How to Study for CompTIA A+ (the Smart Way)
The study method that actually works for A+ — the resources, the techniques, and the one habit that tells you you're ready to book the exam.
Short answer: the most effective way to study for CompTIA A+ is to follow the official exam objectives, learn with Professor Messer’s free videos, reinforce with active-recall flashcards, get hands-on in a home lab, and take practice exams until you consistently score 90%+. That mix — not just watching videos — is what gets people through both exams. Here’s the method, step by step.
Step 1 — Start with the objectives (your blueprint)
CompTIA publishes a free exam objectives PDF for each exam, and it is the literal blueprint — every question maps to a bullet on it. Download both from the official A+ page and treat them as your master checklist. Working through them top to bottom guarantees nothing slips through the cracks.
Step 2 — Pick one core resource and stick to it
You don’t need to spend a fortune. Two options cover almost everyone:
- Professor Messer — free, complete video courses for both A+ exams. For many people this alone is enough to pass. Start here.
- A book (optional, for depth) — Mike Meyers’ All-in-One A+ guide is the classic, with hands-on labs baked in.
Resist the urge to collect ten resources. One solid course you finish beats five you skim.
Step 3 — Use active recall, not passive watching
This is the single biggest difference between people who pass quickly and people who grind for months. Watching a video feels like studying, but it barely sticks. Testing yourself does. So after each topic:
- Make flashcards (Anki) for ports, acronyms, RAID levels, and command-line tools.
- Write the day’s key terms in your own words.
- Take the short Pop Quizzes as you go.
Step 4 — Get hands-on (the A+ differentiator)
A+ rewards people who’ve physically touched the hardware and the command line. Concepts you’ve done are nearly impossible to forget:
- Open a PC, swap RAM, identify every cable.
- Install Windows and a Linux distro in free VMs (VirtualBox).
- Run the command-line tools you’re learning (
ipconfig,chkdsk,sfc, and the Linux basics).
Step 5 — Practice exams until 90% (the readiness signal)
Quality practice exams (Jason Dion’s are a community favorite) do two things: they train exam stamina and they expose your weak domains. The rule that matters:
Don’t book the exam by the calendar — book it by your scores. When you’re consistently clearing 90%+ on fresh practice questions (not memorized ones), you’re ready.
Pay special attention to the performance-based questions (PBQs) — they appear first and weigh the most, so practice that interactive style specifically.
Put it on a schedule
A method without a calendar tends to drift. A realistic pace is 8–12 weeks of part-time study. To make it concrete, grab the free, printable A+ study plan and 10-week daily schedule — it maps every week with specific tasks, labs, and checkpoints, so you always know what to do next. The complete walkthrough (and how to land a job after) is in The Complete Guide to Passing CompTIA A+.
The one-sentence version
Follow the objectives, learn it once with Messer, test yourself relentlessly, build a little hands-on experience, and let your practice-exam scores — not the calendar — tell you when to book. Do that, and A+ is very passable.