Mitch: I think your best point settles on student empathy. You can be the very best trainer in the world and carry an encyclopedic knowledge of the course material and 15 years history before that...

...and still suck as an instructor.

In fact, I have a Top Ten somewhere in my files "The Top Ten Indicators that you Suck As an Instructor". I should dig that out.

Meanwhile, relating to the students where they are, to me, is the most essential aspect to real instruction. You have to connect with them where they are, not where you are or even where you want them to be, which may contrast to something that Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe postulated about instruction.

The classroom is a crossroad. Every student comes from somewhere, every student is going somewhere. But for that moment, they are all in your classroom. The more that we as educators can get the concept of empathy, the better off we will be - and the better off the learners will be too.

Good post, pal.

/r

This rings so true. Now, I only focus on certifications required for consulting or my actual job. When you get started out, your chasing it all, but when you learn how time consuming studying is and balancing having a life with a family; plus, getting older. You just loose interest in sitting there for hours and weeks to take an exam not required by anyone that pays you actual money.

Rick Butler said:

I would, again, start with your Business Development Manager and perhaps look into becoming an Authorized Partner. (https://partners.comptia.org). It might be more difficult if you're just a single person doing something, vs perhaps being a business entity, but that's perhaps how I would get started.

/r

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Very valid reponse.

Thanks

Has anyone received the exam voucher after participaing in all 6 sessions? Also, any idea on where we could send the proofs of participation in case the exam voucher fails to arrive soon?

I remember being mentioned in the last session that the vouchers will be sent somewhere around 7-10 days after session #6.

Mitch Garvis said:

Well said Greg. I have not been kicking the CompTIA can as long as you have been, but I have already been asked to take the latest version of certain exams. Ironically, it is the training companies that a) pay the least, and b) do not provide vouchers that have the 'latest version of the exam' policy. I was told recently by one such company that my Security+ from 2022 was out of date, and to continue teaching for them I would need to take the new exam. I politely explained to them that my SecurityX, CySA+, CISSP, and CISM are all current, but that I will gladly re-sit any exam that they like... provided they pay my hourly rate for exam prep and provide me an exam voucher.

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Some training companies practically give away the classes just to keep clients happy. And the ones who have to suffer for it are the trainers, who are actually doing all the work. I finally set weekly minimums of what I would accept for an on-site class and a virtual class. Depending upon the class, technical trainers should be charging $75/hr minimum for a class. I was getting $125+/hr for some classes. For on-site classes, I would also charge T/E.

And if someone wants me to take the most recent version of a certification I already hold, they should pay for the voucher. Because, as far as CompTIA is concerned, my certification is still active (most of them are good through 2031). They don't ask me to retake my CISM or CISSP, even though new versions have been released. The policy should be the same for CompTIA exams.

Carnegie, you are absolutely right. I have written and lectured extensively about the right answer vs. the right exam answer. That does not even go into the Microsoft right answer and other mind-numbing concepts. That first paragraph was really just meant to lead into the actual point of the article, which you clearly understood perfectly! I am so touched that you took the time to write such a well thought response to my piece... which I confess I wrote because I was procrastinating doing actual work Friday afternoon!

Thank you so much for your response!!

Completed all 6 sessions on-demand. Nice series

Completed all 6 sessions on-demand. Nice series

Mitch, thank you for sharing this reflective and candid blog post. Your evolution regarding instructor humility and the critical importance of active listening in the classroom resonates deeply. The transition from acting as a strict authoritative figure to a collaborative facilitator is a professional milestone that elevates the entire learning experience.

However, I would like to offer a respectful counter-perspective regarding the initial premise: "...I think we can all agree that the best way to pass an exam is to know the material." While subject matter mastery is the undeniable foundation of our profession, I have found that "knowing the material" and "passing the exam" often require two distinct cognitive frameworks, and this is where the context of the student's question becomes critical. In the classroom, a student asking, "What is the best way to pass?" is rarely asking for a deeper understanding of the technology; they are asking for the decryption key to the vendor's testing logic.

In my experience navigating and teaching within the Microsoft ecosystem and CompTIA ecosystem, particularly with foundational security frameworks like the SC-900, Security+ or complex enterprise deployments, a deep well of real-world consulting experience may actually become a liability for a "new" student during an exam. When architecting solutions for a client, the "best" approach might involve a cost-effective workaround, a hybrid open-source integration, or acknowledging a known bug in a vendor platform. Exam environments, however, exist in a pristine, theoretical vacuum. Passing requires the student to suspend their practical, real-world troubleshooting instincts and temporarily adopt the strict, proprietary mindset of the vendor. They must learn to identify the "vendor-correct" answer, which is often heavily influenced by the vendor's current marketing push or preferred administrative pathway (e.g., utilizing a specific PowerShell module over a GUI, or vice versa, regardless of what a seasoned admin might do in the field).

