Rick Butler said:

I think a lot of people who are well prepared for an exam often stress that they haven't prepared enough, going in.

Good job, and congrats on your win!

Click to expand...

Amen to that philosophy. I always over-prepare and yet always lacks confidence. I have to find a way to work on improving that lack of confidence and begin to trust myself. Perhaps taking more practice tests will help. Any and all advice is welcome. I have 7 exams scheduled through March 2026,

Registered

Congratulations!!!

I haven't signed up for the Beta but part of me wants to obtain the certification so I can say "CompTIA rolled out AutoOps+" (insert Autobots roll out joke here).

@Tangobro If you can (sorry if this was mentioned) have them do journals (I give mine 3 or 4 questions to think more cybersecurity) and let them know to remember to not break anything regarding CIA. With the students attending the internship, can you have them do assignments? little "journals?" I do journals and always ask the question of "when you go to your site, do you see a card reading? do you use a card to get in? Is there a rule to not hold the door open for someone? What about if you know the person? (This one is fun because you can always let them know they are thinking smart BUT what about if the employee was fired, you let them in, and now they are disgruntled?"
I haven't taken Tech+ but if you can, create a group in Canva, they can make flashcards and have fun with it Canva is free for k-12 teachers and students. They do have eligibility guidelines here: https://www.canva.com/education/eligibility-guidelines/ but teaching college students, I go back to games, and fun. They love it, learn, and have a great time vs. sweating and crying in the corner because college is college and it's scary!!!
Hope this helped!!!! I think Tech+ is manageable, remember teachers and students get Microsoft 365 for free Microsoft 365 Student and Faculty Licenses but remember Microsoft offers free training, and they have the student hub for more information: Microsoft Learn Student Hub The one major thing I notice is students that come into college struggle using Office 365 because they use Outlook's 365 and don't download the suite which has all the bells and whistles so when they realize here is a fancy key vs. what Office 365 provides they learn and ask questions "When I open my Word, the bar for autosave is on" I'll ask them "Where is it going?" This is more Introduction to Computers but a lot of students sometimes forget the basics and what is all out there! YOU GOT THIS!!!!

Chiming in since we are talking about certifications, for Security+ at a 4 year college, I feel it should be a higher level class (I guess it depends what is all taught, etc.) but does anyone have the class they teach and what level are you teaching it in? We do 2 parts which is amazing but I need to find a way to get it into the students brains, YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A MASTER WHEN YOU READ THE CONTENT DAY 1, it takes times. It's an intimidating class for those who are jumping into cybersecurity. What are ways you approach it and make it less intimidating for the students that (I was once this person) read the content and NEED to know it ALL? I've let them know I was you to understand the concept because you see it more than once. Obviously we teach content, not to pass the certification. They have extra time after for those who want to take the voucher to study more which is nice, but I'm trying to find different approaches and a less scary class Throw methods and thoughts at me! How do you break it down? Do you take out labs? have them do different activities? Hope I'm posting in the right forum and keep to keep it going!

Rick Butler said:

Good fix, @precious - since I didn't get a Data+ or Cloud+ voucher, myself, I didn't see what happened. Anyway, good job.

@Jill West - Never give up! lol

Click to expand...

@Jill West 2 for 1? Take Data+ AND Cloud+ Back to Back, you got this!! Also correct, never give up. Especially when you are signing into Pearson Vue and want to slowly cry while it spins and you checked your PC 200 time haha

Shea Bennett said:

10 post minimums! ROFL

Click to expand...

I actually am still learning a lot of the CIN network, I love it! But I was posting a new forum vs. asking a question in one so I made some rookie mistakes, embarrassing...but everyone is amazing in the CIN community! Helpful, respectful and we all can't be tech gurus like Stephen (I didn't want to tag the wrong Stephen - I thought I found his profile...didn't need to embarrass myself more, ...and @Rick Butler haha. Everyday can't be perfect, if it is, give me the magical key

Amelia A. said:

It was not nearly as difficult as I expected. I was in total freak-out mode during the days leading up to the exam, but I was pleasantly surprised to find I was well-educated. I can't stress enough that the CIN material was the key to passing. I have severe math anxiety, and I thought it'd be really "math-y" but it wasn't.

Click to expand...

So glad it wasn’t as “math-y” as feared, just courage and CIN magic! . Congrats once more.

