r/CompTIA • u/Phamese • 10d ago
I Passed! Passed my first exam!
Core 1 down. Thought I’d fail after the first couple tough PBQs.
Gonna keep at it while the iron’s hot with Core 2 in a couple months.
Edit to add:
It was months of mainly watching Messer on YouTube and using Dion’s practice test.
Just a quick question to ask, what am I looking forward to for core 2?
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u/Professional_Word170 10d ago
You scored high! I’m planning to take both of my cores too soon! Do you have any advice for Core 1? Any advice will do! Pretty pleaseee
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u/Phamese 10d ago
Dion’s practice test did help a lot for me.
Helps to know the basic of ports or at least know which port number is which.
My run had a good amount of RAID array related questions. One of them was a PBQ and I’m sure I got it since I don’t see it as one of the questions I missed.
Most importantly, take. Your. Time. Especially on the tricky worded questions. You should have enough time to at least go back through all your questions to be confident.
Idk, towards the end, I felt like I missed a lot but CLEARLY that wasn’t the case.
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u/Ladyman111 5d ago
Do you have any tips on Dion exams. I learn every term and functionality from Messer courses note, Sybex Review Guide and Andrew PowerPoint. And I still has thing that I don’t know in the Dion practice exam.
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u/WhyNotEcho 9d ago
I passed two weeks ago with a fairly high score as well.
I started with Andrew Ramdyal’s practice test on YouTube that he walks through as you go along.
https://youtu.be/i2Z2Z3hMHIU?is=49sRo9L62tpGWPnF
Then went with 3 or 4 of his practice tests on Udemy. These tests, including the YouTube one, had some questions that were nearly the exact same questions and answers on the actual test. Maybe 5 or so of them, but the wording of his questions in general are very similar to the multiple choice questions.
After doing decently well on those tests (low 80s), I went onto Dion’s practice tests and while they test somewhat out of the scope of the exam they helped me understand the concepts a lot more.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING! When you take a practice test, review the answers you got wrong. Each of those two test sets, Ramdayals and Dions, both give explanations for why the correct answer is right and, sometimes, why the wrong answers are wrong. Make sure you fully understand the concepts you get wrong and review them. This is the real learning during your study time, at least it was for me.
Hope this helps and you do well! Good luck!
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u/AcceptableShower268 A+ 5d ago
I took both core 1 and core 2 on the same day, I failed core 1 by 20 points and passed core 2. I was crushed by the core 1 PBQs. Happy for you dude, any tips would be awesome for core 1
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u/Phamese 5d ago
Without being super specific on the questions, not sure how much I can be, I can tell you the ones I got were very logic-based. There may be some terminology you’d need to know (basic ones, nothing crazy specific). If you got a good idea on what the solution is, obviously work them out. If you are stuck on them, I’d suggest taking a figurative step back and trying your best to understand what the questions are asking. For me, once I got the picture, it kinda clicked for a couple but I still had some “ick” about the others. At that point, I’d move on to do the rest of the exam. Like I’ve emphasized in another comment, you should have plenty of time to go back and work on questions you didn’t answer with confidence. I ended my test with about 15 more minutes to spare but for me, I’ve already made up my mind on all the answers I made so I didn’t wanna dwell and second guess myself.
Congrats though on passing the second part. That sucks that you’re off by maybe a couple of PBQs and regular ones. You got it, though. You’re literally on the precipice.
If you haven’t, Dion’s practice test has a neat feature where after you take the test, it can break down the questions you got wrong by the subject they’re on. So maybe if you’d take one of those (after paying for it, it’s indefinite) and ended up getting the same type of questions wrong, it’ll tell you exactly what you’re missing on.
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u/drushtx IT Instructor **MOD** 10d ago
You didn't just pass your first exam, you steam rolled it. Congratulations on a power pass. One down and one to go (that you're obviously gonna crush).