A Plus Mindset Shift: Mastering CompTIA Exam Strategies

Looking for effective IT certification tips to pass your CompTIA A Plus exam? In this episode, we dive into a strategy-first approach that breaks down tricky wording and performance-based questions (PBQs) into manageable steps. Our CompTIA study guide helps you think like a technician, improve your time management skills, and convert your knowledge into exam points. With no fluff, just practical tools for tech exam prep, this episode is your key to mastering the CompTIA A Plus mind shift.

The book, 

CompTIA A+ Exam Strategy (220-1201 & 220-1202): How To Think Like a Technician and Pass With Confidence – Volume 

 is available on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Exam-Strategy-220-1201-220-1202/dp/B0GQ9VL9YG/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=396ZB9UJDYR0S&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.DExgbtEDLl4fyj0p2fstHpfw0zdq6Qgm-NU8ahxh-h7ynttT6Wr8ZIWJsu0HF_6oe1-OMpW2WFrET98BSxOILX08_wotR01p7Cbt-Ney-dVCW-i1tJogveM-veHLyiIROriSbBj_fS-GIEdh4tg4Y36xwgEj2UGjbl_gKZsOykj-T2VbMSBVFdS-zedc3EL1rK2FLmDH-vNE3iz9wYM5qbGpVTN9JtVYZOpBc6UjWto.HFpGq0uaMEsvR4iPSh64MAtCNSyPwsK5TBPwbS7WD-k&dib_tag=se&keywords=comptia+a%2B+exam+strategy&qid=1772465470&sprefix=%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

We start by reframing A Plus as a decision-making simulation, not a memorization test. You’ll learn how to spot the four elements hidden in every scenario—symptoms, context, evidence, and action—and use them to predict answers before you even peek at the choices. We show how the six-step troubleshooting method becomes your anchor, why the correct answer often feels “boring,” and how to neutralize distractors engineered to tempt you into overkill. You’ll also get clear guidance on pacing, brain dumps, and the smarter move to skip PBQs first, build momentum with multiple choice, and return with focus.

From there, we get practical with a repeatable study system: the three-pass method. Pass one builds orientation across all objectives without perfection loops. Pass two converts facts into scenario skill with error logs, keyword drills, and prediction reps. Pass three simulates the real exam—timed, no notes, and thorough post-review to target time sinks and misleading keywords. We map Core 1 and Core 2 into patterns you can reason through, highlight high-yield areas using the 80/20 rule, and share readiness signals so you schedule based on consistency, not a calendar.

If you’re a career changer, a first-time test taker, or someone retaking after a near miss, this playbook helps you replace anxiety with structure. Subscribe for more strategy deep-dives, share this episode with a friend aiming for A Plus, and leave a review to tell us the one tactic you’ll try on your next practice exam.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

And welcome to Technology Tap. I'm Professor J. Rod. In this episode, come to your A plus Exam Strategies. Let's have it. And I love helping my students pass their A, Network Plus, and Security Plus exams. I also like to throw a little bit of history. I'm a little bit of a history buff, and I've written Scam Proof for Seniors, which is out on Amazon and Kindle. You can buy this paperback and the Kindle version. Alright, so today is another day here where I have some news. I told you 2026 was gonna be different. I wrote another book. Now this one was I actually wrote this one before the scam proof for seniors, but it's been stuck in editorial hell for months. Because the argument was so, like, if you had never written a book, right? You could write it in Word, but then you have to think like a book, right? Well, it's not it's in Word and it's X number of pages, but when they format it for the book, the format that format makes the book bigger. So I did a Camtea strategy book, and when I went to put it on Amazon Kindle to see how many pages it was, it was 1500 pages. And my editor was like, There's no way no one no one's gonna buy this book. No one's gonna buy this book, it's 1500 pages. You need to either break it down, get rid of a lot of stuff, like 80% of the stuff, or break it up into three books. So I figured I'd break it up into three books. So the first one is out, it's called the Camtia A Plus Exam Strategy for the 2020 21201 and the 2220 1202. Sound on Amazon. But yeah, it was it was a little bit of a that that has been done since like Thanksgiving, like a little bit before Thanksgiving it was done, and it's just been months and months of taking things out, putting things back. It's a crazy process, you know. I I that since that that was the first one. Actually, I think it was even before that, but anyway, that was the first one, and it ended up being like so many pages. Yeah, it was it was it was very interesting. I learned a lot. So it's called Campia A Plus Exam Strategy, How to Think Like a Technician and Pass with Confidence, volume one. I have volume two and volume three, so uh but it's not it's you know, if I don't sell this one, I'm not gonna release the other ones because like it doesn't make any sense. But what is this one about? Well, this one is not, I and I'm gonna tell you beforehand, it's it's not like the other Comptier books. I like to think. You are not gonna there's nothing here to learn. What right? What do I mean by that? I'm not teaching you that Telnet is port number 23.

