When should I take a practice exam in a 30-day plan?

Around day 12 to 14, well before you feel ready. Sitting one early converts a vague sense of unpreparedness into a specific list of two or three topics, which is what the second half of the plan should be spent on. Waiting until day 25 to discover a gap leaves no time to close it, and that is the single most common way a 30-day plan fails.

How many hours a day does a 30-day A+ plan need?

Roughly one to two hours on weekdays and three to four at weekends, which comes to around 45 to 60 hours over the month for one core. Someone with no prior IT exposure should plan closer to 60 to 80 hours, or extend to six weeks. Consistency matters more than volume: five one-hour sessions beat one five-hour session on almost every axis.

30-Day CompTIA A+ Study Plan: Week by Week

Q: Can you pass the CompTIA A+ in 30 days?

One core in 30 days is realistic for someone with some IT exposure putting in one to two hours on weekdays and more at weekends. Both cores in 30 days is not realistic for most people, because A+ is two separate exams whose content barely overlaps. Plan 30 days per core and treat them as two projects rather than one.

Q: Which A+ core should I study first?

Either - CompTIA imposes no order. Core 1's networking content makes part of Core 2's Windows networking objective easier, which mildly favours Core 1 first. The stronger argument is that Core 2 has the higher pass mark, 700 against 675, more sub-objectives and far more scenario content, so taking it second means facing the harder exam while your first pass is still fresh.

This plan covers one core in 30 days, and that limit is deliberate. A+ is two separate exams whose content barely overlaps, so trying to prepare for both at once produces two half-preparations rather than one good one. Pick a core, work this plan, sit it, then run the plan again for the other. The sequencing below comes from the official domain weights and from which objectives test recall versus application.

By FigigExams Team, Senior Network & Security Engineers · 220-1201 / 220-1202 (V15) · Updated August 2026

ScopeOne core

Time45-60 hours

First practice examDay 12-14

Pass marks675 / 700

Your free A+ exam code

Day 12 needs a full paper. Here it is, free.

The plan turns on one thing: sitting a full-length paper before you feel ready, so the second half is spent on real gaps rather than guesses. 90 questions against the current objectives, with an explanation and an Exam Tip on every item.

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Before day 1: two decisions

Pick your core, and book the date. A booked exam is the only deadline that reliably holds, and A+ candidates who book before studying finish at a far better rate than those who plan to book "once I feel ready" - a feeling that arrives late or never.

Then spend twenty minutes on the objectives for that core. Not the study guide, the objectives. They tell you where the marks are before you spend fifty hours distributing them wrongly, and they tell you which content is recall and which is application, which is what this whole plan is sequenced around. Core 1 objectives · Core 2 objectives.

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The number that should shape your month. 13 of Core 1's 27 sub-objectives and 23 of Core 2's 36 begin with "Given a scenario". Roughly half of Core 1 and nearly two thirds of Core 2 cannot be prepared for by reading. That is why this plan front-loads recall content and spends the back half on practice - the reverse of how most people study.

Week 1 - bank the recall content

Days 1-7

Take the cheap marks first

Goal: finish the week with the memorisable content already in place, so it has three weeks to consolidate.

If you are sitting Core 1

Virtualization and Cloud (4.1, 4.2) - two objectives, both pure recall, 11% of the exam. The best value on the paper. One evening.
The ports table (2.1) - the most reliably tested single objective on Core 1. Start now so it has time to stick, and revisit it every few days.
Cable types and connectors (3.2), RAM (3.3), RAID levels (3.4) - high recall load, entirely learnable, and all three feed the troubleshooting domain later.
Wireless standards and bands (2.2) - know which standard uses which frequency; that is what most questions turn on.

If you are sitting Core 2

Operational Procedures (4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.8, 4.10) - safety, environmental, licensing and privacy, scripting basics and the AI objective. Largely definitional, and 21% of the exam sits in this domain. Most candidates skip it; do not.
The security definitions (2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.9) - malware categories, social engineering, wireless protocols, data destruction. Five recall objectives inside the joint-largest domain.
Change management stages (4.2) and backup types (4.3) - both ordered or structured content, both asked directly.

Every day this week

Fifteen minutes of flashcards on what you covered yesterday. Recall content decays without review, and this is the cheapest insurance in the plan.

Week 2 - the heavy domains, and a full paper

Days 8-14

Learn the systems, then measure

Goal: cover the domains the troubleshooting content depends on, then sit a full paper on day 12-14 - before you feel ready.

Core 1, days 8-11

Networking concepts (2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.7, 2.8) - IP addressing, network services, hardware devices, connection types, tools. Prerequisite for the troubleshooting domain, so this is not optional.
Hardware install and configure (3.1, 3.5, 3.6) - displays, motherboards and CPUs, power supply sizing.
Printers as one subject (3.7, 3.8) - deployment and maintenance together, because they are one topic split across objectives, and they reappear in 5.6.

