Callisto DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 94 Rep Power: 0	Great work !

Mar 18, 2005, 07:43 AM	#28
Tipstaff HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Real capital of Canada: Torauna Posts: 6,658 Rep Power: 187 System Specs	Contgrats Judas! If you can't wait for the package to come from them I can give you a head start on using the logo sheet they send you. It's great for adding them to resumes, plus if you have a reasonable printer you can watermark them into resumes and business cards. If you want a copy of it lemme know. - Tip __________________ Portal: The Flash Version _________________________________ Brain: So, you sacked the cocky khaki Kicky Sack sock plucker? Mr. Sackett: The second cocky khaki Kicky Sack sock plucker I've sacked since the sixth sitting sheet slitter got sick.