unknown 4:30

Right?

Why A Plus Is A Thinking Exam

Exam Structure And What Really Counts

Beat PBQs With Smart Sequencing

SPEAKER_00 4:30

I'm not teaching you the OSI model. Right? I'm there's the I'm not teaching you the different raid levels. Right? What I am teaching you is what do you do when you see first? What do you see, what do you do when you see best? What do you do with the different PBQs? That's what I'm teaching. I'm teaching the strategy right in this book. This this book is not gonna teach you how anything about the A plus exam except how to pass it. So, who's this book for? This book is for if somebody took a boot camp, a boot, yeah, a boot camp course, this book is for you. If somebody took the A plus and failed, this book is for you. If someone is ready for the or thinks they're ready for the A Plus, but just needs a little bit more of a boost, this book is for you. If you don't know anything about computers and you want to get into A, this book is not for you. This book is not for you. So, all right, let's talk about chapter one. You don't fail the Compte exam because you're not smart, you don't fail because you didn't read enough, you don't fail because you can't memorize ports or protocols or ray levels. Most students fail for one reason they prepare for the wrong exam, they prepare for memorization tests, which Camtea it is not. And that difference, that gap, is what separates a 665 from a 760. Today we're not talking about hardware specs, we're not talking about command switches, we're not even talking about objectives. Today we're talking about how to think. Because if you can think like a technician, the exam becomes predictable. And when something becomes predictable, it becomes passable. Welcome to the Comtia A Plus Journey. Let me say this clearly. Comptier A Plus is not for people who want to try it or try IT, it's for people who are ready to enter the IT professionally, it's for people who want to prove something. It's not just to an employer, but it's to themselves. A plus is for the career changer leaving retail management, the military veteran who wants to transition into civilian work in the civilian workforce. The student earning the first credentials to help this tech who needs validation, and the person who failed once and refuses to quit. This certification, you don't need to be a genius to pass this. It requires structure, it requires discipline, and it requires calm under pressure. And it requires one powerful mindset shift. Stop trying to remember everything and start learning how to analyze. That's the shift. Let's remove the marketing language, right? What does A Plus really do? It signals three things. Your understanding of foundational IT systems, your troubleshooting mythology, and your function under exam pressure. Entry-level roles supported by A Plus often include help desk technicians, desktop support, field service technician, and IT support specialists. Salary ranges by region, but they often between$35,000 and$70,000, depending on where you are and your experience. But here's where what matters more than salary. A plus changes your identity. You stop saying, I'm trying to get into IT, and you keep saying, I'm certified, right? I'm ready. That psychological shift matters because confidence affects interviews, confidence affects communications, confidence affects performance. And this exam is built for that. A plus began in 1993. It evolved with technology, it adapted from hardware heavy beginnings to modern support realities. Right now we have mobile phones, virtualizations, cloud concepts. Today's A Plus is not about the building the beige desktower. It reflects hybrid work environments, security awareness, remote support. And more importantly, it reflects structured troubleshooting. That and that scaffolds, right? I've always been telling you this this A Plus scaffolds. To network plus, security plus, right, and so on. This is this isn't just a certification, it's your mental operating system upgrade. Right? The Camtea A Plus exam is actually two exams. So you must pass two exams. The first one is the 220 1201, right? They call it the core one, focuses on hardware, networking, mobile device, virtualization and cloud, hardware slash network troubleshooting. And then you have the 220-1202 core two, which focuses on operating systems, security, software troubleshooting, and operational procedure. Think of it like this: core one is the physical and the network layer of IT, and core two is the logical and security layer of IT. Core one teaches you what the system is, core two teaches you how it behaves and how to secure. And you need to think about both of them, right? When you're taking this exam. You get 90 questions in 90 minutes. The scaling is from 100 to 900 points. Passing core one is 675, 700 for core two. You will see multiple choice, performance-based questions or PBQs, drag and drop, matching simulation task. Now here's what matters the exam is not linear. The first question might be a PBQ, and that can spike your anxiety immediately. This is where the strategy begins. Most students try to conquer the PBQs immediately. That's a mistake. Here's the smarter approach. Skip the PBQs. Flag it. Move on. Build momentum with multiple choice. Return once your brain is in rhythm. This is not avoidance, this is strategic sequencing. Your confidence builds as you accumulate correct answers. Then you return to PBQs calm. Focus. That shift alone can add to five to one hundred points. When you first take the test, if you're taking it at a testing center, you walk in, right? You have to do a locker, maybe you have to do a palm scan, have to show your ID, enter your pockets, right? You get a dry race board. Your chair might be slightly uncomfortable, and then the clock starts counting down from 90. That first click, begin exam. Your heart races. Here's what high scores do they use tutorial time to brain dump port numbers, acronyms, sub note notes, troubleshooting steps. Why? Because working memory under stress shrinks. Offload what you can. That preserves mental energy. So what does that mean? They give you that dry eraser board for a reason. Right? You have to answer some demographic questions when you first go in to take the exam. And they give you more than enough time to answer those questions. Click by those really quick and then start writing down stuff that you need on the whiteboard. Port numbers, acronyms, this the troubleshooting, the six-step troubleshooting methodology, though it's high model.