Core 2, days 8-11

Windows properly (1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 1.7) - editions, features and tools, settings, client networking. Domain 3 troubleshoots all of this, so learning it now shrinks week 3.
Command-line tools (1.5, 1.9) - Windows to the level of choosing under pressure, Linux to the level of recognition. The full command reference.
OS installation and applications (1.1, 1.2, 1.10, 1.11), then macOS and Linux (1.8, 1.9) in a single sitting.

Days 12-14: sit a full-length practice exam

Do it before you feel ready. This is the step everyone postpones and the one that saves the most time. It converts "I am not sure I know enough" into a list of two or three specific topics.
Full length, timed, in one sitting. 90 questions in 90 minutes is a minute per question, and time is a failure mode candidates prepare for least.
Then read every explanation, including on the questions you got right. Guessing correctly and knowing are different states, and only one survives to exam day.
Write down the three weakest topic areas. Week 3 is those three, and nothing else.

Week 3 - close the gaps the paper found

Days 15-21

Three topics, not the whole syllabus

Goal: turn the three weakest areas from day 12 into your strongest, and resist the pull to re-read everything.

The rule for this week

Study only what the practice exam identified. Re-reading material you already know is comfortable and it is why 30-day plans fail. If a topic did not appear on your list, it does not get time this week.
Work from the questions you got wrong rather than from a chapter. Each one has an explanation attached; read the reasoning, then find two more questions on the same objective.
For each weak area, ask which kind of gap it is. If the objective's verb is Explain, Summarize or Compare, it is recall and flashcards will fix it. If it is "Given a scenario", reading will not fix it - practise the scenarios instead.

Day 20 or 21: sit a second, different paper

A different paper, not a repeat. Re-sitting the same paper mostly measures how well you remember it, and the score rises whether or not you learned anything. Why a rising score usually is not progress.
Compare the three weak areas specifically. If they moved and something else dropped, that is normal and it is what the last week is for.

Week 4 - scenarios, timing, and taper

Days 22-30

Practise the half you cannot read for

Goal: convert knowledge into speed, rehearse the performance-based questions, and arrive rested rather than saturated.

Days 22-26

The troubleshooting domain, entirely as practice. Core 1's Domain 5 is 28% of the exam and every objective is scenario-phrased; Core 2's Domain 3 is 23% and all four are. Work through faults, do not read about them.
Performance-based questions. They appear early and eat time. Practise flagging and skipping any PBQ that stalls you, clearing the multiple-choice questions, and returning with the remaining time. How A+ PBQs are marked.
Daily flashcard review on the recall content from week 1. It has had three weeks to fade.

Days 27-28

One last full timed paper. Treat the result as information about timing and stamina rather than as a verdict - by now the content is what it is.
Re-read only the explanations for anything you got wrong.

Days 29-30

Taper. Light review of the ordered sequences - the laser imaging process, the malware removal steps, the change management stages, backup types. These are cheap to refresh and expensive to forget.
No new material. Anything learned in the last 48 hours is unlikely to be there under exam pressure, and the cost in confidence is real.
Sleep, and check the logistics - ID requirements, test centre or online proctoring setup, and the start time.

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Then start the other core. Book it before the first result has worn off. Candidates who begin the second core within a fortnight of passing the first complete A+ far more often than those who take a break - the break is where A+ attempts go to die.

Your free A+ Core 2 exam code

The plan needs three papers. The first is free.

Day 12, day 20 and day 27 each want a full-length sitting, and repeating one paper does not count - the score rises either way. Start with a free one and see how much of the plan you actually need.

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Frequently asked questions

Can you pass the CompTIA A+ in 30 days?

One core in 30 days is realistic with some IT exposure and one to two hours on weekdays. Both cores in 30 days is not realistic for most people, because A+ is two separate exams whose content barely overlaps. Plan 30 days per core and treat them as two projects.

Which core should I study first?

Either; CompTIA imposes no order. Core 1's networking content makes part of Core 2's Windows networking objective easier, which mildly favours Core 1 first. The stronger argument is that Core 2 has the higher pass mark (700 against 675), more sub-objectives and more scenario content, so taking it second means facing the harder exam while your first pass is fresh.

When should I take a practice exam?

Around day 12 to 14, before you feel ready. It converts a vague sense of unpreparedness into a specific list of two or three topics, which is what week 3 is for. Waiting until day 25 leaves no time to close whatever it finds, and that is the most common way a 30-day plan fails.

How many hours a day does this need?

Roughly one to two hours on weekdays and three to four at weekends - about 45 to 60 hours over the month for one core. With no prior IT exposure, plan 60 to 80 hours or extend to six weeks. Consistency beats volume: five one-hour sessions beat one five-hour session.

What if the day 12 practice exam goes badly?

That is the plan working. A low score on day 12 with 18 days remaining is a solvable problem and exactly the information you sat the paper to get. Below about 60% the gaps are structural, so work through the objectives domain by domain rather than drilling questions. Between 60% and 75% is the normal place to be, and the three weakest topics are your week 3.

Am I ready to book?

Book first, then study - the date is the deadline that makes the plan work. For the readiness thresholds and the other signals worth checking before you sit, that has its own page: Am I ready for the CompTIA A+?