CongratsX!

I think a lot of people who are well prepared for an exam often stress that they haven't prepared enough, going in.

Good job, and congrats on your win!

Stephen Schneiter said:

Hi folks, just an update. I received notice that the A+ Core 2 vouchers will be emailed out tomorrow. Thanks again for all your patience!

Click to expand...

Stephen,

I never received mine. And i did reach out with my new college email address.

Thanks

Registered

precious said:

Congratulations . How was it?

Click to expand...

It was not nearly as difficult as I expected. I was in total freak-out mode during the days leading up to the exam, but I was pleasantly surprised to find I was well-educated. I can't stress enough that the CIN material was the key to passing. I have severe math anxiety, and I thought it'd be really "math-y" but it wasn't.

Congratulations . How was it?

Jill West said:

Can I pick your brains for a minute?

And before you suggest it--I've already reached out to Stephen, so no need to suggest this. But I figured y'all might be able to help me solve this issue to lighten the load on Stephen a bit.

I'm trying to use my DataX TTT voucher that expires Nov 30. Went to register to take the exam on Nov 24, but when I entered the voucher, I got an error message:

Discount validation failed.​

• This voucher cannot be used with this exam.

Any ideas what might be wrong or how/if I could fix this? I've triple checked to confirm I'm using the correct voucher for the correct exam.

Click to expand...

Please what is the way out now.

Jill West said:

Wow, yep, you nailed it. Same code as another one I received the same day. Did you get a replacement that worked, or should I give up on this exam and move on to the next cert in my list?

Click to expand...

Glad we figured it out. While the person didn't attend DataX TTT, he still got that duplicate Cloud+ voucher written as DataX, owing to this, he didn't reach out Stephen; he knew he wasn't eligible for the DataX voucher.

In your case, definitely don’t give up, I would recommend you present it to @Stephen Schneiter, this time the problem is "I received duplicate xx voucher as DataX voucher-I attended DataX TTT" from "Discount validation failed-This voucher cannot be used with this exam."

Raydo Matthee said:

I've received A+ Core 2 exam voucher and passed the exam. Waiting for A+ Core 1 exam voucher. View attachment 2451

Click to expand...

Wow this is great, Congratukations.....

Registered, Thanks Stephen...

Looking forward to it....

Shea Bennett said:

Does anyone know if there will be a new CompTIA Partner portal launched? I went to the old URL and it just redirects me to this URL: https://www.comptia.org/en-us/partner-portal/partner-resources/


I'm trying to figure out how to sell Certmaster courses as an addition to our classes. It's pretty confusing.

Click to expand...

I haven't heard of a new portal or anything - I think the re-org and the like left a lot of unanswered questions about a lot of things. Benefit of the doubt would be that CompTIA is working on all of these things...as they have the manpower and ability...

Corporate restructures are replete with problems - I've been through a few in my career. I think we all have.

Jill West said:

Wow, yep, you nailed it. Same code as another one I received the same day. Did you get a replacement that worked, or should I give up on this exam and move on to the next cert in my list?

Click to expand...

Good fix, @precious - since I didn't get a Data+ or Cloud+ voucher, myself, I didn't see what happened. Anyway, good job.

@Jill West - Never give up! lol

precious said:

Ahh thank you for looping us in, it also happened to one of us, with the same DataX voucher failing to redeem, later finding out that they sent a duplicate Cloud plus voucher as DataX voucher. I would suggest you compare that voucher with other vouchers you received around the time, it might also happen to be.

Click to expand...

Wow, yep, you nailed it. Same code as another one I received the same day. Did you get a replacement that worked, or should I give up on this exam and move on to the next cert in my list?

Raydo Matthee said:

If we want to elevate CIN beyond a freebie portal, we need a clear framework that rewards meaningful engagement.

Click to expand...

Not sure if we want to 'elevate CIN beyond a freebie portal", since the minute we did something like that, we would wipe out most all the membership. And I don't there is a gain in doing that. I think we want to encourage anyone in the teaching sphere to be a part of the Community.

Shea Bennett said:

I'm genuinely trying to focus on expertise, not just pump students through like a cash cow.

Click to expand...

If every instructor and training house believed this, we might actually see a better student base. Sadly, there's far more emphasis on profit than teaching.