unknown 11:49

Right?

Brain Dump And Six-Step Method

Decision Logic Over Memorization

SPEAKER_00 11:49

All that stuff you can write on there on the whiteboard. The six-step troubleshooting methodology. This is not an option. This is your anchor, right? The six are identify the problem, establish the theory, test the theory, establish your plan, implement solutions, and verify and document. This framework appears everywhere. Network plus, security plus, right? Even when not explicitly stated. CompTIA rewards process over impulse, verification before modification, least evasive first, and document documentation at the end. If you internalize this, you begin thinking like the exam. And this is where everything changes because CAMTIA does not test recall. This is not a memorization exam. This is a decision logic exam. Before answering any questions, ask what is broken, what narrows the scope? What is the action word? What is the least evasive logical step? That pause, three seconds, prevents guessing. Most wrong answers are emotional answers. Technicians don't react, technician analyzes. And the one thing that I find with techs who have experience, they a lot of them get these answers wrong because, yes, this is what I would do at work to make it work, but it may not be what Camtia wants. And that's the mindset, right? The mindset you have to get into is what how does Camtia want me to answer this question? Your way, your way of fixing it might be the right answer, but that's not what Camtia is asking you. Every failure fits into one of three categories knowledge gap, application gap, and strategy gap. Most students assume it's knowledge. Often it's not. They know the rate levels, but freeze inside a scenario. They understand DHCP, but misinterpret the word first. They narrow to two answers, then pick the wrong one. That's strategy. Makes diagnosing your weakness waste is weeks. Identify your triangle weakness. Then train intentionally. Rachel dismissed 12 troubleshooting questions. She knew the content, but she read questions passively and jumped to the answers. Guess between two. We implemented the four elements framework symptoms, context, evidence, and action. She reworked those same 12, got 11 right. No new knowledge learned, just structured reasoning. That's the power of thinking. Every scenario contains one symptom. What's broken? Two context. Environmental narrowing details. Three evidence, clues and embedded. And four, action. Keywords did take knowledge. Example. Words that control logic. First, start simple. Next, continue process. Best equals most efficient. Most likely is the pattern match. Least equals find the outlier before equals safety prerequisite after. This is where many 680s live. Wrong answers are not random, they are engineered. There are five types technical, technical, but wrong context. Over overly evasive, repeated step, extreme solution, and emotional appealing but illogical. Your job is elimination. If it violates symptoms, context, evidence, keywords, remove it. Confidence grows through elimination, not guessing. This chapter is not about memorizing specs, installing RAM, or configuring DNS. It's about mental posture. You're not studying to pass, you are training to reason. And once reading becomes automatic, questions feel predictable, anxiety drops, time management improves, and scores rises. Let me tell you something important. You don't need to know everything. You need to recognize patterns, follow processes, respect keywords, eliminate noise, and stay calm. This is learnable, trainable, repeatable. And once you do it here, you could do it in network plus, you could do it in Security Plus, right? Any exam, and you do it