CompTIA announces A+ 2006 exams

elover_jm

RD28327 wrote:

I earned my A+ back in 1998. Of course, technology has changed a great deal since then! I did check out the CompTIA web site and read the info about the new A+ exams. It certainly makes me wonder if I need to recertify! Also, according to the web site, it says that I would only have to take one exam to re-certify. To re-certify or not to re-certify ..... that is the question ..... :

A+ since 1998

i think u should focus on more advance technology such as ms and cisco

meadIT

Danman32 wrote:

Looks like they raised the passing threshold too.

You're right.

Minimum Passing Score

CompTIA A+ Essentials 675

220-602 (IT Technician) 700

220-603 (Remote Support Technician) TBD

220-604 (Depot Technician) TBD

Legacy User

Yeah, screw comptia (non-profit org- my A$$) I'm getting my A+ before the deadline, screw the 2006 test, I got other exams I need to worry about more like the mcse and ccna for starters, than maybe I'll see if I want to update the A+ to the 2006 I doubt I'll need to though. breaking the test up into "Remote Support Technician", "IT tech" or "bench tech"(whatever) - what a bunch of bologne-smoke and mirrors thats all. if they want to update the exam with the latest, thats fine, but keep the format the same!!! all this other bologne like "electives" and essentials, they're trying to make the A+ seem like a bigger deal than it really is. I don't think comptia realizes that peeps who have been around for a while can smell the B.S., trust me, and the direction comptia seems to be going is a facade, or being pretentious in my opinion. If an employer has concerns whether an A+ tech has the qualifications to handle what ever special hardware they got, then they should make up a test or quiz to see if you (the prospect) can handle the troubleshooting part of a broken OS or hardware problem specific to their needs, then perhaps combine this with your certifications and make a decision then.
Lates.

Plantwiz

noone wrote:

Yeah, screw comptia (non-profit org- my A$$)

Non-Profit doesn't mean they don't make money. It is an accounting style that they cannot carry monies forward from year to year and (it's been a while...so I'm not curernt on the reporting), but they'd be limited to carrying no more then $2000.00 into the next fiscal year and could not do this for multiple years.

So, don't confuse Non-profit companies, churches, organizations as entities that DO NOT make money...they do, they just need to spend/invest every dollar they bring in into something (even if it is payroll).

muriloninja

Plantwiz wrote:

Thanks for getting that up

Not certain I care too much for the breakdown. If all paths lead to A+ then its going to be more confusing trying to decipher what someone who claims an A+ actually knows. As it is, there are too many who take the A+ without any experience, walk in for an interview and state they are A+ certified an know very little about how to work with the components let alone clients.

Should be interesting....

I agree, i almost got lost reading all that. To many avenues IMO. There needs to be one road not four or five to go down. Like you said, this one guy with an A+ might not know what the other guy with an A+ does. Am i correct in this?

Plantwiz

After reading the Sybex book, it seems that each elective has a little more emphasis then another, but generally the same info is covered. So to say that one 'knows' more or less due to the cert maybe not true, but I still don't care for the A+ 'x' title. It's too much hassle for the first cert in most people's life.

Serenety

I want to take the A+ essentials exam first. What should I start studing? Can I do this?

Plantwiz

Serenety wrote:

I want to take the A+ essentials exam first. What should I start studing? Can I do this?

Can you do it? It's up to you if you can do it or not



First. Download the objectives.

Hopefullycisco

Plantwiz wrote:

plettner wrote:

crap I forgot my old pwd wrote:

And about this too, it is always hard to distinguish what a tech knows by their certs. I work with 2 A+ techs that have never taken apart a computer until they worked with me. I wish there was a way to make more certs hands on. But I am just ranting in a different direction than this thread is going so we will save this for another day...

So true. I had a guy with every cert. under the sun working with me. Microsoft, Citrix, Novell, you name it. I asked him to change a CD-ROM to a CD-RW. It took him 1/2 hour and he still didn't have it done. Finally I showed him how to do it.

I really started thinking about the authenticity of his certification.

LOL,
But you didn't say he had an A+ Certification Maybe he doesn't know hardware.

Though I had a guy working for me who could figure out how to install a HDD and and Atapi device with only 1 IDE controller. He was A+ Certified and when I asked him if he set the Atapi device to slave...I got a blank look and a reply of "What's a slave?" He's gone now

That's pretty sad. I agree though, it would seem today's day in age, you have to have "that piece of paper" showing that you "know what you're doing/talking about." But as both of you have stated, obviously that's not always true. I would like some constructive critiscism on what I have to say next.

I'm 22, I have been building, breaking, fixing etc. mainly personal computers for almost 10 years now, I took an A+ course back in high school and thoroughly enjoyed now, finally, I'm headed back in that direction, studying to take my A+ cert. In the end I would like to be in the Cisco field. It would seem any of these fields are a catch 22, you have to have experience, even for entry level, but no one wants to give you experience. So what is my best plan of action? Any ideas, pro's/con's to this, that and the other thing.

undomiel

To add to the funny/sad stories here, at my previous job we had a guy who was also an A+ instructor and had been doing it for many years. During training we would be doing it online a lot and he didn't even know how to use a web browser and could never understand how to maximize a window. I also caught him cheating during the tests as well. And to hear him actually take calls was just painful! He kept making things worse every time I would listen in on him, instead of actually fixing a problem. The even more scary thing was that he somehow kept his job there for an entire year even though he repeated the same mistakes over and over.

Now to the topic at hand: my recommendation is applying for anything and everything that looks like a job you can do. ISP tech support, vendor tech support, help desk level 1, even just contract jobs for setting up computers at a location. If you can get a solid year on your resume it will make you look a whole lot more employable. Also get that A+ certification as fast as you can. I can't say it helped me really as I got the jobs first and then one employer paid for the certification for me but it does look like lots of head hunters do job board searchings based on certifications and not really experience these days.