Worked through Mike Meyers' A+ guide? Here's how to find out if it stuck
Mike Meyers' All-in-One CompTIA A+ Certification Exam Guide and the Total Seminars video course are about as comprehensive as A+ preparation gets - which creates a specific and slightly counterintuitive risk. Comprehensive coverage produces confident recognition, and recognition is not recall under time pressure. You can follow every page and still stall on a question that asks what you would check first. FigigExams gives you free, full-length practice exams for both Core 1 (220-1201) and Core 2 (220-1202), each with a domain board that ranks your gaps by what they actually cost. No credit card.
Your free A+ exam codes
Full-length practice exams for both cores, with an Explanation and an Exam Tip on every question and a weighted domain board. Create an account on the next screen, the code auto-applies.
APLUS1-EXAM-FULL
Free Core 1 (220-1201)
APLUS2-EXAM-FULL
Free Core 2 (220-1202)
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In This Guide
The gap a comprehensive guide leaves
A thorough book is the best way to make sure nothing on the blueprint is missing from your knowledge. What it cannot do is change the retrieval conditions. When you read, the material is in front of you and your job is to understand it. In the exam the material is absent and your job is to produce it from memory, in about a minute, while three plausible wrong answers argue with you.
That difference has a name in the study literature - recognition versus recall - and it is why candidates routinely report that they "knew" a topic they then got wrong. They did know it, in the sense that they would have recognised the right answer in the text. They had not practised producing it cold.
The trap specific to a genuinely comprehensive resource is that it removes the obvious signal of unpreparedness. If you finish a thin course, you know you have gaps. If you finish the All-in-One, everything feels covered - because it was. Coverage and readiness are different measurements, and only one of them is testable.
Two exams, two separate readings
A+ requires passing both Core 1 and Core 2. They test different material, so a strong Core 1 result tells you nothing about Core 2.
| Exam | Domains | Free code |
|---|---|---|
| Core 1 (220-1201) | Mobile Devices · Networking · Hardware · Virtualization and Cloud · Hardware and Network Troubleshooting | APLUS1-EXAM-FULL |
| Core 2 (220-1202) | Operating Systems · Security · Software Troubleshooting · Operational Procedures | APLUS2-EXAM-FULL |
Core 2 is the one that catches book-trained candidates most often. Its Operational Procedures and Security domains are full of best-practice judgment items - the "what should you do FIRST" family - where the correct answer is a step in a documented process rather than the eventual technical fix. Those are learnable, but only by practising the question format, not by reading the process once.
Weighted domain lists: Core 1 objectives and Core 2 objectives. A reference for the commands Core 2 expects: the A+ command line cheat sheet.
What our data shows about picking a domain to revise
In every certification we have measured so far - CCNA 200-301, Security+ SY0-701 and CCNP ENCOR 350-401 - the domain candidates scored worst on was never the domain that cost them the most marks. Blueprint weights inside a single exam vary by a factor of two or three, so a mediocre result in a heavy domain outranks a poor result in a light one.
That is why a percentage score alone is a poor guide to what to revise, and why every FigigExams result ranks your domains by weight rather than by raw score. Read the full report →
CompTIA A+ is not yet in that report - its blueprint mapping is a known gap on our side, and we would rather say so than publish a number we cannot stand behind. The method applies to your own paper regardless: the board you get back ranks domains by weighted shortfall, so it will not send you to revise a light domain just because your percentage there looked bad.
What you get back from a FigigExams A+ paper
A percentage tells you where you stand. It does not tell you what to do next. Every FigigExams A+ paper produces two things beyond the score:
- A weighted domain board. Every domain you answered, ranked by weighted shortfall - the blueprint weight multiplied by your miss rate - so the domain at the top is the one costing you the most marks, not merely the one you scored lowest in. You get one board per core, so you can see which of the two exams is actually the risk.
- An Exam Tips block on every single question. Each item ships an Explanation that teaches the question and a separate Exam Tips block - the memorize-this table or rule for the concept. It is the part candidates pull up the night before, and it is in the free exam too.
The arithmetic behind the board is written out in full on the study path method page - no black box, no proprietary "readiness score" you cannot check.
One free full-length paper, no credit card. If you want the rest of the bank afterwards it is $39 once for lifetime access to every practice exam in that certification, including papers we add later - not a subscription, nothing to cancel, and no auto-renewal.
Test both cores under time
A+ requires passing both papers, so check both before you book either. The codes auto-apply after sign-up.
APLUS1-EXAM-FULL
Free Core 1 (220-1201)
APLUS2-EXAM-FULL
Free Core 2 (220-1202)
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Where this sits in the certification path
A+ is the entry rung of the CompTIA ladder
A+ is the support-technician entry certification. The conventional next step is Network+, then Security+. None are formal prerequisites, but the sequence minimises relearning: A+ introduces networking shallowly, Network+ takes it seriously, and Security+ assumes it.
Mike Meyers covers Network+ as well, and we have the same readiness check for that step: Mike Meyers Network+ practice exam. For Security+, see the Security+ readiness check.
Test what actually stuck from the All-in-One - free
Full-length Core 1 and Core 2 practice exams with a weighted domain board. No credit card.
Start Free A+ Practice ExamA free full-length practice exam, no credit card.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mike Meyers' A+ book enough to pass the exam?
The All-in-One guide is comprehensive enough that coverage is rarely the problem. What it cannot do is change the retrieval conditions - reading builds recognition, and the exam tests recall under time. The specific risk with a thorough resource is that it removes the obvious signal of unpreparedness: everything feels covered, because it was. Pair it with full timed papers.
Do I need to pass both A+ exams?
Yes. CompTIA A+ requires passing both Core 1 (220-1201) and Core 2 (220-1202). They cover different domains, so prepare and test for each separately.
Which A+ core catches book-trained candidates out?
Core 2. Its Operational Procedures and Security domains are full of best-practice judgment items - the "what should you do FIRST" family - where the correct answer is a step in a documented process rather than the eventual technical fix. Reading the process once is not enough; the format has to be practised.
Is there a free CompTIA A+ practice exam?
Yes - full-length practice exams for both Core 1 and Core 2, free, no credit card. The codes APLUS1-EXAM-FULL and APLUS2-EXAM-FULL apply automatically after sign-up. The rest of the pack is one $39 purchase per certification, for life.