Possibly beating a dead horse but: Getting re-certified every 3 years?

So I've been putting off taking the Net+ for a long while now but since I've just been hired at a job that is a lot closer to home with way better hours than previous I figure I will have free time to study again. I wanted to get Net+ certified before 1/1/2011 so that I won't have to re-certify every 3 years and also don't want to have to worry about studying for it when I go back to college.

I have some dumb questions for you guys but please bear with me. At what point am I considered certified? Is it the same day I pass the test or is it some amount of time after that? Is there any big difference between taking the test at Prometric or Pearson Vue? Is there one that most of you favor over the other and why?

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Cert Poor

Anonymouse wrote: »

At what point am I considered certified? Is it the same day I pass the test or is it some amount of time after that?

The date you pass the test is the date printed on your cert.

Anonymouse wrote: »

Is there any big difference between taking the test at Prometric or Pearson Vue?

Nope.

Anonymouse wrote: »

Is there one that most of you favor over the other and why?

I haven't tested at Pearson VUE yet, but I'm indifferent. Whichever voucher happens to be cheapest at the time. The center I recently tested at was both Prometric and Pearson VUE, so it would be the exact same room.

earweed

+1 to the above replies. However when you go for vendor specific certs Microsoft uses Prometric and Cisco uses Pearson Vue.

Chris:/*

I have tested at both facilities around the world and so far if I have a choice I choose Pearson Vue. The Pearson Vue testing centers seem to be better kept with less failure prone equipment. Now that is speaking from my experiences it may be completely the opposite in places I have not visited or taken tests at.

An additional point is how much easier it is to register for a Pearson Vue test overseas.

When registering with Prometric overseas I feel like I am back in the dark ages waiting for a response for the cereal UPCs I have sent in to receive a useless toy.

nel

i havent had a bad experiance at either testing centres but like others have said, once you go vendor specific you can only take them at one or the other (or at least MS/cisco).

Thing i hate about that is the waiting time increases and it reduces the amount of centres you can sit the exams. This really p155es me off as the waiting times are rubbish in the city where i live.

za3bour

Prometric is known to have more problems ,I personally had one bad experience with then but to be honest with you I chose whatever is close to my house.

Slowhand

Personally, I have no preference between Vue and Prometric. I tend to lean towards Prometric for the sole reason that I have one of their testing centers within walking-distance of my house. Other than that, it's simply a matter of which provider has a nicer testing center in your area.

As for when you are considered certified. . . technically, you are considered certified the moment you hit the "Finish" button on your exam and you receive back a "Congratulations" message on the screen of your testing computer. There's usually a few days of waiting to get your congratulatory email and access to the vendor's info-site, and there have been cases of Prometric or Vue taking their sweet time sending the info to the cert-vendor, but generally your certification history will show that you are certified as of the day you passed the test. If you take your Network+ exam on 12/31/2010 (or earlier), you will be considered certified as of that date and not be subject to the new rules involving re-certification every three years.

za3bour

Well I think that getting the "Passed" screen doesn't mean that you are actually certified until you get the official Email ? at least this is what they say in your score report.

Slowhand

za3bour wrote: »

Well I think that getting the "Passed" screen doesn't mean that you are actually certified until you get the official Email ? at least this is what they say in your score report.

When I took the CCNA exam (640-801) back in 2007, I took it on the last day before it was to be replaced with 640-802. It took Cisco a day or two to send me the email, but I was still considered certified as of 11/06/2007, which means I'm due to renew by 11/06/2010. Prometric and Vue record the date and time you took your exam as well as your score and send that off to the vendor. The vendor takes this information and stores it in their systems, so it does mean that you're certified the moment you hit finish and receive your (passing) score. . . that is, barring any issues in the communication between the testing center and the cert-vendor.

I called Cisco and asked them when I took the CCNA, fearing that I'd missed the deadline in 2007 because I hadn't received my email. They assured me that Vue's information would be recorded as the date/time that I was officially awarded a CCNA certification and that the email would be sent as soon as they received all the info.

The only real exceptions are human-proctored exams, like the CCIE, where you won't truly be considered certified until the proctor reviews your lab and records your score. Once it's recorded, it's only a matter of time before you're notified and you get to find out too. Even then, though, your records will show that you were certified as of the moment your test was over.

Anonymouse

In the process of getting a username and password at Pearson Vue so I can schedule the test now...

Forsaken_GA

earweed wrote: »

+1 to the above replies. However when you go for vendor specific certs Microsoft uses Prometric and Cisco uses Pearson Vue.

Which doesn't really make any difference, since quite a few facilities are both, Prometric and Vue centers

Forsaken_GA

Chris:/* wrote: »

I have tested at both facilities around the world and so far if I have a choice I choose Pearson Vue. The Pearson Vue testing centers seem to be better kept with less failure prone equipment. Now that is speaking from my experiences it may be completely the opposite in places I have not visited or taken tests at.

I liked Prometric, especially since the local tech college which was 3 miles away was a prometric center. I don't particularly have any problems with Vue's testing centers, but I have a problem with Vue itself, as I've found them to be incompetent.

The test center I go to now is about 15 miles away, and it's both, Prometric and Vue, but since I mostly do Cisco exams these days, the only part I care about is Vue.

