Anyone carry CompTiA A+ need advice

[textureDnB]

Don't want to make this too long winded so i will try to be concise.I'm a construction guy by trade but have been interested in computing my hole life and it's been an intense hobby for about the last ten years.I am certain that i'm in possesion of the skills to do almost any consumer/residential computer servicing/repair, and with the construction holocaust that is going on now i've decided to turn an unused skill into a new career. I think the best move for me considering that i don't fit in well in the corporate environment would be to start a small home based buisiness.To that end i have decided to gather A+, net+ and security+ certificates A, to conso;lidate my skills and B, to have something for a business to advertise/legitmize itself with.I think MCSE would be overkill, i am looking into becoming an HP Accredited Service Provider i have confirmed that to be a gold mine from several sources. My main question relates to the difficulty of the A+ testing i feel like the company i signed up with has sort of shafted me, misleading warranty,inadaquate materials,ETC. I have absorbed and categorized all the lousy infortmation they offered and am able to perform quite well on ther practice tests however i have reason to believe that these may not be indicitive of the actual tests from vue and prometric.How difficult is this test and more importantly. how much more difficult are the Net+ and Security+ so that i can try to detimine the length of shaft that quickcert has inserted and how much i should fight for a refund on the two later courses befor i begin them.They are a major company it seems and i'm hoping someone on here has personal experience and can tell me how there window's for dummies course stacks up to what i will really need to know for these certs. Personal experience with the difficulty or knowledge level tested by these three exams would also be extremely helpful.

Thanks to all who reply.

 

[sm0ke42o]

I finally got around to the a+ back in December its a cakewalk as long as you study well and can pass practice exams with an 80-85% consistently you'll be fine. Go to <http://www.proprofs.com/certification/comptia/a-plus/exams/index.shtml> sign up make a couple of posts in the forum (a requirement to download/view the practice tests but a simple hi and subsequent post will do) and you'll get access to a plethora of practice tests, flash cards, cram sheets, etc... that reflect accurately what to expect on the 2006 version of the exam. You can view some of the tests without making any posts but you get access to some of the better ones after making the posts and its worth it.

BTW the website is legit. Its free and does not require any software its just a collection of practice exams and study resources with a forum. They also have practice exams for many other IT related certifications both comptia and otherwise. You might also sign up at Onforce which is a IT temp service of sorts (google it) sometimes companies like Dell and HP will give away or heavily discount certifications for their products. I got my entire line of dell certifications for free via that route. Hope this helps.

[edit]
from wikipedia: "...the old 2003 exams had an average pass rate of between 3%-10% depending on your sources. The new A+ exam has been redesigned to have a 30% pass rate."

 

[Jim Haynes]

Thanks for providing the Pro Profs link, here thinking about taking a few of the CompTIA exams myself and have been looking around for information and websites to help me out and the site is quite useful.