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Chris S · Sep 3, 2025

Is it just me, or are others out there seeing odd questions in the new A+ Core 1 and Core 2 CertMaster Learn courseware when creating custom quizzes? See examples below. It's as if someone was pulling over a database of questions and forgot to include important items.

Rick Butler · Sep 3, 2025

So, the CIN does not have "Instructor Resource Kits" for instructors. We don't provide slides that you can use in your classroom, nor materials that you can take back and put in your learning environment.

What we find in the resource area are Train the Trainer slides (if you hit the resource area inside a TTT seminar) - which we don't use for the classroom - they are tilted towards teaching instructors how to deliver the content, or secondary materials that folks may submit over time.

If you need learning materials to teach your classes, you need to get those things from whomever developed your curriculum. If you are delivering CompTIA branded content, you should have access to some instructor materials (mostly pre-CertMaster Perform). If you are using another publisher for your curriculum, you will want to contact them for those assets.

Rick Butler · Sep 3, 2025

Now, the ONLY time I could EVER think of using a braindump for ANYTHING would be in the form of a lab manual - that is, take the question as written, toss out the answers, and model it up in a bench situation. At that point, it's a experiential lab. But, using the question from the exam, as study material undermines the idea of questioning someone's applicative knowledge.

See, if we look at this from a Blooms perspective, a question from a scenario that a candidate has never seen tests applicative knowledge. If the candidate has seen the question, it goes down to Understanding or just Knowlege levels - which is not meet for a certification that is testing applicative knowledge.

So one would hope that if they have modeled things in a lab situation, they've covered the points that might be addressed in a braindump question, anyway. I have seen very few GAS questions that have been so off the wall, as to be purposely evasive. Usually, either you know it or you don't.

Rick Butler · Sep 3, 2025

To add, CompTIA never has seemed to want to tell a training house/school, etc, who would be an instructor. For as long as I've been in education, I've never seen a huge push on CTT+ certified instructors in any training situation. Others' mileage may vary, but in my experience, it's never truly commanded a lot of respect between the instructor population. Just my two bits.

/r

precious · Sep 3, 2025

There is no any requirement to be a CompTIA Trainer or a Certified CompTIA Trainer… CompTIA has always suggested that a trainer hold the certification they are teaching

imsrj.cse · Sep 3, 2025

Since CompTIA CTT+ is retired so is there any replacement or what needs to be the criteria or qualification for a CompTIA certified trainer to teach an official CompTIA Training

This question is already been posted, but didn't see the satisfied respononse, asking again to see if anyone has direct response

Samar Alzuabaidi · Sep 2, 2025

Hello everyone,

I recently joined CIN, and I’m preparing to deliver training for Network+. However, I couldn’t find the official Instructor Resource Kit (IRK) or the instructor slides in my account.
Can anyone guide me on how to properly access or request the Network+ instructor materials? Do I need to go through the CompTIA Store, or should I submit a support ticket?

Any help or step-by-step directions would be highly appreciated.

J.Porter · Sep 2, 2025

sbeth said:
If you're looking to stay with certification prep, you might want to check out Ascend Education: https://ascendeducation.com/landing-page/ I previewed a few of their courses and found them to be easy to navigate. Their course prospectuses are more informative and better organized than TestOut’s. I went in a different direction with my courses, but if I ever went back to offering a cert prep course, they'd be a strong contender.

Thanks sbeth for the excellent recommendation. I'll certainly look at what Ascend offers. Yes, we offer cert prep courses for workforce so this another good offer. Thanks for responding.

sbeth · Sep 2, 2025

If you're looking to stay with certification prep, you might want to check out Ascend Education: https://ascendeducation.com/landing-page/ I previewed a few of their courses and found them to be easy to navigate. Their course prospectuses are more informative and better organized than TestOut’s. I went in a different direction with my courses, but if I ever went back to offering a cert prep course, they'd be a strong contender.

