Jason Dion Comptia A Practice Test

Using Practice Tests for CompTIA A+ Actually Works When You Do It Right

The CompTIA A+ certification requires passing two exams: 220-1101 (Core 1) and 220-1102 (Core 2). Most people fail because they study the wrong material or they try to memorize answers instead of understanding concepts. A Jason Dion Comptia A Practice Test is one of the more reliable ways to prepare if you approach it correctly. The exams themselves are 90 minutes long with around 90 questions each, covering hardware, networking, mobile devices, troubleshooting, and operational procedures. I used this resource for both Core 1 and Core 2 when I was preparing students for the exam. Dion's practice tests tend to hit closer to the actual difficulty level than most free options out there. The questions aren't copy-pasted from the real exam, obviously, but the style and format match what CompTIA throws at you. His explanations matter more than the score you get on any single attempt. Reading why an answer is right or wrong is where the actual learning happens. Here is how to use the practice tests without wasting your time. Take a full-length exam under timed conditions before you have done much studying. This gives you a baseline score. If you are scoring below 55% on your first try, you need to go back to the study material. If you are above 65%, you might be close but probably still have gaps. After that, do targeted review on the topics where you missed questions. Then take another full exam. Repeat until you are consistently scoring 75% or higher on at least two separate attempts before booking your real exam date.

One thing Dion's tests do well is simulate the performance-based questions that appear at the start of the actual exam. These are drag-and-drop, sorting, and configuration tasks. On the real test, you need to get these right early because they count toward your score and they consume time. I had a student once who kept missing the port-matching question involving the different types of network connectors. He thought he knew the answer but kept second-guessing himself during the timed portion. The workaround was to stop using the practice test as a quiz and instead build a reference sheet with all the connector types, pin counts, and speed ratings. He kept that sheet open while doing practice tests until the information stuck. By the third attempt, he was completing those questions in under a minute each. There are some weaknesses with this approach that people don't talk about enough. The practice tests can create a false sense of confidence because the questions sometimes feel easier than the actual exam. This happens particularly with the networking section where Dion covers fewer IPv6 address types than CompTIA actually tests. I noticed this when a student of mine scored 82% on Dion's Core 2 practice exams but only got a 68% on the real thing. The gap was entirely in the wireless encryption protocols and the CLI commands for troubleshooting. My fix was to supplement the practice tests with official CompTIA study guides and a couple of third-party video courses that covered the missing depth. Another issue is that Dion tends to reuse question formats across his exams. After taking four or five full tests, you start recognizing patterns. This is useful for learning the style but dangerous if you mistake pattern recognition for knowledge. I tell people to stop doing more than six full-length practice tests with any single provider. After that, diminishing returns set in hard. The value drops off quickly because you are reinforcing test-taking tricks instead of learning new material.

The cost is reasonable compared to other providers. Dion offers his practice tests as part of his course bundle, which runs around $30 to $40 depending on promotions. That is significantly cheaper than third-party exam simulators that charge $80 or more. For someone on a budget, this makes it a practical choice. The tradeoff is that his interface is not as polished as some premium alternatives. The explanations are solid but sometimes terse. If you miss a question, you get a paragraph or two of context, which is usually enough but occasionally feels thin on topics like USB specifications or power supply rail voltages. If you want to use the practice test effectively, start with the official CompTIA objectives. They list every topic you could possibly be tested on. Map Dion's practice questions back to those objectives and track which areas you keep missing. Build a personal spreadsheet with columns for topic, question number, correct or incorrect, and the concept you needed to review. This takes about 20 minutes to set up but saves hours of aimless retakes. Don't ignore the troubleshooting methodology sections. CompTIA loves questions that ask you to identify the next logical step in a troubleshooting process. The six-step model they expect you to follow is: identify the problem, establish a theory, test the theory, establish a plan, implement the solution, and verify functionality. When Dion's practice questions present a scenario, the correct answer often aligns with whichever option represents the next step in that sequence. Memorizing the sequence itself will improve your accuracy on those questions regardless of the technical content.

The biggest mistake people make is treating practice tests as a grading tool instead of a learning tool. If you score 90% and move on without reading every explanation, you are leaving points on the table. The 10% you missed tells you exactly what you still don't know. Spend more time on those questions than the ones you got right. That is where the actual preparation happens.