CompTIA A+ ecollege

The Pontiac

Hi

This is my first post. I am interested in doing ComTIA A+ through the FAS ecollege website. The price of the course is EUR120. I was also looking at doing the same course at www.cmit.ie but the price is EUR650. Is there any difference between the two, does the ecollege course include exam fees? The ecollege fee seems very reasonable but is there a hidden cost?

cooperla

zudo wrote: »

Hi

This is my first post. I am interested in doing ComTIA A+ through the FAS ecollege website. The price of the course is EUR120. I was also looking at doing the same course at www.cmit.ie but the price is EUR650. Is there any difference between the two, does the ecollege course include exam fees? The ecollege fee seems very reasonable but is there a hidden cost?

I did the A+ a good few years ago at this stage and it was cheap enough (only paid for the exam and was in the region of 100).

IMO 650 is a rip off for this. The FAS one seems reasonable to me.

vinylbomb

The FAS course probably doesn't include the cost of the exam, which is about 130 I think.

I wouldn't bother with the A+ to be honest, in my experience its not that well regarded in the industry.

Have a look into the MCSA stuff or CCNA, I think that would be more beneficial to a career in IT

The Pontiac

Cheers cooperla and vinylbomb- both very helpful replies. Looks like the CMIT is a rip off. Going to have a look into MCSA and CCNA courses.

Barrypr

Research into what area you see yourself working in! Network+ may be a good place for you to start, I would not just jump into CCNA, or MCSA. A+ is a good place to start out though, ecollege not a good idea IMO,I had a look through it before didn't like it went down the instructor led route, the exam can be hard enough, you must sit 2 exams to get the A+ andCompTIA tend to have a "strange" method of asking a simple question.

There are several other posts on A+ N+ MCSA/CCNA so have a look around.

The Pontiac

Cheers for that Barrypr. Must definetly do a lot more research. I will check out those other threads. So many different courses now a days it get a little overwhelming. Great advice here so far. Cheers

vinylbomb

Barrypr wrote: »

Research into what area you see yourself working in!

Sorry, I really should have included this in my earlier post too!!
Obviously it is handiest to have some sort of idea what area you wish to work in.

Personally, I sat the CCNA while in university, but over the last four years have ended up moved far more into Windows and Linux admin & planning, and am nearly up to MCSE (and I think its gonna get phased out soon :mad:).

Network + or A+ are decent exams if you have very little IT knowledge, but to honest you'd probably pick as much or more if you were working in the industry for a year or so.

Getting your foot in the door is the hardest part, so good luck my man!

The Pontiac

vinylbomb wrote: »

Sorry, I really should have included this in my earlier post too!!
Obviously it is handiest to have some sort of idea what area you wish to work in.

Personally, I sat the CCNA while in university, but over the last four years have ended up moved far more into Windows and Linux admin & planning, and am nearly up to MCSE (and I think its gonna get phased out soon :mad:).

Network + or A+ are decent exams if you have very little IT knowledge, but to honest you'd probably pick as much or more if you were working in the industry for a year or so.

Getting your foot in the door is the hardest part, so good luck my man!

Cheers again vinylbomb. I checked the Pre-requisites for the MCSA courses on the dorset college website and it states "It is recommended that MCSA candidates should have successfully completed the CompTIA A+ / CompTIA Network+ and/or have 6–12 months experience administering client and network operating systems". I have no experience and only a little knowledge of IT so I think I might do the Comp courses. Not too expensive and maybe a good starting point. Hopefully I will then go ahead with MCSA and CCNA. Your advice is really appreciated. Cheers

Captain Chaos

I am doing the CompTIA A+ course in Dorset college, cost me €2,000 and is 50% FAS funded.:mad:

It says on the site that you need at least ECDL or basic PC experience yet there are a few in my class that didn't know what Windows Vista is, I kid you not.

So I'd say you can apply for the MCSA course and get in with Dorset.

vinylbomb

zudo wrote: »

"It is recommended that MCSA candidates should have successfully completed the CompTIA A+ / CompTIA Network+ and/or have 6–12 months experience administering client and network operating systems"

Generally I would take these requirements with a pinch of salt, but if you have no experience as you say you're right to have a shot at the Comp exams first.

