Reddit reviews CompTIA A+ Complete Study Guide: Exams 220-701 (Essentials) and 220-702 (Practical Application)

Check out the Sybex book series. I have used these books to study for my Network + and A+ and they are fantastic. They all come with this pretty decent testing engine which contains a fairly extensive list of questions which are broken down chapter by chapter.

Good luck on your test! The A+ certification is pretty easy provided you have a good grasp on basic computing troubleshooting. I am sure you will do fine.

Whoa Whoa slow down there Dingleberry.

First off. Good that you are interested in IT. But IT is huge and there are so many aspects to it. I suggest starting off with something like the CompTIA A+. That will give you the base knowledge you need to know to be able to troubleshoot many everyday end user problems. By base knowledge I mean the thought process and methodology. IT isn't predictable. There are 100s if not millions of cases where following X directions is supposed to give you Y results but it doesn't because something that seems completely unrelated is causing the issue. The A+ helps put you in the correct mindset.

The CompTIA A+ you can just pick up the book for it, sit and read it. It isn't a class and is very entry level. There are classes for it but I personally advise against it. I read the book and took the test my first year in college. But I was already fixing problems on my own. It just supplemented what I knew and taught me more.

What ever anyone says about the A+ being easy is semi true. I can promise you that anyone who thinks they know their stuff does not know everything. That also includes A+ material which again is basic. Everyone who reads those books will learn something. But for seasoned people it can be boring since a lot of it is rehashed info they know from experience. The A+ is conceptual and the methods taught are not written in stone. Also the test is performing troubleshooting the ComTIA way.

For example a common troubleshooting tip for network connectivity issue such as not being able to get online is something as simple as checking to make sure the ethernet cable is plugged in. And CompTIA says that should always be the first thing you check. This is something basic that many people overlook because in my experience very rarely the issue is the cable not being plugged in.

Don't skip it. It will be your building blocks. You don't have to take the test. But it will help you get your foot in the door into a help desk position.

The Cisco Net Acad is good for getting fundamentals of networking in the Cisco world and is training toward the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA). Meaning the scope is very limited. You will learn how a network works in general. Meaning the how information gets from point A to point B and theory behind why it works. But then it will take a sharp turn on to Cisco network equipment. I suggest reading a Sybex's Net+ book by Todd Lammle. The Net+ is also by CompTIA but focuses on a MUCH MUCH broader spectrum of networking and troubleshooting networks. For example, the Cisco course isn't really going to dive into this like token rings, MAUs, ALOHA, DSL, DSLAMs, Cable, and other tech. The Cisco learning path is more, here is what a network is, here is why it works, here are some general things that apply to all networks, and now let configure a Cisco switch and a Cisco router, and finally let's troubleshoot common Cisco problems that people run into.

Use the Cisco classes to build on your Net+ knowledge. I'm not saying to take the CompTIA A+ and Net+ exams, but at least study the material. Because it sounds like you aren't really sure what you want to split off to. If you go straight for the Cisco class, you will learn nothing about computers because Cisco doesn't care about what desktop/laptop/server you use for this level of information.

Being well rounded in IT is more valuable than being a specialist who only knows one thing in terms of job opportunities. But from what I've seen specialists make more money if you can find a job for that specialization.

Now to answer your 3 questions.

1. Read a Net+ book. It will teach you all the basics you need to know. There will be some overlap in the beginning but that is about it. It's better for you to have a wider range of networking knowledge than to be locked into a specific vendor from the start. You have years ahead of you to worry about vendor specialization. But Cisco currently is the defacto networking equipment. Juniper is catching up and HP and Dell offer enterprise solutions that compete with Cisco.
   
   
2. In my college it was a 4 semester class held once a week. I would talk to your community college about completion time. If you want to finish it faster, you might be best served by going to a trainer. But they are a lot more expensive and the material they will throw at you will be bigger chunks because they will expect you have some base knowledge. This is a great reason why you should read the Net+ books. It will get you familiar with general networking concepts so that when you take the class you're not sitting there with confused look on your face.
   
   
3. There really isn't a guide. The Cisco Net Acad classes follow the exam Objectives for the CCNA. For you the major Certs would be the A+, Net+ and CCNA (ICND1 and ICND2). The CCNA is a cisco certification that can be taken 2 ways. The composite CCNA exam. And the ICND1 and 2. Passing ICND1 will give you the CCENT. It's basically part one of the test and saying that you can walk into a small business and get a basic network up and running. The ICND2 is the second part and will give you the full CCNA. The composite test is both the ICND1 and 2 put together.
   
   The composite test is meant for those with experience and is generally harder because you need to know less about a lot of topics where as the ICND1 and 2 you need to know a lot about less topics. You should take the 2 test route.
   
   These are the books I read. These are also the ones I mentioned above.
   
   Sybex ComTIA A+ http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Complete-Study-Guide-Application/dp/047048649X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372738911&sr=1-3&keywords=sybex+a%2B
   
   Sybex CompTIA Net+ by Todd Lammle http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Network-Study-Authorized-Courseware/dp/1118137558/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372738836&sr=1-8&keywords=todd+lammle
   
   Start off reading these two. These will teach you everything you need to know to understand what you are getting your self into. From there you can go into specialization such as Cisco. For that I used the Wendell Odom books which are the official Cisco books. Warning, the writing is dry.
   
   Cisco ICND 1 100-101 by Wendell Odom. http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-CCENT-ICND1-100-101-Official/dp/1587143852/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372739094&sr=1-2&keywords=wendell+odom+icnd1
   
   Cisco ICND 2 640-802 http://www.amazon.com/ICND2-Official-Certification-640-816-640-802/dp/158720181X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372739138&sr=1-4&keywords=wendell+odom+icnd2
   
   NOTE: I did not see the ICND 2 book by Wendell and Odom for the new exam objectives that will take effect later this year. So the first ICND 1 book will be valid for the new test. The second book will not be but it would not hurt you to read it until Wendell and Odom come out with an updated ICND 2 book.
   
   I've also heard good things about the Todd Lammle CCNA book but I do not see one for the newer exam objectives.

Careful with those (and yeah, that's pretty bad if it's linked by CompTIA), I've found that a lot of those seem to steer you in the wrong direction to get you to pay for their test prep material. I completely threw out online practice exams.

I would join a forum based on certification prep help or grab a book from Amazon with more adequate explanations/practice/examples than some shady website.

I used this book. It's actually an over abundance of information because it also goes into networking and security, but every thing up to those points is included in the pool of A+ questions. As a matter of fact it had so much information I thought I was under prepared for the A+ but I ended up blowing it away. Prepping for Network+ and Security+ now.

I have no degrees and no certs. Everything I know was either self-taught or learned on the job.

For someone in my position, the trick is to be supremely confident about that which you do know and unafraid to admit when you do not know something.

The fastest way to show the IT departments you are applying to that you are serious is to get your A+ certification. On its own it really doesn't mean a whole lot, but when 5 guys apply for a position and only one of them has an A+ cert (and the rest have no certs at all) guess who gets the job...

Also, A+ takes no time to get. Grab this, study for a month and then go take the test.


EDIT: I should do an AMA about my cert-less self and my recent improvement of status within the IT community...