Shea Bennett said:

Thus my years long battle to prove to companies that multiple choice is crap and to do labs and hands-on instead. Red Hat had this right from day 1.

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The lab activities that were an essential part of TestOut are what my employers appreciated. That "hands-on" practice prepared students for the certification, but also allowed them to wrestle with simulations that were based on real-world problems. While the CertMaster Learn products have some lab content, were are opting for the CertMaster Perform products for most of the courses that prepare for a certification. Hands-On Labs > Question Banks!!

Tess Sluijter said:

Complain to your account manager, or whatever fancy word CompTIA give to that role.... "partner success manager" or whatever. CompTIA needs clear signals from their partners via the right route.

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Unfortunately ever since I lost my VERY available and reliable Account Manager from LabSim, I have had to chase CompTIA to give me the name of someone. It took a student (by accident) to help me recover. All CompTIA had to do was send a properly worded alert before creating this mess. Frankly, it isn't even as complicated. Simply choose which account you want to use, then merge any other CompTIA/Labsim accounts with logins/email into that one account and ALL your products as a School or Student, will be available. DUH!

Even in Higher Ed, we have problems with students deciding to just drop out of school and discontinue their training. I'm afraid this has been a problem for quite a while - seems students are more non-committal these days.

All you can do, I think, is focus on the students that want to be there and learn. The ones that don't...well...

deroutlooker365 said:

I now urgently need (by tomorrow) the PowerPoint materials for it. Who can help me?

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I completely understand that you are hoping to circumvent the process, but we are not allowed to. I truly hope you get access to the materials in time.

Some vendors, such as OffSec, offer lab-based exams only. No MCQs anywhere in their exams.

Shea Bennett said:

Not sure what part of the country your located, but that may have been the case 15 years ago. Their no longer the go to anymore.

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The last time I used Robert Half was in the 1990s. I had forgotten about them completely.

Stephen Schneiter said:

At last!! We are finally ready to kick off our special TTT series around the CompTIA Compcert courses. While these will not be tied to a CompTIA certification exam, as always, we will provide a certificate of attendance that you can use to show for professional development.

Our first series will be the new version of CompTIA AI Essentials and AI Prompting Essentials. This will be a five-session series designed to provide the following knowledge and skills:

• Learn what defines artificial intelligence from other types of intelligence and computing
• Practice communicating about AI effectively
• Explore AI tools and the ways they can support your organization
• Craft effective prompts for AI chatbots
• Navigate the privacy and security concerns AI technology presents
• Prepare for AI's effect on the future of technology
• Evaluate AI outputs for accuracy, bias, and quality

What: AI Essentials & AI Prompting TTT series
When: Mondays and Wednesdays, December 1-15, 2:00 - 4:00 pm CST
Who: Nick Pierce
Where: ON24
Register Here
View attachment 2467

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Registered

But we all understand why......

Summary of Cost Drivers:

• Development Time: PBQs require substantial investment in the initial design and creation of a realistic task or scenario, whereas MCQs rely on a more standardized, though still time-intensive, writing process.
• Grading Efficiency: Automated grading of MCQs eliminates ongoing scoring costs. PBQs, by contrast, demand significant, ongoing personnel costs for manual scoring and quality control.
• Logistics: The infrastructure for delivering and managing PBQs in a consistent environment is more complex and costly than the relatively simple technological requirements for most computer-based MCQs.

In essence, while PBQs offer a more valid approach to measuring practical skills and application of knowledge, their superior assessment quality comes at a substantially increased financial and logistical cost.

I completely get it, maybe it is the way they are using the platform that is the issue, this was something I often found when dipping into other classes, to motivate them on the old platform (learn.Comptia.org) you could get them to RAG rate their understanding of a topic then get them to visit the confidence levels tab at the top or to reflect on their Strengths and weaknesses, once again this is found on the old platform you could get them to run the games too (though very few did in my cohorts).

On the new platform (Platform.CompTIA.org), this is a little more tricky, not only is it more difficult to see where your cohort sits in their understanding as you don't get to see it as easily as you have to go digging for it, but they can not RAG rate themselves which I find a bonkers omission as it is something we used all the time in our cohorts, trainers and curriculum leads could view their progress and advise them.