in your first job. You're not preparing for a test, you're upgrading your thinking, and that is permanent. Next, we'll go deeper. We'll break down exactly how Compteer constructs construct scenarios and how to dismantle them step by step. But for now, remember this memorization gets you close. Process gets you certified, and thinking like a tech that gets you hired. Alright, let me say something that may surprise you. Students who fail A are often the most capable ones. They understand the stuff, they understand what rate is, they understand what DACP is, they understand what Windows is. But they misunderstood the battlefield. They prepare as if the exam is knowledge inventory. It's not. It's decision-making simulation. That's the difference between I know what rate five is and I can recognize when rate 5 is the best option given redundancy, performance needs, and business constraints. That's contextual reasoning. And Canti lips in there. Overwhelmed isn't too much content. Overwhelmed is unstructured content. When you study A, you face hardware specs, wireless standards, ports, command line switches, rate levels, etc. The brain asks, how am I supposed to remember all of this? But here's the truth: you don't. You organize it. When organized properly, A becomes patterns, not lists. Let's compare two students. Student A memorized port 443 equals HTTPS. Student B recognized that encrypted web traffic failing might involve port 443. Student B passes faster because student B connects facts to scenarios. CamTIA rewards pattern recognition, context awareness, and process and hearings. Not trivial recall. It's question four. It's a PVQ. Simulation loads, window interface, multiple tabs, setting menus. You think. I didn't practice this exact screen. Your heart rate increases, your breathing shortens, your hands move quickly. Mistakes begin. Now pause. The panic comes from unfamiliarity, not difficulty. PBQs are procedural. They're not abstract puzzles. They are configured, match, order, diagnosed. When approached step by step, they become mechanical. Mechanical tasks do not require emotional energy. So let's slow this down. Every scenario without question contains structure. You must train yourself to see it instantly. For example, a user reports intermittent network connectivity. The issues occur after 15-20 minutes of use. Other users are not affected. The technician verifies IP configuration is correct. What is the most likely cause? Don't look at the answers. You pause. You break it down. What's the system? Internet connectivity. Context, time-based pattern, evidence, other users unaffected. IP correct. Action most likely. What emerges? Time based plus device isolated. Possibilities narrow. Nick overheating, driver issues, power management settings. Notice how calm that felt. Structure creates calm. Here's a professional technique. After analyzing symptoms, content, evidence, and action, predict the answer before viewing the options. When you predict first, distractors lose power. You search for alignment, not persuasion, and your reasoning stays dominant. If the predicted answer is present, confidence increases. If not, reassess the framework, not your panic. Compte distractors trigger, or what I call McGuffin's, right? Familiarity, bias, replacement impulse, fix it fast, instincts, advanced tools, temptation. Example. Distractor. It feels technical. It feels active. It feels like doing something, but logic says local config issues. The correct answer often feels boring. Technician thinks it's boring, and that's not good. I'm sorry, that's good. So you wouldn't pick that one, right? Why? Because you're rebooting everybody for one user.

unknown 20:45

Right?

