The CompTIA A+ Practice test and the Process of Elimination
The CertBlaster A+ Practice test and multiple choice strategy
Updated: 02/22-2021
Just as at the CompTIA exam, you will on the CertBlaster A+ practice test, see a fair amount of multiple-choice questions. Why? Because, in spite of all the talk about performance-based questions (and CertBlaster has lots of those too, see our YouTube Channel or below for examples), the multiple-choice questions remain in the majority at CompTIA’s A+ exams.
The right answer doesn’t pop up at you? Look for wrong answers instead!
On occasion, you will not feel any of the four alternatives presented is correct. You are drawing a blank and you know you are not going to break out of it. This is when the process of elimination has to be called upon. If you are able to identify just one or two choices that are definitely wrong, you will have significantly improved your odds of getting the question right. This is what we call the process of elimination. No CompTIA exams penalize you for a wrong answer. This means that when in doubt, you should always guess: Never leave a question unanswered even if this means choosing an answer completely at random.
The typical multiple choice question has 4 possible answer choices. If you were to blindly click any one of those you would give yourself a 25% chance of getting this question right (1 in 4). Now let’s assume you recognize in the four choices one that you absolutely know is wrong. Eliminate that one possibility, and you have a 33% (1 in 3) chance of getting a correct on this question. Of course, if you can eliminate three incorrect choices then the last one is the correct answer… Consider now your chances of getting a correct answer by picking no alternatives at all: You are then of course looking at a certainty (100% chance) of not getting any points at all for that question.
A strategically important moment to apply above is at the end of the exam. If you find yourself at the end of the A+ exam with a handful of multiple-choice questions that you marked for later but have not yet answered (and you know time is running out) then make sure to at the very least click one answer for each. Say you have 10 of those then if you answer them all you will statistically speaking get 2.5 (25% of 10) correct. It can be a little bit more or a little bit less but in any case, you are almost guaranteed to get more points than if you were to freeze in front of the first question and not answer any of the remaining nine questions…
Click the link for our free A+ practice test questions. you will see examples of the type of A+ multiple-choice questions you can expect at the CompTIA A+ exam.
Best of luck on the A+ exam!
