Feeling deflated guys.....

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Have spent the last six months watching your videos, reading books and making notes. Anyway, am doing some certification pre-tests where I have to score 90% four times before I can sit my first 201-1001 exam and I feel like I'll be lucky to score 50%! I don't understand the questions full stop - if I did I might be able to figure out the answers. Here's one....

Joe, a user, sets up an IMAP connection on his smartphone to connect to webmail. Joe is able to view email, but he receives an error when trying to send a message, When viewing the mail client's configuration, Joe sees a valid SMTP server and port. What should Joe check NEXT to resolve the issue?

A. Make sure phone is not in airplane mode
B. Ensure the SSL/TLS option is being used
C. Check the account password is still valid
D. Configure the email account as a POP3 connection.

I chose C as I remembered that the credentials for sending aren't necessarily the same as incoming mail credentials but apparently I'm wrong and the answer is D. Configure the email account as a POP3 connection.

I'm baffled 'cos POP3 is for downloading email from a server (and optionally deleting it) not sending it. IMAP is basically POP3 with more features (you can work with email on a server as if it's on your local machine. So, can you explain this to me please as I'm feeling very deflated because the questions I'm being presented with don't seem to make a lot of sense despite over 200 hours worth of study! Why is the POP3 answer correct if the error message is when trying to send a message? HELP!

@Andrew-Gaskell said in Feeling deflated guys.....:

Have spent the last six months watching your videos, reading books and making notes. Anyway, am doing some certification pre-tests where I have to score 90% four times before I can sit my first 201-1001 exam and I feel like I'll be lucky to score 50%! I don't understand the questions full stop - if I did I might be able to figure out the answers. Here's one....

Joe, a user, sets up an IMAP connection on his smartphone to connect to webmail. Joe is able to view email, but he receives an error when trying to send a message, When viewing the mail client's configuration, Joe sees a valid SMTP server and port. What should Joe check NEXT to resolve the issue?

A. Make sure phone is not in airplane mode
B. Ensure the SSL/TLS option is being used
C. Check the account password is still valid
D. Configure the email account as a POP3 connection.

I chose C as I remembered that the credentials for sending aren't necessarily the same as incoming mail credentials but apparently I'm wrong and the answer is D. Configure the email account as a POP3 connection.

I'm baffled 'cos POP3 is for downloading email from a server (and optionally deleting it) not sending it. IMAP is basically POP3 with more features (you can work with email on a server as if it's on your local machine. So, can you explain this to me please as I'm feeling very deflated because the questions I'm being presented with don't seem to make a lot of sense despite over 200 hours worth of study! Why is the POP3 answer correct if the error message is when trying to send a message? HELP!

Ok. I see what they are trying to get you to see. But the question is misleading. I'm not sure why it's so misleading. The clue in this question is:

he receives an error when trying to send a message... and ...mail client's configuration

The client looks to be setup differently than the IMAP configuration that Joe believes because he sees a valid SMTP server and port (note not IMAP). Usually, if this is true, then the email client should be setup as a POP3 connection.

Let me know if that doesn't make sense.

Do not be discouraged. Use the practice-exam explanations as additional guidance on these types of "bizzarro" questions too. This one is confusing just to be confusing. The CompTIA A+ exam are based on the objectives, not on these weirdo practice-exam writer questions that make you question your sanity. So if you look at the exam objectives for this section, you'll see, the requirement for this topic will probably not be "decipher something so incredibly wrong... to make it right."

Hi Ronnie, Thanks for the reply. Still not 100% sure about this one because if Joe had set up SMTP instead of IMAP (and got confused) then how could he view email? It says he is able to view email in the question. Can't fathom out how setting up POP3 (which is an incoming mail protocol) actually resolves the issue of Joe not being able to send a message. IMAP still uses SMTP doesn't it? I remember having to configure SMTP & POP3 for Outlook Express in Windows 2000

I kinda think some of these test questions have obscure answers and some incorrect ones too as I was also asked last night what TWO cables you'd use in a crawl space? I got that wrong too as my answer of Plenum wasn't good enough - they wanted "COAXIA" too! Note the spelling mistake of Coaxial which shouldn't be used in a crawlspace unless it's plenum coated coaxial cable. Searched the net and the same question posted around there says name the cable you'd use in a crawl space!

Hopefully when I take the exam(s) the answers they have will be the correct ones

@Andrew-Gaskell,

This question is ambiguous and misdirection is key here. He says he's can see it but discusses the error when sending the email. so terrible question, that was my point.