Predict Before You Look At Answers

Core 1 And Core 2 Patterns

Time Management And Passing Mindset

SPEAKER_00 20:45

So you gotta think big picture. Why would you reset to the ACP server if only one person is can't connect? So that's the you know, that's the way you have to think, right? Core one, emphasize hardware, networking, mobile devices, virtualization, troubleshooting. Instead of memorizing hardware specs, think if power, check simple first. If overheating, time pattern. If network, layer isolation. If mobile, apps versus hardware, correlation. And if cloud, the responsibility model. You are categorizing, not memorizing. Core two, test operating systems, security, software troubleshooting, and operational procedures. Core two questions often hinge on permission hierarchy, malware containment order, least privilege, documentation requirements, and change management sequence. Security questions especially reward least evasive, least privilege, least disruption. That theme repeats constantly. When troubleshooting network, think OSI without reciting the OSI. Ask is it physical? Is it configuration? Is it resolution? Is it authentication? Layer isolation. Is pattern-based reasoning. Camtia does not require you to recite the seven layers, it requires you to reason through it. So you have your scores that range from 100 to 900, passing 675 for the core one and 700 for the core two. Scale scoring means not every question weighs equally. PVQs often weighs more. This means you don't need perfection, you need consistency. This is the number one rule that I tell my students do not, and I repeat, do not try to get them all right. Nobody cares. Nobody cares what your score is as long as you pass. Right? Nobody cares. If you try to get them all right, I guarantee you you will fail the exam. Why? Because you're too busy trying to make sure that all the answers are right, that you lose context of the whole exam. And you end up failing. I've seen people do it, I've seen smart people, very smart people, take the Comp T exam and because they want to get it all right, they they fail. I even have one student she passed and she asked me to help her get a higher score because her friend got a higher higher score than she than she did. I'm like, I'm not, I don't have time for that. Why would you why would you waste your time doing that? I'm like, take your time and and and do the network plus. Why do you want to get a A plus again? Because somebody else got a higher score than you. That makes no sense. And I've seen students pass the A without doing the PBQs. One student passed, she didn't do not one PBQ, she told me, and she passed. So strong performance across domains, solid PBQs, control timing. A 760 isn't someone who knew everything, it's just someone who managed to pass. The exam is 90 minutes, they give you 90 questions. Ideal pacing, one minute average per question. And those are multiple choice and seven to ten minutes per PBQ. Your strategy should be skip the PBQs initially, answer 30 to 40 multiple choice questions, and then reassess your time, and then return to answer and finish the exam. Never chase perfection, chase coverage. Students often experience wrong answer, doubt, rushing more wrong answers. Break the loop. If unsure, eliminate two and then apply the keyword logic, choose calmly and then move on. Confidence builds for emotion, not guessing. Before the exam begins, say this internally: I don't need to know everything, I need to think clearly. That reduces cognitive overload. You're solving, not remembering. Thinking like Comtia does something powerful. It rewires how you approach problems. You begin to ask in real life, what's the symptoms? What changed? What's the simplest explanation? What's the least evasive solution? You become methodical. Employers notice that, not because you list certifications, but because you speak like a technician. Ask yourself, which triangle point is weakest? Knowledge, application, strategy, then apply correction. Knowledge is study objectives actively. Applications is scenario practice, and strategy is your keyword drills plus distracted reviews. Targeted improvement beats generalized studying. Compte embeds a map in every scenario. Most students read emotionally, chase answer familiarity, and ignore embedded clues. Professionals identify patterns, isolate scope, and follow breadcrumb trails. The exam is not hiding the answer, it's guiding you to it. Here's what your daily drill should be when you're studying for the exam. Take one scenario, identify the symptoms, identify the contents, identify the evidence and the action keyword, and then predict the answer. Check the results, log reasoning. This repetition creates neural speed. Speed comes from structure. Everything we discussed so far leads to one conclusion. Reading feels productive, highlighting feels productive, watching videos feels productive. But A plus tests test retrieval in application, and that requires layered review. Which brings us to what changes everything, the three-pass method. But before we talk about it, understand this. Camtia A Plus journey is not about collecting facts, it's about building cognitive discipline. That discipline transfers to the network plus, security plus, right? Your real job, your real interaction with people. You're not studying, you're becoming operational. Now you understand why students fail, right? How Camptia structures pressure, how distractors manipulate, why keywords dominate logic. You're no longer preparing blindly, you're preparing strategically. And that is the difference between I hope I pass and I know how to approach this, which is a big thing. Now, let's be honest about how most students study. They are they read the textbooks once, watch the video series once, take a practice exam, panic at the score, reread weak areas, take another practice exam, and hope they improve. This feels like effort, but if it's insufficient. Because