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I'm taking a class in high school right now preparing me for the test. It's the first year of the course so the teacher is still workin' out bugs and he's pretty new to computers himself (I think I know more than him at times ). It seems in todays tech world it's basically mandatory so I'm just curious how many of you folks have taken the CompTIA test to get A+ certified. I'm also curious what other certs you have....

I think I know a fair amount. It's still scary when I come across a problem as simple as burning .iso's and I can't figure it out for the life of me But then I look at others in my class who think they know everything and just kinda laugh it off...

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I also know that being A+ certified doesn't mean you know everything. I'm sure you guys who aren't know as much if not more than those that have it Just curious who actually has the cert and all...

I got the A+ ... in 98 I think. One part ( of 2 ) I aced, the other I barely passed. ( did it without any prep ) At the time somebody had to have it on staff as my tiny little company did a lot of on site warranty work for Packard Bell, HP, Compaq, etc.
I don't know if it has changed but when I took it it was.... a good general test but some of the questions were out of date. They wanted you to know what the idiot lights on an external modem meant but external modems were almost never sold by then: if I hadn't been doing modem strings in the early 90's I would have had NO idea what they were talking about.

I certified pretty early: CNE in 92 or 93. a few MS ones, the CCNA 3 years ago, Citrix Metaframe two years ago. And I moderated a forum on C-Serve which called itself the Netware Professionals Association: Fore runners of todays vendor related or sponsored groups. There the topic came up at least once a week and usually the flame burners were fired up :fight :

One side feels certifications mean dick. They claim only OJT matters.

The other side feels certification means you know your stuff, show the proper attitude etc.


Actually there is a third side, but we don't yell and scream as much :
IMSHO, Certs for someone just getting into this show some drive, shows BASIC knowledge and the ability to remember facts. For someone semi old or TRULY old like FP they show a drive/desire to stay on top. For me it is a PAIN in the butt to cram for an exam at this stage in my life. Who has time? Or the energy? But doing so allows me to learn about something new much faster than simply playing with it would do.

One other thing comes to mind: vendors require certified techs on staff often. The A+ is one such cert.. I think you have to have it to work at local computer megastores. And Microsoft required that two of us had at least one cert from them in order for me to be a MS Solution Provider.

Long winded I know. Hope it helps. Happy to ramble on further if this didn't give you the info you were after

Never got the cert. Almost did while I was at my old job but by the time the opportunity arose, I was already thinking of leaving and I didn't think it was fair to them to spend the money to send me when I was planning on bailing soon.

I can't rationalize the expense right now, and running my own business I just don't have the time.

While I definately recommend it - as BW points out you can't even get your foot in the door some places without it, I happen to be in the camp that thinks it's overrated.

Yes, as BW said, the cert does show that you have a certain level of basic knowledge and commitment.

The problem is that many courses that teach it are classic cram courses - they teach you to pass the test NOT neccesarily instruct you in the fine arts of information technology.

And yes, if you're a power user and hanging out on this forum, chances are you DO know more than your teacher on some aspects.

I have a friend of mine in Miami who reports to me occasionally on how her A+ course is going. She's just knowledgeable enough to sometimes catch her teacher in a gaff, but flies it past me first to see if she's right. Often she is.

I am. took it back in '99. It's a good cert to pair up with others.....CCNA, Network+, MCP, MCSE. Not worth much on it's own.

Me, too. I've done both the old and new tests, and am about to redo my Net+ the same way.

Is it me, or is this thread bringing out the old folk around here (a group I claim membership in)?

can you legally run a computer store and fix computers within the store without any certification?

I am; I wish it would've been a bit more challenging for $130 a pop. Also have Win95 and Win2k Pro certs from MS. I think those were far more challenging than the A+ was (at least the W2k one was).

can you legally run a computer store and fix computers within the store without any certification?

Sure, it's not like you have to be licensed to fix a computer. It just helps to show you have some knowledge (kinda like ASE for mechanics). Of course, with some schools/courses just teaching how to pass the test, I'd say they aren't as valuable as they once were.

State of California requires nothing from you save money in setting up a computer repair/network consulting biz. There has been talk of that...
On a related note: When Novell was coming out with their CNE program many states BANNED techs from stating their people were Certified Netware Engineers because the techs did not have to pass a state approved 'ENGINEERING' exam.

I don't see the A+ certification worth anything nowadays. Its all common sense really. Nothing that makes you standout from a crowd. To me, its not worth the paper it is written on.

Granted, if all you do is hardware and your employer requires it, then yes, its worth it.

Personally I think it's a joke. I know plenty more than what they will ask/require and yet I have to pay an extreme amount of money to take a test to get a piece of paper saying that I know basic computer knowledge that anybody can know after reading a book for about 3 hours. I've read part of an A+ Certification for Dummies book (it was a 5 hour car ride and nothing else to read) and it is all theory and stuff. Doesn't really teach you "real world" experience. The best way is to hang out at a place like this, talk to knowledgable people, and experiment. I remember 2 years ago when I didn't know how to build a PC really, now I do it for my family and myself. Plus don't you have to renew your A+ every year?

Certifications like MCSE and CCNA and CNA for Netware hold a lot more weight than an A+ certification but if you have MCSE or CCNA or such, you should easily be able to gain A+ certified status.

<i>"Plus don't you have to renew your A+ every year?"</i>

Nope. I know it's not worth much but it's a step in the right direction I think. Me being young (17 in June) it's good to show if I want to get into a tech place to work on PC's. Otherwise they probably wouldn't trust me. Next year (my senior year) they're featuring a course geared towards Network+ which I'm really looking forward to. Again, may or may not be much, but it's like college--you just gotta have that piece of paper to get in the door sometimes.

Guess I'll just rehash what everyone is saying....

A+ is really nothing more than theory but can help get your foot in the door. The other big ones that will help are MCSE, CCNA and so on. These require major thought and should NOT be done with a cram exam if you don't have the real world experience. The problem with the cram exams is as FP stated, they teach you how to PASS and that's ALL. You still can't think real world and most real pros will still consider you an idiot.

My job didn't require any certs but I'm sure I would have gotten here faster and many years ago if I had any.

A little follow up to all of our rehashing if I may?
The A+ is really, really general. It's like saying you have a BA. That means you passed tests and survivied, but not in a specific topic/field.
MS tests say you knew the test answers for THAT product at that point in time ( a week later and much of it is gone unless you work with it every day or two ). CNE says that about Novell, etc.

The A+ is a good idea IMSHO because it requires some knowledge about dozens of sub-topics. I blew pretty much every printer question they had. Why do I need to know what the polarized subtropical negative entropy wire behind the fuser is? Well, I might have to try to fix a printer in an emergency and it would probably be good to remember that sucker pulls 10 amps at 110 volts :;

At your age your brain will soak information up like a hovermatic ( no, really! wait a few years and see the difference ) The more usable information you have as a base, generally the better you can do when you encounter the unexpected. Happens once or twice a year. Maybe.

and if you end up a JOAT as I did you may learn to prize obscure info which helps you solve a problem.

THAT said, don't waste your money. Prepare for it. I failed the W2K Security Design exam three times. Out of a thousand point twice by 80, once by like 15 points)* I failed because I couldn't replicate the enterpise setups or maybe chose not to spend the time to do so at home.... At $100 a pop that meant one less pizza night for that month. :}