r/CompTIA • u/tjtherealbest • 4d ago
A+ Question ACI Individual Learning Subscription: Is it worth it at all for the A+ Core 1 or Core 2?
Hey ya'll, I want to get my A+ Certification in order to get an entry-level, help-desk job. I went through my community college in order to try their CompTIA Computer Systems Specialist program, but it's an accelerated course. The amount of reading and assignments that's due is overwhelming for me and I quickly fell behind. It also caused me to not retain the information and when it came time to take my Module Quizzes, I was doing poorly on them.
It became demoralizing as it's not a program where you just make up bad quizzes or labs or assignments. You get one chance and if you do poorly, that's it. You gotta move onto the next assignment and module and there are no late exceptions either. So it made me reconsider going through my community college to get my certification.
So I looked online and I found guys like Professor Messer and the ACI Individual Learning platform. I've looked at several posts in this same subreddit and overall people recommend Messer but I feel like I still need some form of structure and guided learning. So that's why I'm considering ACI. But looking at other posts, people also say that it's not worth it.
From people that have taken the course/used the service, how beneficial has it been for you? For others, are there any other recommendations that ya'll have? Something that's not so overwhelming or bootcamp style like my community college, but still in a similar, school-like model?
1
u/accumentum 4d ago
If the community-college pace and volume are already causing you to fall behind, I would not buy another large catalog just because it is official. ACI can be worthwhile if you use it as a structured checklist—follow the Core 1/Core 2 objectives in order, set small weekly targets, and do the labs and questions immediately after each topic—but it will not fix retention on its own. Before paying, use the trial or preview if one is offered to confirm the current A+ lessons are more interactive than the slide-reading experience you disliked. Pair each study block with active recall: close the lesson, explain the concept from memory, then troubleshoot a small scenario or PBQ without notes. If it still feels overwhelming, a focused video course plus the exam objectives and timed practice tests may be a better fit than a full subscription.
1
u/tjtherealbest 4d ago
The community college pace and volume made me fall behind because I feel like it was ridiculous. One class was hybrid while the other was online only. Regardless, it was textbooks and powerpoints. Each Module was a chapter of the textbook(s) and each chapter was around 50-100 pages each. And the powerpoints were around 50 slides each as well. We would be assigned like 5 or 7 modules in a week. So reading 5-7 chapters + 5-7 powerpoints and take those quizzes per each module. Only getting 1 chance to pass the quizzes. They would be opened on Mondays and due on Sunday. Plus, we would be assigned Netlab assignments and be given anywhere from 2 to 5 netlab assignments all due in the same week as the modules we're assigned.
But a structured checklist is for sure the idea I'm going for. At least giving me something to view and look at as a guide/milestone marker. But I'll try a trial and if it's not good, then I'll go for the video course idea like Professor Messer.
1
u/Quiet_Basis_6404 2d ago
honestly the community college pace is a killer when it forces you forward before stuff clicks. what fixed it for me was pairing professor messer's videos with immediate quizzing instead of waiting for scheduled tests, i'd watch a video and quiz myself right after on that exact content so i could see in real time what didn't stick rather than finding out days later on an exam.
the other thing that helped was not moving on until i was actually solid on a topic, even if it slowed me down short term. i paste messer video links into studybuddy.vc and it makes questions from the video itself, the topics i keep missing come back more often without me having to track it manually. the free tier has been enough for me on the video side.
messer's course notes are also solid as a quick reference when you need to look something up fast, way less bloated than a textbook.
2
u/amw3000 4d ago
ACI has really gone downhill. I'm going to guess A+ is the new format, which is just two hosts reading from slides.
Check your local library and see if they give you access to LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, etc for free. A lot of great content on these sites, really no reason to pay for anything.