reading is not mastery, exposure is not retrieval, recognition is not reasoning. And A rewards retrieval under pressure. Single pass studying feels productive because it's comfortable. Reading is low friction, watching videos is passive familiarity, and highlighting is a little illusion of engagement. But none of those require recall without prompts. Scenario reasoning, distractor, elimination, time-based decision. That's the gap. When you only expose yourself to information once, you build familiarity, not strength, and that will collapse under pressure. This is where cognitive science enters the room. Exposure. I've seen this before. A plus requires retrieval. You must retrieve troubleshooting order, always procedures. Security sequence, decision hierarchy. If you cannot retrieve it without seeing the answer choices, you don't own it yet. And that's okay, but it must be trained. The three pass methods transform studying into a system. It has three phases. Build broad familiarity with all objects. Pass two, application. Convert knowledge into scenario competence. Pass three, performance. Simulate real exam pressure and refine strategy. Each pass serves a different cognitive function. And skipping one weakens the system. Pass one foundation. Pass one is not about perfection, it's about orientation. Your goal, understand scope, identify unfamiliar topics, map the objective landscape. You are building your mental blueprint, not memorizing every specification. During pass one, you read actively, you take structural notes, you build concept maps, you identify weak zones, and you avoid perfection loops. If something feels confusing, flag it. Don't stall. Momentum matters. Pass one is breadth, breadth and not depth. Ideal pass one timeline, two to three weeks. You break down your domains, core one. For week one, you use the hardware. For week two is networking, and week three is mobile plus cloud plus troubleshooting. For core two, week one is the operating system. Week two is security, week three is software plus operational procedures. Daily structure 60 to 90 minutes of focus study, 20 scenario-based questions, and brief reflection log. Not marathon sessions, consistency beats intensity. Pass two, the application. Most students complete exposure. Few move to deliberate application. This is where passing happens. Pass two converts I know this into I can apply this inside a scenario. In pass two, you increase your practice questions, you prioritize scenario based, you practice predicting before answering, and you use the four elements framework every time. You log why you missed it, which keyword misled you, which distractor type fooled you. Mistakes are diagnostic gold. Create an error log with four columns. Question topic, why missed it, correct logic and patterns to watch. Example Topic DNS troubleshooting. Why missed it? Ignored keyword first. Correct logic, verify before modify. Patterns, don't jump to rot or reset. This pattern this prevents repeated mistakes. Without error logging, improvement is random. With it, improvement becomes synthetic. Pass two requires discomfort. You must attempt harder scenarios, explain reasoning out loud, simulate exam pacing, and practice elimination. Applications build confidence faster than rereading. Pass three simulation. You must train under constraints. 90 minutes practice exams, realistic environment, no notes, no pausing. Performance training builds timing rhythm, anxiety and control, and decision efficiency. After each practice exam, do not retake immediately. Instead, spend one to two hours reviewing. Why wrong answers were attractive, which domains remain weak, where time was lost, which keywords were missed. Improvement happens in review, not repetition. In pass three, practice network configuration, user account management, command line task, sequence troubleshooting, etc. PVQs reward familiarity. Build that deliberately. By the end of pass three, you should have completed 30 multiple choice questions in 25 minutes. You should feel calm skipping the PVQs initially. You should narrow most questions to two quickly, and your average practice score should trend upward consistently. Scored improved by only 10 points. Then he implemented the three-pass method. Pass one, objective mapping, pass two, error logging, pass three, time simulation. Second retake, seven sixty. Knowledge didn't drastically change, strategy did. Maria was test anxious. Her issue wasn't knowledge, it was panic. She rushed. She skipped elimination. Changed answers impulsively. Drewing past three, she trained with timers, simulated stress, practiced breathing between question blocks. Every day felt familiar. She passed the first attempt. Preparation reduces stress. David overfocused on load yield concepts. He knew obscure cable standards, but missed basic troubleshooting logic. We applied the 80-20. Focus on high yield troubleshooting, OS procedures, network fundamentals, and security basics. He rebalanced core jumps significantly. Efficiency beats encyclopedic knowledge. Roughly 20% of the concepts produce 80% of points. High yield areas. Core 1, network basics, hardware troubleshooting, and mobile troubleshooting. Core 2, OS navigation, security fundamentals, malware response sequence and permission logic. Master these deeply. Low yield obscure specs. Do not ignore them, but do not become obsessed with them. If you score under 65% consistency, return to pass two. Score 70 to 75% but inconsistent, continue to pass three. Score 80%, you are exam ready. Do not schedule the exam based on calendar. Schedule based on performance consistency. And remember, you don't have to get a you don't have to be 100% ready to pass this exam. Right? If you're 85, 90% ready, take the exam. Because you don't need 100 points to pass. Right? If you're 90% ready, 90% out of 900 out of 90, uh, 900, which is what the most you can score in, is 810. That'll that's way past the score.

