I was shown the index finger barre method for the A chord by a friend a while back. I find that it's very effective if you're playing fast, or if you want to do some hammer-ons - you can now reach easily to the fifth fret on the B or high E strings. Just as long as you make sure to mute the high E-string if you're doing a simple barre and you want an A-major chord.

As for the original question, I'd say that everyone is right when they say the three things to keep in mind are practice, practice and practice. One month from now, you'll look back and you won't remember ever having been stuck on playing an A chord, but only as long as you keep practicing, even if some strings are muted and it sounds a little off. (Just like barre chords).

Sometimes, when I hit a rut in my playing, and can't seem to master a particular technique, I like to remind myself that even the best players, Jimi, Gilmour, Slash, Vai, Van Halen, whoever - at one time, they couldn't play guitar either.

Hope that helps.