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Current WGU student, question on MTA vs Comptia certs

melo

Hi, new poster here.

I started at WGU in 2010 in the general BS in IT program. I have 43 credits/8 classes left. My mentor has suggested updating my "old" degree program to the current one, which is a different catalog of courses. All the courses I've taken so far will transfer over, but all of the ones I have left to take will change.

If I change to the new catalog, I'll have 42 CUs remaining, but with 14 classes, as many of the courses have fewer CUs associated with them. It looks like the most noticeable change is the exams associated with the courses. The class that uses Comptia Security+ changes to the MS MTA Security Fund and the class that uses [FONT=&amp]CIW Database Design Spec certification changes to[/FONT] [FONT=&amp]MS MTA Database Fund Certificati[/FONT][FONT=&amp]on[/FONT]. Several of the other courses also use Microsoft certifications, I'm guessing still in the MTA group.

I'm currently a front-end web developer and I'm not getting this degree for the certifications. I just need a bachelors so I can qualify for promotions at work. Having Security+ means very little for my career, so it doesn't really matter to me if I get an MTA or Comptia certification. What does matter is how much more time this is going to take. I've read some reviews on MTA vs Comptia, most of which saying that MTA is easier than Comptia, which for me would be a plus, as I need the actual degree way more than the certification. But, I'm a little concerned that switching to the new catalog will mean more classes, even though its 1 CU less than my current one.

If doing the MTA certifications means I can get through them faster, then that is the route I would take. Any experience, comments, suggestions welcome.

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Comments

ajs1976

I'm looking at starting WGU next year and i'm trying to take some exams to transfer credit.

I completed the Net+ years ago, and recently completed the MTA Networking Fundamentals. MTA was a lot easier and not just because i'm more experienced. I completed the Security+ in 2008 and i'm working on the MTA Security Fundamentals now, and its material is also easier.

melo

After looking over what my mentor sent me again, I'm starting to think that the MTA exams aren't replacements, but in addition to the CompTIA, CIW exams.. hrm. I finished the Network+ exam this year, and good lord did that take forever to prepare for, I was really sweating that one. The A+ and Project+ weren't so bad, but if the Security+ is as hard for me as Network+, I probably shouldn't add the MTA on top of it. I'm waiting for my mentor to get back on clarifying that.

BGraves

Haven't taken any MTA courses/certs, just the CompTIA ones. I thought sec+ was quite eye opening and fascinating myself and found it easy to learn and breeze through. (I don't see why they would have you do two lower level certs for the same thing btw, seems unnecessary.)

If I had to choose between Sec+ or a MTA cert, I'd side with Sec+. I'd also look to the future and see if either might open doors for you that the other might not, you may not be a front end web dev forever, or you may want to look at a government job which almost all want a sec+ minimum. Perhaps not, I don't know. Just something to consider as you make your decisions. Hope it works out! Congrats on working on that degree/certs!

Somnipotent

Not a fan of the MTA exams. Not only are they Certiport (meaning you can't just take it at any Pearson/Prometric site but rather sometimes inconvenient locations) but I've found the official Microsoft texts are worthless. I'm working on Software Dev Fundamentals now and it's crap. LearnKey, Lynda.com, MeasureUp have been saviors.

New policy is if you pass a higher level certification, you test out of any dependent classes below it. IE, if I pass the CIW Database class, I clear the MTA Database Fundamentals too. That's the route I'm planning on doing. Also, my CCNP cleared all my lower level networking related classes (ICND1, ICND2, IINS, and Sec+) when I transferred them in.

melo

Somnipotent wrote: »

Not a fan of the MTA exams. Not only are they Certiport (meaning you can't just take it at any Pearson/Prometric site but rather sometimes inconvenient locations) but I've found the official Microsoft texts are worthless. I'm working on Software Dev Fundamentals now and it's crap. LearnKey, Lynda.com, MeasureUp have been saviors.

New policy is if you pass a higher level certification, you test out of any dependent classes below it. IE, if I pass the CIW Database class, I clear the MTA Database Fundamentals too. That's the route I'm planning on doing. Also, my CCNP cleared all my lower level networking related classes (ICND1, ICND2, IINS, and Sec+) when I transferred them in.

Innnteresting. I'll have to mention that option to my mentor, I'd definitely rather not take two exams if I don't need to. The main thing that prompted the catalog-change talk is the Operating Systems course, ABV1. My mentor mentioned that a lot of students have struggled with that, and they replaced it with [FONT=&quot]DHV1/DIV1/DJV1[/FONT] which are MTA exams and have had better success rates. ABV1 uses MCTS 70-680, but the newer three courses use the MTA exams (i think anyway...)

melo

BGraves wrote: »

Haven't taken any MTA courses/certs, just the CompTIA ones. I thought sec+ was quite eye opening and fascinating myself and found it easy to learn and breeze through. (I don't see why they would have you do two lower level certs for the same thing btw, seems unnecessary.)

If I had to choose between Sec+ or a MTA cert, I'd side with Sec+. I'd also look to the future and see if either might open doors for you that the other might not, you may not be a front end web dev forever, or you may want to look at a government job which almost all want a sec+ minimum. Perhaps not, I don't know. Just something to consider as you make your decisions. Hope it works out! Congrats on working on that degree/certs!

Did you take Network+? I'm curious how it compares to Security+. It is true that it could be beneficial in the future. Thanks for your feedback!