unknown 35:30

Right?

Three-Pass Study Method

SPEAKER_00 35:31

You could be 80% ready to get a 720, and you and you'll be fine on core one. When you're ready, you can explain the troubleshooting steps without looking. You can recognize keyword triggers instantly, you can eliminate two answers quickly. PBQs no longer feel foreign, and then you understand why wrong answers are wrong. And then you you know you begin that that deep dive into this stuff. On the day of the exam, you arrive early, right? You brain dump your keynotes, right? You write them on the on the whiteboard that they give you. You skip PBQs initially, you don't chase perfection, you move steady, you trust elimination, you revisit your flags, questions that you flagged, and then you review time at the end. But don't review the PBQs because once you get in and you hit finish, if you go back in, it'll reset everything. So don't review the PBQs. Once the PBQs are done, they're done. That's it, move on. Don't ever go back to it. What happens after you pass? Well, you don't just gain a credential, you gain an internal dialogue, you begin thinking in structure sequence, you approach problems logically, you speak with technical clarity, you become reliable under pressure. That identity shifts compounds. Let me talk to you directly. You don't need to be the smartest person in the room. You need to be the most structured, the most calm, the most methodical. Comtia A Plus is not trying to defeat you, it is trying to see whatever you think professionally. The three-pass methods ensures that you can. This journey is not about memorizing ports, it's about mastering processes, it's not about collecting facts, it's about building decision discipline. It's not about hoping, it's about preparing strategically. Memorization gets you close, application gets you competent, performance gets you certified, and structured thinking that gets you hired. Alright, so hopefully, you will take these words of wisdom that I gave you. Right? And if you want, again, you can buy the Comtier A Plus exam strategy, How to Think Like a Technician and Pass with Confidence Volume 1. It's available on Amazon. You know, it's uh and on Kindle is the paperback version is$22.99. And the Kindle, it is let me check, click. I think it's way cheaper than that, of course. But if you have Kindle Unlimited, you will be fine. It it's it's it's free if you have Kindle Unlimited, it's like$6.99 or$7.99 if without it. Yeah, buy it, you know, study it, ask me any questions, right? You can always reach me, professor Jrod at gmail.com. You know, you can follow me on social media at Professor J Rod on TikTok and on Instagram, TechnologyTap Podcast on the Facebook, right? You know, for those of you who are struggling and you know and are worried about taking the exam, because I know price has a lot to do with it, right? You don't want to fail an exam and then have to pay to take it again, right? Because it's expensive, it's not cheap. Just know that I support you, right? And if you have any issues, you can always email me, you know, at professorjrod, j r od at gmail.com. If you have any questions, but buy the book and see and see what you think and let me know. And you know, good luck. If you have any right, keep listening. Thank you for supporting the podcast. Thank you for supporting the books. Right, my scam proof book is still selling, it's doing okay, you know. Scam proof for seniors, how to recognize, avoid, and stop modern scams. I think that'll be I think when Mother's Day and Father's Day come, it'll it's doing it's doing good. I think it'll do a lot better during Mother's Day and Father's Day. I think a lot of people will buy it for their parents on uh on those holidays. So, alright, I'm off. This is Professor Jrod next week. You know, I've I've been looking into tech plus and noticing that there's not a lot of good material out there. Maybe I'll I'll start doing my tech plus series next week, and you know, we'll see, we'll see how that goes. Let me know if you're interested in tech plus. So it's that one's a lot easier. But I'll maybe I'll do uh either next week or the week after that, I'll do a podcast on on tech plus. But this is Professor J Rod, and you know what, keep tapping into technology, and I'll see you next time. This has been a presentation of Little Cha Cha Productions art by Sarah, music by Joe Kim. We are now part of the Pod Match Network. You can follow me at TikTok at Professor Jrod at J R O D, or you can email me at professorjrod at J R O D at email.com.