My major bad experience with Vue was when I registered for an exam over the phone. The lady apparently didn't hear me when I said I already had a Cisco ID and registered me as a new user. I didn't realize this until I'd passed the exam and noticed the wrong number on the sheet. It was something of a nightmare getting Cisco to merge the account in with my other test results, but they got it done. The last time I registered for an exam on Vue's website, it put me under the second Cisco ID, and I called to have that changed to my proper one and requested that Vue merge my accounts so that crap stops happening. They've never followed through on it (I've tried two additional times as well).

So now on the day I want to take an exam, I just call my local test center, call them to see if they'll accept me as a walkin, and then register and pay for the exam on site, and I hand the guy doing the registration the wallet card that came with CCNP so he has a visual reference to make sure he's setting me up on the right Cisco ID.

Paperlantern

Ive tested with pearson and prometric, and the place i normally go is both, so there is no difference for me either.

As far as the recertify thing, you dont actually have to recertify in the literal sense, yes your cert expires, but you dont have to retest. Its Continuing Education based, as long as you get the corresponding number of hours or CEUs (Continuing Education units) completed in the 3 year timeframe, and then pay the fee to renew, they renew you, no test needed. It also is retroactive for "lower certs" For example, if you enroll your Network+, and have A+ as well, if you obtain the proper number of CEUs, and then renew your Network+, this also brings your A+ up to date.

Being certified "for life" is great and all, but can be detrimental down the road say in 5 years you are going for a new job and you apply along with another person that has a current Net+... guess who gets it.

Even though I will be certified for life on all of my certs (when i pass Sec+ later this month), i am seriously considering enrolling in the CE program anyway (you have until Dec 31 2011 I believe to decide), so none of them fall out of date and I will still have a strong presence in the job market if anything should happen to my current position.

Forsaken_GA

Paperlantern wrote: »

Even though I will be certified for life on all of my certs (when i pass Sec+ later this month), i am seriously considering enrolling in the CE program anyway (you have until Dec 31 2011 I believe to decide), so none of them fall out of date and I will still have a strong presence in the job market if anything should happen to my current position.

I understand where you're coming from, but honestly, the CompTIA certs are basically entry level. Unless you plan to stay entry level the rest of your life, you will either be able to trump them with experience or with a higher level cert. For example, most employers aren't going to care if your Net+ is current if you have a CCNA. If you've been building and deploying boxes in a corporate environment for the last 5 years, it's doubtful anyone is going to care if you're a lifetime A+ or the continuing education kind.

Slowhand

Paperlantern wrote: »

Being certified "for life" is great and all, but can be detrimental down the road say in 5 years you are going for a new job and you apply along with another person that has a current Net+... guess who gets it.

This is a valid point, and one of the benefits of the renewal policy that's coming up. For my tastes, though, I would have preferred to see CompTIA's entry-level certs stay "for life" since I look at them as a starting point for more advanced and focused studies. Having a ten year old A+ or Network+ cert doesn't look as bad when you're coupling it with something like the CCNA/CCNP or MCSE/MCITP tracks, which most people tend to go for after their journey through entry-level land, (a.k.a. CompTIA).

Still, with the learning credits and flexibility of renewing A+ and Network+ automatically by renewing Security+, it's not exactly the end of the world. I predict, though, that we'll be seeing plenty of people with expired CompTIA certs down the road who have no intention of bothering to renew them when they're working on "bigger and better things".

Chris:/*

Interesting, I have had similar problems with Prometric because of the different way the accounts are handled in the states and in Japan.

Anonymouse

More dumb questions:

Which one do I take between N10-004 and JK0-016? Do I take both?

Slowhand

Anonymouse wrote: »

More dumb questions:

Which one do I take between N10-004 and JK0-016? Do I take both?

You'll want to sign up for N10-004 in order to get Network+ certified.

Anonymouse

Slowhand wrote: »

You'll want to sign up for N10-004 in order to get Network+ certified.

Thank you.

Paperlantern

Slowhand wrote: »

This is a valid point, and one of the benefits of the renewal policy that's coming up. For my tastes, though, I would have preferred to see CompTIA's entry-level certs stay "for life" since I look at them as a starting point for more advanced and focused studies. Having a ten year old A+ or Network+ cert doesn't look as bad when you're coupling it with something like the CCNA/CCNP or MCSE/MCITP tracks, which most people tend to go for after their journey through entry-level land, (a.k.a. CompTIA).

Still, with the learning credits and flexibility of renewing A+ and Network+ automatically by renewing Security+, it's not exactly the end of the world. I predict, though, that we'll be seeing plenty of people with expired CompTIA certs down the road who have no intention of bothering to renew them when they're working on "bigger and better things".

Also a valid point. I'm still really on the fence with mine honestly. I dont plan to be ONLY A+, Net+, Sec+ forever, i was just telling my wife that for next year i may delve into MS certs. My job deals in 98% MS machines anyway. Would be so much simpler if they just left it alone.

snokerpoker

I agree that later down the road we will see a lot of folks with expired CompTia certs who won't care to re-certify because they will be working on higher level certs. The only problem I have is if those people are putting it on their resume. I worked with a few guys at my last job who put on their resume and on Linkedin that they were a CCNA. I later found out that they passed it 8 years ago but didn't care and were acting as if it was still current. They knew their stuff so it was never questioned and I don't think our employer at the time cared either, but it brings up an interesting point now with CompTia certs. Will people still list them on their resume even if they are current? I would think at least SOME people will.

Chris:/*

It depends on the jobs, if they work with the government in anyway they will keep the certifications because of 8570. Only certain certifications fit the technical level that the people work at and there are often requirements for one of the other certifications depending on the billet they work in.

This was the driving factor for CompTIA to go ISO 17024 compliant.