I passed my Essentials test!

capitalsown

I don't know why, I'm just really proud of myself. I think I'm pretty young at 15, and I was the first in my class to pass. Although, is 760 a good score? I'm not quite sure how it's graded... I know it's on a scale of 100-900, so would that mean I actually got a 660 out of 800? I don't know. I'm really excited and I'm planning on getting my certification before the end of the month, or at least by early October. I'd like to get Network+ and Security+ this year too so I can get grandfathered in. Also, this is sort of off topic, but I'm not quite clear on how the other CompTIA certs work. I know they aren't being affected by their revised expiration policy, but I don't even know what their current expiration policy is. Are they lifetime or do they expire? Thanks!

Add: Also, how hard is the next exam compared to Essentials?

huntert

congradulations its is good to feel good about yourself. I waited a long time to take the a+ because it was kind of intimidating to me but after i took it it wasn't so bad i found the practical exam a little harder but if you study like you did the first one you should do alright keep up the good work

earweed

First off Congrats on passing the essentials and welcome to TE!

Most people think the practical is a little harde than the essentials. Break out the books and get the practical done while the essenials is still fresh.
All other CompTIA exams (besides the Net+ and Sec+) are still lifetime to the best of my knowledge. Those three are being given an expiry to conform to ISO standards and DOD directives so even if you take them this year and have them lifetime if you go to work in most any DOD or contractors for DOD then you will still have to renew them every 3 years. The good news about renewing the exams is that taking the highest of the 3 exams that you have (Sec+ is the highest of the 3) renews all 3.

capitalsown

Thanks, guys! I won't lie, I probably knew about 40-60% of Essentials material already, and I spent a week or two augmenting my knowledge. I am taking an IT class at my high school and we use this web app to help us study, but I don't want to start studying for Practical until I show my teacher I passed my Essentials. Also, I was talking to some other people I know who are A+ certified (cousins, second year students, etc) and they all seemed to tell me Practical was easier than Essentials, because it's less memorizing things like number of pins in specific connectors and more of actually applying your knowledge to solve problems.