Therefore, when teaching a certification-aligned course, the pedagogical approach must bifurcate. We must absolutely deliver the deep, real-world experience you rightly champion to ensure they are competent practitioners once they leave the classroom. But we must also teach the specific psychometrics of the exam itself, e.g. how to parse poorly worded questions, how to eliminate technically viable but vendor-incorrect distractors, and how to manage time under the pressure of a summative assessment.

Your points on listening to students and admitting knowledge gaps are 100. When a student throws a "stump the instructor" technical curveball that deviates from the official courseware, exploring that tangent builds tremendous rapport and technical depth. But as instructors, we also have a responsibility to pull them back into the strict parameters of the syllabus and explicitly define the boundary between "Here is how we deploy this in a live environment" and "Here is the rigid answer CompTIA or Microsoft expects you to select on the exam."

Thank you again for sparking this nuanced conversation. The willingness to continually refine our pedagogical approach is what separates a good trainer from an exceptional one.

Best regards,
Carnegie

Well said Greg. I have not been kicking the CompTIA can as long as you have been, but I have already been asked to take the latest version of certain exams. Ironically, it is the training companies that a) pay the least, and b) do not provide vouchers that have the 'latest version of the exam' policy. I was told recently by one such company that my Security+ from 2022 was out of date, and to continue teaching for them I would need to take the new exam. I politely explained to them that my SecurityX, CySA+, CISSP, and CISM are all current, but that I will gladly re-sit any exam that they like... provided they pay my hourly rate for exam prep and provide me an exam voucher.

I like that Microsoft makes me spend an hour every year proving that I am still current on my certifications, and that those renewal tests (not proctored exams) focus on newer aspects of the technology in question. For Security+... what is new since 2022 that was not covered in CySA and SecX? for Network+... until there is an IPv7 or cables made out of chili peppers I think we are good. A+? NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN OVER A DECADE. 'New versions' of the exams are important for companies because they check a box... but you and I have been doing this long enough to tell those people where to place that checkmark. (As a pop culture reference, that conversation makes me feel like Red in Shawshank Redemption telling the parole board that I don't know what the hell the word rehabilitated means.)

I tell my students to maintain their CEs religiously so that they will not be required to re-sit the exams. If they don't have to then why do we?

(Now get off of my lawn, sonny! Darned kids...)

I registered for this found it Insightful also

I would, again, start with your Business Development Manager and perhaps look into becoming an Authorized Partner. (https://partners.comptia.org). It might be more difficult if you're just a single person doing something, vs perhaps being a business entity, but that's perhaps how I would get started.

/r

Rick Butler said:

Well, there are groups out there, such as the Network of Experts and SME's that develop all their native content.

Did you get a direct notification about the use of your material from CompTIA or are you saying this from a general perspective?

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Just general, they did not send me a notification. I am just curious how some sites show as approved and others do not.

Well, there are groups out there, such as the Network of Experts and SME's that develop all their native content.

Did you get a direct notification about the use of your material from CompTIA or are you saying this from a general perspective?

Insightful!

I always develop analogies I use to drive home difficult topics that students often have a lot of confusion around, like encryption, for example.

I am just an instructor making stuff in my spare time based on what my students struggle with the most. I was thinking CompTIA would have a Business Resource Liason or something. Even if I had someone in my org they would still need to talk to someone at CompTIA.

I would like to open up to a larger base but hard to convince people to use my site when https://www.comptia.org/en-us/resources/test-policies/unauthorized-training-materials/ says "CompTIA has evaluated the resource but could not confirm its validity and do NOT recommend that you use this training resource at this time. The supplied URL may not generate a valid website, the content may be inaccessible, or the resource could be too broad to assess its validity." About it.

Perhaps the way to go about this is to discuss it with a Business Development Manager. Not sure who that might be for you or your business but that would be the best liaison for that soft of thing.

/r

Wish happy birthday weshall From Florida

wish Brian Edwards happy birthday

shaify said:

Congratulations

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shaify said:

Congratulations

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congratulations

Yann Espanet said:

I’m happy to share that I passed the CompTIA SecAI+ certification yesterday. The TTT webinar and all the training materials provided was great for the preparation. Thanks!

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Congratulations

Pretty exciting about this course. When will CompTIA AI Fundamentals launch?