The Computing Technology Industry Association

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CompTIA administers its CompTIA A+ certification through Pearson VUE and Prometric testing centers. In addition to

certification, CompTIA also provides corporate membership.

In January 2010 these ANSI/ISO approved certifications fundamentally had their conditions changed from lifetime certifications to certifications that will

expire every three years. Current certificate holders will still have valid certs for life, but any new certifications earned after December 31, 2010 will

expire every three years.

The A+ certification demonstrates competency as a computer technician. Officially, CompTIA A+ certification is a vendor neutral certification, that covers

numerous technologies and operating systems from such vendors as Microsoft, Apple Inc., Novell and some of the Linux variations. The A+ certification exam

was developed in 1993. There have been four versions of the A+ exam, the 1993, 2003, 2006, and 2009 objectives, which are broken down into two separate

exams. The 2003 objectives contained the A+ Core Hardware Exam and ...
... the A+ Core Operating System Technologies Exam, and were retired on June 30, 2007. The

2006 objectives require that a candidate successfully pass the A+ Essentials and one elective: IT technician, remote support technician, or depot technician.

The 2009 certification requires passing two exams: Essentials and Practical Application.

Topics of the Essentials/Core examination include IRQs, direct memory access, and practical computer repair, including the installation and repair of hard

drives, modems, network cards, CPUs, power supplies, PDAs, and printers. The focus of the plus benefits exam is

not theory, but practice. Sometimes graphics are used in exam questions. Topics included in the Operating Systems Exam include memory management,

configuration files, and historical operating environments rather than newer, cutting edge technologies.

With the introduction of the 2006 A+ exam, candidates were offered a grace period whereby both the 2003 and 2006 versions were available. As of June 2007,

the 2003 version of exams is no longer available in the United States.The regular, non-academic English version of these exams retired in the U.S. and Canada

on February 28, 2010. The educational versions of these exams (JK0-601, JK0-602, JK0-603 and JK0-604), as well as the German, Korean, Arabic, Chinese and

Japanese translations of the 220-601 through 220-604 CompTIA A+ exams,remained in the market for use until August 31, 2010.
The A+ certification along with Network+ may be used to qualify as an elective for Microsoft's MCSA and MCSE certification.

In order to receive CompTIA A+ certification a candidate must pass two exams. The first exam is CompTIA A+ Essentials, exam number 220-701. The CompTIA A+

Essentials examination measures necessary competencies for an entry-level IT professional with the equivalent knowledge of at least 500 hours of hands-on

experience in the lab or field. Successful candidates will have the knowledge required to understand the fundamentals of computer technology, networking, and

security, and will have the skills required to identify hardware, peripheral, networking, and security components. Successful candidates will understand the

basic functionality of the operating system and basic troubleshooting methodology, practice proper safety procedures, and will effectively interact with

customers and peers. CompTIA A+ is ISO 17024 Accredited (Personnel Certification Accreditation) and, as such, undergoes regular
free practice questionsreviews and updates to the exam objectives.