Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Studying for the A+

I have a fair amount of hands-on knowledge about computers, or more accurately, PC's, but only recently did I actually change my career choice to the IT field.

IT is great because just about anyone can enter it without having a prior knowledge of computers. You start just by doing one of its countless certifications, by studying training materials such as books or videos, and then writing a certification exam. 

I decided to write the CompTIA A+ certification exams to start, and registered for an online video course through a local college to prepare. The A+ exam basically tests your knowledge of PC computer hardware and (Windows) software. The course objectives are not terribly complicated, but studying for it is not a piece of cake either since it covers quite a lot of material.

In studying for this certification, I decided to try a new study technique for me: creating a series of questions and answers instead of making traditional notes. In other words: flash cards! Making "flash cards" on a computer is a lot easier than making actual flash cards (I still remember some students using those back in the 80's). Mnemosyne is a nice program I found to make these flash cards.

As well, as a result of typing up all my notes, my typing speed has gone up! Now let's hope that all that typing will have been useful for me to pass the exams! :-)