David Staples · Sep 2, 2025

Looks like a good bit has been covered already. I'll add that I throw in some YouTube videos relevant to the topics that we're discussing. Sometimes it's a video I created (for instance showing how a ping flood works using a virtual machine) while other times it's one by someone else. And it all depends on the audience as to which video(s) I may show. Another example of a video is a Wired journalist driving a Jeep Cherokee down the highway while two people hack it remotely over the cellular network. It's a great example of how everything is becoming Internet connected and vulnerabilities are everywhere. I also try and throw in some dry humor. For instance - the "S" in IOT stands for Security. (Don't remember where I heard that one, but I can't take credit for coming up with it. I just relay it to the class and it usually gets a few laughs or snickers.)

David Staples · Sep 2, 2025

Rick Butler said:
Personally, I wonder if folks at CompTIA could poison those VCE files with fake braindumps of their own, which then would reduce the confidence in using them. Bunky questions or incorrect responses that would signal the candidate perhaps used a braindump to prepare. While that wouldn't provide conclusive, smoking-gun evidence, to me, it brings up that confidence level to making sure the candidates are legit.

On the surface, I would agree, but the student mentioned that as well. That the class went through them together and corrected answers to the ones the instructor said were correct.

J.Porter · Sep 2, 2025

Would love to hear some recommendations on different learning platforms that can be used in classroom environments. Traditionally have used the TestOut platform but this has transitioned to CertMaster. I'm just wondering what else is out there for instructors to consider to get the best resources for our students? My institution teaches, Tech+, A+, Network+ and Security+.

Labs and curriculum (book and video) would be great to have.

Thanks,

J. Porter

Rick Butler · Sep 2, 2025

Nathan Miller Masiku said:
Core 1 for one week, and Core 2 is supposed to be for one week as well.

That, to me, seems much more plausible, even though it put up 9 hours per day and aligns historically with how A+ is taught.

Rick Butler · Sep 2, 2025

I do think that CompTIA cares a great deal about exam integrity - I think we all do. And I personally have had my own run-in's with the braindump chumps and the companies that peddle them (I won't mention them by name in this forum). But yes, the VCE files that we see out there on the internet.

Personally, I wonder if folks at CompTIA could poison those VCE files with fake braindumps of their own, which then would reduce the confidence in using them. Bunky questions or incorrect responses that would signal the candidate perhaps used a braindump to prepare. While that wouldn't provide conclusive, smoking-gun evidence, to me, it brings up that confidence level to making sure the candidates are legit.

I think what we can do as educators is to promote good study habits and techniques that make cheating less of an attractive option and not interact with the kind of riff-raff that doesn't care about skill quality, but rather only just wants the credential, because they see that as the in-road to getting a job. (the proverbial "i have to cheat to even get into the game/get ahead" crowd - you find a lot of them outon the r/CompTIA subreddit.)

And of course, the age old axiom - if you build a better mousetrap, sometimes you just get smarter mice.

/r

David Staples · Sep 2, 2025

Brian, I completely agree with you. The problem is that it's already been reported and CompTIA has apparently responded to this other training organization that they don't have any hard evidence so it sounds like nothing is going to come of it. :-/

BrianFord · Sep 2, 2025

David,

Cheating hurts everyone. It lessens the market value of CompTIA and the certifications it offers. It lessens the value of all certification programs. It promotes poor instruction and hurts all of us CINers. But most importantly it hurts everyone who holds or is working to earn a certification.

If a so-called student is brazen enough to admit this to you (another instructor trying to help them learn) you should report their name and the name of the training or testing organization.

Steps to Report Cheating:

1. Visit the Pearson VUE Test Security Page:
Go to www.pearsonvue.com and navigate to the "Contact test security" or "Test Security" section.

2. Complete the Test Security Form:
Find and fill out the designated secure form to report suspected violations.

3. Provide Detailed Information:
Include specifics about the observed violation, including the candidate's information, the alleged inappropriate behavior, the date and time, and any evidence you have.

