A+ certfication anyone?

[thaddaeus]

Yeah first year of collage coming soon, woohooo. Checking through some of my needed material and skimmed thorugh one of my engineering books for A+ certification. First off never heard of it and expected it to be some programming language like maybe asm or c++ (yeah i know those two are sort of diffrent) As i was skimming through i relized it was more of a harware basics book, with a little more indepth but not too much.

Which lead me to ask this question, how important is it (other then the credit) ...Most of it seems like a joke, stuff i learned in middle school and such (on my own). ALso who has been A+ certified?, was the exam hard? what did you think of it?

[CaptainPinko]

I did it in high-school for a credit. For certified too. It's really basic but fairly an*l about details. I wouldn't say it's a complete joke but it isn't too deep either. You will learn stuff that you would have never learned about otherwise through it though. It comes in handy and will make all your future learn about hardware at a higher or lower level easier by giving it a base.

[f'lar]

Got mine in February. Didn't study, just walked in after registering the evening before, took the tests, and passed. Didn't score great, but your score doesn't show up on the certs, and it's not bad for not studying. A+ basically says you know what you are doing messing inside the guts of a PC (the hardware exam) and messing around with WindowsNT, 98, 2000, and XP (the OS exam). It doesn't mean much. The Network+ exam is only one test, but it's a bit more significant if you want a job in the IT field. It says that given a PC you know is working because of your A+ skills, get it connected to a corporate LAN. It still includes of a lot of dated networking technology, but it's a pretty good test. There is also a Security+ and Server+, among others.

[Daedrus]

I was forced to get A+ Certified by a previous employer (I didn't complain, they paid for it.) The tests really weren't that hard. There was a decent amount about printer (Laser printing process, Cleaning, Conditioning, Writing, Developing,Transfering Fusing) and a lot of dos/windows stuff. Pretty basic. The only thing that it will tell a future employer is that you known the basics of what you are doing. Not a whole lot different in regards to respect from others as a MCSE. Too many classes teach you how to pass the test but don't really teach you anything.

[Cerf]

If I were to spend my money on those types of certs wouldn't it be better to become a RHCE?? I haven't actually written the exam but I heard that its very laughable.

[happybunny]

i am both A+ and RHCT (not RHCE).

A+ was years ago and was pretty simple if you know hardware (what IRQ belongs to what device).

Comptia (who makes the test) is pretty common cert program...they have N+, Internet+ and one of the LInux+ certs too.

RHCT was nothing.

legally cant disguss, but the first section is an hour long, i was done triple checking in 7 minutes.

But I have come to realize certs are really worthless as far as actual knowledge. A team mate who is a moron wallpapered his cube with all his certs. I wouldn't trust him with my toaster.

But, if your taking it for credit, mine-as-well get the cert too!

[Cerf]

Originally posted by happybunny
RHCT was nothing.

legally cant disguss, but the first section is an hour long, i was done triple checking in 7 minutes.


you cant disguss the RHCT test?? Humm is this to prevent others cheating, or is RHs only way of making money. Whats up with it??

[thaddaeus]

I wonder if i can op-tout of the class by getting the cert somewhere else and still get the credit, heck i'm probably paying more for the class then the cert itself.

[vbp6us]

Originally posted by Cerf
you cant disguss the RHCT test?? Humm is this to prevent others cheating, or is RHs only way of making money. Whats up with it??

Lol. :D Probably a mixture of both. Oh and to answer your question, I am going to be taking the A+ test sometime soon. It's fairly easy and worth it for entry level jobs.