What is the meaning of "retirement" of exam

Hi again,

I can't quite grasp the concept of "retirement" of exam, which I think CySA+ is due shortly. Does this mean that the person who pass the retired exam will be derecognized and decertified, (and thus are forced to retake the "newer" version of exam)?

Thanks

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NetworkNewb

Just means you cannot take that version of the exam after that date. Nothing else

You’re still certified for what amount of time that certification is good for. It doesn’t come “derecognized” or anything

shahlapirnia

Tuncartoon said:

Hi again,

I can't quite grasp the concept of "retirement" of exam, which I think CySA+ is due shortly. Does this mean that the person who pass the retired exam will be derecognized and decertified, (and thus are forced to retake the "newer" version of exam)?

Thanks

@Tuncartoon

CompTIA introduces a new exam version for a given certification about once every three years.

When CompTIA is about to introduce a new exam version, they usually offer a Beta exam version at a reduced price.

The Beta exam results are tabulated and some questions are kept, revised or deleted. The Beta exams are scored and exam results are provided to candidates at the same time the new exam version is released to the public at regular pricing.

CompTIA retires a current exam six months after a new version of the exam is put in place. During these six months, both versions of an exam are available to be taken at Pearson VUE.

Once the six months have passed, the retirement date of the older exam is reached. This means that a candidate can no longer sign up with Pearson VUE to sit for the retired exam version.

At this point, the new exam version will be the only exam version available at Pearson VUE.

If you have been certified on a version of an exam that has now been retired, it does not affect your certification in any way.

A CompTIA certification that has an expiration date needs to be renewed prior to expiry in order to keep it in good standing.

There are a number of activities with which a candidate can extend the expiration date of his or her certification.

JDMurray

An "exam" and a "certification" are two different things. Exams are periodically revised and new revision released. For each CompTIA exam, this is about every three years. The certification that you get from having passed an exam (and by doing other things) may also require periodic renewal, usually every 1-3 years. The retirement of an exam and the expiration of certification are two, unrelated situations.

NetworkingStudent

New certification tests will test you on your knowledge of the latest technologies and processes. Usually, the knowledge on the test is related to the exam.

Comptia certs do expire. You can earn Continuing education credits. The credits will help you keep your certs current

Tuncartoon

I appreciate everyone's answer and I get the idea now. However, I think there will be some weird thought from people in my country regarding the "retirement" of the exam as: "Oh, so you are going to say you get this certification from the exam that outdated (and retired) 6 years ago?
I know that there is some renewal thing to do in order to keep the certification up-to-date. But how should I address the concern above?

Ps. Like, there won't be this much concern for ISACA's cert as their "retirement" is not this obviously and publicly announced.

shahlapirnia

Tuncartoon said:

I appreciate everyone's answer and I get the idea now. However, I think there will be some weird thought from people in my country regarding the "retirement" of the exam as: "Oh, so you are going to say you get this certification from the exam that outdated (and retired) 6 years ago?
I know that there is some renewal thing to do in order to keep the certification up-to-date. But how should I address the concern above?

Ps. Like, there won't be this much concern for ISACA's cert as their "retirement" is not this obvious announced and public.

@Tuncartoon

In the US, we do not tell anyone which exam version we took on our resume. As long as the certification is active, we list the certification by its name.

When an employer looks up a candidate’s certifications, the system does not tell the employer which version of the exam has been taken. Certifications are listed by name only plus their expiration status.

JDMurray

If having always passed the latest revision of a certification exam is important to you then simply re-take the exam each time a new revision is released. Most cert-holders don't care to do that although cert vendors do encourage it somewhat. For example, I passed the Security+ back in 2004 in its first release and now in 2019, it's in its sixth revision. Because I let my Security+ expire I really should re-take the latest exam but I don't really want to spend the $$$ to do so.

EANx

JDMurray said:

For example, I passed the Security+ back in 2004 in its first release and now in 2019, it's in its sixth revision. Because I let my Security+ expire I really should re-take the latest exam but I don't really want to spend the $$$ to do so.

The early versions of Security+ don't expire, only the ones after 2010: https://help.comptia.org/hc/en-us/articles/115005364303-Good-for-Life-Certifications

JDMurray

When you take a new CompTIA exam, all your "lifetime" CompTIA certs are automatically converted to "CE" certs with an expiration date and CPE requirement. I didn't bother to keep up on the renewals and let them all expire. There was no penalty in me doing so.

EANx

Interesting. I'm not going to argue, I'm sure you've logged in and seen the expiration date yourself, it's just that the link I provides states "If you hold a GFL certification and are interested in bringing that certification current the only option is to pass the current version of the exam. You’ll then have two certifications – your GFL certification and your CE certification" which should give someone ammunition to argue your use case shouldn't be occurring.

JDMurray

I took the CASP in 2013 and that set all my prior, non-obsolete lifetime CompTIA certs into motion towards expiration.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030959/uploads/editor/ai/e9pzqngoc513.png

EANx

Timely, thank you. I'm in the same boat, GFL versions and was thinking of taking one of the newer exams. I have no actual need for either but I think I'd like to keep my old ones.