How to Prepare for CompTIA A+

Step 2: Build a three-layer resource stack

You do not need a dozen resources; you need one of each of three types, used deliberately.

Layer 1 — a structured course or book. This is your narrative spine: a full video course or a comprehensive A+ study guide that walks the objectives in order. Choose one primary resource and finish it. Hopping between three courses feels productive but mostly re-covers the same early chapters.

Layer 2 — hands-on practice. A+ is a practical certification, and the performance-based questions punish purely theoretical study. Your lab does not need to be expensive:

• An old desktop or laptop you can open up: identify the RAM, storage, expansion slots; reseat components; swap a drive.
• A free hypervisor on your main machine to install Windows and a Linux distribution in virtual machines, then break and repair them.
• Your own home network: log in to the router, review the settings, change the Wi-Fi channel, reserve an IP address.
• The built-in tools of whatever OS you use daily: Task Manager, Event Viewer, Disk Management, the command line.

Layer 3 — practice questions. Not for memorising answers, but for diagnosis — more on how to use them properly in Step 5.

Step 3: Work through Core 1 in a deliberate order

Core 1 (220-1201) covers hardware, networking fundamentals, mobile devices, virtualisation and cloud computing, and hardware/network troubleshooting. The objectives are not sequenced for learning, so impose your own order:

1. Hardware first. Motherboards, CPUs, RAM, storage, power, peripherals. This is the vocabulary everything else builds on, and it is the most rewarding area to study hands-on with a real machine open in front of you.
2. Networking fundamentals second. Cable types, common ports and protocols, Wi-Fi standards, basic IP addressing. Learn these to recognition level now; depth comes with practice questions later.
3. Mobile devices third. Much of this transfers directly from hardware and networking — laptop components, mobile connectivity, synchronisation.
4. Virtualisation and cloud fourth. Set up one virtual machine yourself and the concepts (hypervisors, VM resources, cloud service models) stop being abstract.
5. Troubleshooting throughout. Do not leave the troubleshooting objectives until the end. After each hardware or networking topic, study its matching troubleshooting scenarios while the theory is fresh — the exam leans heavily on "a user reports X, what do you do first?" reasoning.

After each block, return to your checklist and mark items honestly. If you cannot explain a line item aloud in two or three sentences, it stays at "seen".

Step 4: Work through Core 2 with the same discipline

Core 2 (220-1202) shifts from hardware to operating systems, security, software troubleshooting and operational procedures. A sensible sequence:

1. Operating systems. Windows administration is the centre of gravity — installation, settings, user management, command-line tools — with macOS and Linux basics alongside. This is where your virtual machines earn their keep: every feature you read about, go and click through or type out.
2. Security. Malware types, authentication, permissions, physical security, and the security settings of the systems you just studied. V15 gives security more weight than older versions did, including IoT device security, so do not treat this domain as a light read.
3. Software troubleshooting. Like Core 1's troubleshooting, this is applied knowledge of the OS and security material — study it immediately after those domains, scenario by scenario.
4. Operational procedures. Documentation, change management, safety, environmental controls, scripting basics and remote-access tools. Candidates routinely under-prepare here because it feels like common sense; the objectives list specific terms and processes that the exam expects you to know precisely.

Step 5: Use practice questions to steer your study, not to score it

Practice questions are the feedback loop of the whole plan, and how you use them matters more than how many you do.

• Start early, per domain. After finishing each domain, answer a set of questions on just that domain. A wrong answer at this stage is cheap — it tells you exactly which checklist items to revisit while the material is fresh.
• Analyse every miss. For each wrong answer, identify the objective it maps to and write one line on why the right answer is right. If you got it right by guessing, count it as a miss.
• Target weak domains, not favourite ones. It is tempting to keep drilling hardware because you enjoy it. Your checklist and your per-domain scores should decide where the next study hour goes.
• Finish with timed, full-length simulation. Before booking each exam, sit at least one full-length, timed practice test under exam conditions for that core. You are checking two things: coverage and pacing across 90 questions in 90 minutes.
• Never memorise answers. If you see a repeated question and recall the letter rather than the reasoning, the question has stopped measuring anything. Rotate question sets and re-derive answers from first principles.

ExamPractice has free sample questions for CompTIA exams, with fuller question sets and a timed practice-test simulation available to subscribers — the CompTIA exams hub is the starting point, and the free samples overview explains how the sample questions work.

Which core should you take first?

You can sit the two exams in either order and on different days, and most candidates should split them rather than booking both in one sitting. Taking Core 1 first is the conventional route: its hardware and networking content is the foundation Core 2's OS and security material sits on, and passing it builds confidence and exam-day familiarity before the slightly higher 700 passing score of Core 2.

The main case for Core 2 first is an unusual background — for example, someone who has administered Windows machines for years but never touched hardware. If that is you, playing to your strong suit first is legitimate. Either way, schedule the second exam close enough to the first that your shared knowledge (troubleshooting method, networking basics, study momentum) does not fade.

If you are weighing up whether to sit A+ at all or jump straight to networking, that sequencing question is covered in A+ vs Network+: which comes first, and the wider starting-point decision in which CompTIA certification to start with.

Common preparation mistakes to design out of your plan

• Studying to a retired version. Materials labelled 220-1101/220-1102 (or older) are for retired English-language exams. Check the code before you spend money or time.
• Watching without doing. A course completed at 1.5× speed with no hands-on work produces "seen" across the whole checklist and "done" on none of it. The performance-based questions will expose this.
• Treating both cores as one blob. They are separate exams with separate objectives and different passing scores. Prepare, benchmark and book them separately.
• Skipping operational procedures and the "soft" objectives. Every objective can be tested. The low-glamour domains are frequently the difference between a near-miss and a pass.
• Using practice questions as a memory game. Scores climb while understanding does not. Analyse misses, rotate sets, and re-explain answers in your own words.
• Booking before benchmarking. A timed, full-length practice run per core is the cheapest possible insurance against paying for a retake. On that note: CompTIA's retake policy allows an immediate second attempt but imposes a 14-day wait from the third attempt onwards, and every attempt costs a full-price voucher unless you bought a retake bundle.

Your first week of A+ preparation

If you want to start today rather than keep planning, here is a concrete opening week. Download both objectives documents from comptia.org and build your three-state checklist. Choose one primary course or book for Core 1 and schedule your study blocks in your calendar. Set up your lab: one openable machine or one hypervisor with a Windows VM. Then begin the hardware domain — reading, watching, and touching real components in the same sitting — and finish the week with a short set of hardware-only practice questions to establish your first baseline. From there, the plan above runs itself: study a domain, do it hands-on, test it, mark the checklist, and move on.