4. Submit the Form:
Submit the completed form to the Test Security group.

Best Regards,

Brian

David Staples · Sep 2, 2025

Hey everyone, happy Tuesday! So I was teaching a DataSys+ class last week and there are some security topics in the course. This being a military group, I knew that they had most likely done a Security+ at some point and mentioned that they should have seen some of these topics on their Security+ exam. One of the students relayed to me that he thought the exam was so much easier now than it was years ago when he first took it. I asked when he took it and he said just a few months ago. I asked more about his experience on the exam and he said that these days all you have to do is memorize the questions in the test bank because they're practically the same questions as on the exam. I asked more about the test bank he (and another student who was in his same Sec+ class) used and he went on to describe the VCE Player that is commonly used with braindumps. He also said that when he had a difficult question on the exam, he simply raised his hand and the instructor would sit there and go through the question with him. The instructor was not only proctoring the exam, but also helping students out during the exam.

After the class was over, I talked to the owner of another training company that I knew does business with this group and he said he had already reported it to CompTIA, but CompTIA seems to be saying they can't do anything without any sort of hard evidence and apparently isn't going to do anything about it. So my question is, should I even bother reporting this to CompTIA if they're not going to do anything anyways? All I have is what students told me about their experience. No physical, hard, concrete evidence. Does CompTIA actually care about cheating, or so long as a training company brings them a lot of business they don't really care about how they get the students to pass the exam? What would you do?

Danai Nathan Chinyenye · Sep 2, 2025

Lshanno said:
I'm about to deliver the combined A+ Core 1 and 2 (1201/1202) course.

According to the pacing guide, the course allocates 5,380 minutes of instructional time for the 5-day schedule, which works out to roughly 90 hours.

Has anyone delivered this course yet? I'm struggling to see how all the content can fit into the time allocated.

Core 1 for one week, and Core 2 is supposed to be for one week as well.

Danai Nathan Chinyenye · Sep 2, 2025

Eddy Harden said:
I was wondering if the vouchers for the A+ had been delivered yet since the TTT ended?

Hi Eddy, not yet. If I remember correctly, there was a communiqué from Stephen on the platform saying he would give us an update once the CompTIA Data team has finished consolidating the information

Eddy Harden · Sep 1, 2025

I was wondering if the vouchers for the A+ had been delivered yet since the TTT ended?

peter hanwith-horden #1 · Sep 1, 2025

I am a virtual Trainer who trains across borders I recently completed the train the trainer Webinar as they did promise vouchers which are due A+ 1201 and 1202. I bought my own vouchers and have trained the new A+. I have the network+N1-009 which I have had great success in the Class 100% pass rate. I have the Cloud+ver 4 I have cysa + I have Project+ as well AND also CTT+. I Exam prep guides I give to delegates who do my sessions. This is written a prep around the objectives and getting good passes. I wrote my first A+ in 1998. I am the subject matter expert for Africa. I have a two high speed internet lines for on line training. I work from Johannesburg South Africa where my Virtual Training runs. I have TWO FREE DAYS WHICH I would like to fill. MY rates are very reasonable. My sessions can be recorded if need be.

Rick Butler · Sep 1, 2025

I'm not sure I'd use Teams for that - probably would defer to Zoom, since it's more platform agnostic than other conference platforms. Plus, the feature set is a mite bit more developed than Meet or Teams. Google Meet is pretty streamlined. MSFT Teams is just very bloaty - shouldn't take near 1GB RAM to run a meeting.

Rick Butler · Sep 1, 2025

I haven't taught Tech+ since it changed over from ITF+, but the principles are basically the same. The idea is to create an exam that bridges the gap between a computer power user and an entry level IT specialist. The skills are basic - in fact, I took the exam back in 2021, cold turkey, just to see. What I experienced was many times when I was over-engineering or over-thinking a question, having been in the field for a few years.

It's a good course though and one of the first ones to be adopted into the CertMaster Perform platform.

Rick Butler · Sep 1, 2025

Confirm. CTT+ eligibility ended in 2023, due to the costs of upkeeping on a relatively unpopular certification.

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