In my experience the teacher led courses (irrespective of location) tend to be vastly over-priced for the level of instruction received. I definitely think that if you are motivated (and you do sound interested) you should be able to get through the A+ and probably the N+ once you get the course books, and have a PC to play around with. Theres nothing to conceptually difficult in them really.

The Pontiac

vinylbomb wrote: »

Generally I would take these requirements with a pinch of salt, but if you have no experience as you say you're right to have a shot at the Comp exams first.

In my experience the teacher led courses (irrespective of location) tend to be vastly over-priced for the level of instruction received. I definitely think that if you are motivated (and you do sound interested) you should be able to get through the A+ and probably the N+ once you get the course books, and have a PC to play around with. Theres nothing to conceptually difficult in them really.

Distance learning only option for me as I am working full time. Confident I will have enough motivation to get through. Going to spend the rest of the week doing a lot of research before I start one.

davem75

<Ollie> wrote: »

Distance learning only option for me as I am working full time. Confident I will have enough motivation to get through. Going to spend the rest of the week doing a lot of research before I start one.

Did you take up any of the courses and what is your opinion of the course. Have been looking into taking up a CompTIA course myself.

Thanks

Fizman

I'm in a somewhat similar position. I've been working in It for 3 years now since college, but the tech skills have definitely slipped. I've been doing a fair bit of research into the different paths to take.

I have pretty much decided to go the route of Comptia first, if only to ease my brain back into studying/learning again. I should be familiar with much of the A+ material, so I am going to self study for that and hope to have it passed by October. I think I'm going to do Network + shortly after.

If and when I get those, I'm going to then decide whether to go the MS direction or Cisco direction. Time will tell though.

Kinetic^

Just for anyone that's interested, you can now do the ecollege courses with FAS for free if you're unemployed. See here.

Online courses are available free of charge to unemployed clients

What they mean by client is that you're registered with them so go down to your local FAS office and register and go from there.

Ps: see the "lol" in the url. :pac:

phill106

Kinetic^ wrote: »

Just for anyone that's interested, you can now do the ecollege courses with FAS for free if you're unemployed. See here.



What they mean by client is that you're registered with them so go down to your local FAS office and register and go from there.

Ps: see the "lol" in the url. :pac:

started this last week, 10 week course for the 2 parts. great idea from fas!

hal14

I'm off down to sign up for the same course tomorrow Did you ever find out how much the exams were?

Kinetic^

hal14 wrote: »

I'm off down to sign up for the same course tomorrow Did you ever find out how much the exams were?

If you book them yourself they're about 220-250 euro each. Try and get someone in FAS to book them for you and they will be about half the price.

hal14

Would that be for each of the two exams needed for the A+ cert or for the pair?

Kinetic^

Each exam.

newzealander

Is it possible to start of doing the Network + course instead of starting with Comptia A+.

Kinetic^

newzealander wrote: »

Is it possible to start of doing the Network + course instead of starting with Comptia A+.

It's only a recommendation that you do that A+ before the network+. See here.

darraghking22

the comptia A+ is a basic course. it basically goes through all different parts of the computer/laptop/printer and helps you with troubleshooting prblems.

network + is basic enough too.but it all depends on your experience level. if you've worked with computers in the past eg. repair, networking.. then A+ and N+ would be a bit simple for you as you'd know the course material and prabably become bored.

If your a noob to the insides of a computer, do A+, its a perfect starting point, it gives you basic networking explanations also.

Im currently doing the CCNA with fas with zero networking experience and am battling through, EVERYTHING is completely new to me.

If you new to networks, N+ gives you a good grounding but isnt recognised as much as the harder CCNA. but if you like a challenge and dont mind studying HARD, go for the CCNA

hope this helps

slav_ski

Hi there.

Can anyone tell me where to take the Comptia A+ exam in Dublin?
I've learnt it by myself and now I want to take the exam and start on the next one, it was quite boring I have to say

Has anyone done it recently? Any ideas about the exam fees?

Delicish

My husband sat his A+ exam in The Exam Centre in Rathfarnham in May this year. You can check out their website www.theexamcentre.com
Im sorry but I cant remember how much he paid for it.