I take it you find they rather that cover the lesson content, the learners are just taking the inline tests, then wondering why they don't do well?

I, too, find it more of a challenge, but only on the new platform, not so much on the old due to the above reasons

Awesome, i will definitely jump onthis. thanks

I don't know anything about Tech+, but as a supervisor. I wouldn't entertain it at all. I would take the A+ or TCM Security PHDA (https://certifications.tcm-sec.com/phda/) before I would pay any attention to Tech+. Especially, since they have some technical immersion also.

For me and many other IT supervisors I work with (hundreds of them), I need people who can come into the datacenter or work environment to be teachable and able to hit the ground running. The days of waiting a year for someone to get up to speed are dead. It's just way too competitive and so many people are coming out of high school now-a-days with day 1 skills in cloud, linux, etc. Many young folks are highly adaptable when given the right environment and support, but the least I would personally consider for something I pay someone or a path to internship would be A+, AWS Cloud Practitioner (which is fairly easy) or Google Cloud Digital Leader (also, fairly easy). We have recently begun adding the Google AI Generative AI Leader since it's basic and easy. The thing is, if your not doing something employers care about, just pumping people through courses won't matter.

It may be beneficial to get with some companies in the area of your school to see what they are looking for so that you are training with a focus instead of arbitrarily picking something no one wants or has demand for.

Stephen Schneiter said:

Get an exclusive first look at CompTIA’s vision for 2026 in this dynamic session. The spotlight will be on the exciting new product lines, timely refreshes, and learning platform enhancements scheduled for next year. Hear directly from CompTIA’s leadership team about the next wave of solutions designed to empower educators, businesses, and learners for the opportunities of tomorrow.

This webinar will cover:

• Highlights from 2025, including a series of short Essentials courses focused on competency
• New expansion certifications - CompTIA’s approach to enabling workers with critical skills in AI and automation
• A deep dive into significant learning platform enhancements, such as AI-enabled scenario activities, alternative labs for accessibility, and progress dashboards
• Major new releases, refreshes, and retirements planned for 2026
• A first look at CompTIA SecOT+, the highly anticipated new certification that bridges knowledge gaps between Information Technology and Operational Technology as businesses transform for the digital age

Why Attend:
This session is your front-row seat to what’s next from CompTIA, helping you plan proactively and position your organization to maximize value as soon as these solutions are ready to launch.

What: CompTIA webinar on 2026 Product Roadmap & Innovations
When: Wednesday, November 12, 2025, 10:00 AM CST
Who: Katie Hoenicke, SVP Product Development, Zach Steele, Sr Director Learning Platforms, Henry Mann, Sr Director Product Development
Where: ON24
Register Here
View attachment 2465

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I really hope their focusing more on hands-on labs and actual scenario's versus yet another multiple choice exam.

Gregory Childers said:

There are newbies on Reddit who are passing exams with zero experience by watching Messer's and Dion's videos while using Quizlet to study definitions and acronyms. Over the years, the exams have become far too easy. I didn't have a single subnetting question on the most recent version of Network+.

They should make HALF the exam PBQs. Separate the exam crammers from the real tech people.

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Thus my years long battle to prove to companies that multiple choice is crap and to do labs and hands-on instead. Red Hat had this right from day 1.

Gregory Childers said:

I was under the impression that Robert Half is where entry-level tech people go between jobs.

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Not sure what part of the country your located, but that may have been the case 15 years ago. Their no longer the go to anymore.

You're going to want to reach out to your Business Development Manager to get access to any training materials. We're not going to have materials that you'll need.

I know this doesn't help much, given that you're starting your class today, but that's where that is.

Mandeep Singh said:

passed DataX Exam today ---> another cert bagged up ... feeling accomplished.

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that is good news

Shea Bennett said:

AI certification may have some demand, but the non-IT focused batch will likely crash and burn. That's what happens when execs are focused on money and don't talk to industry. If they focused on more hands-on and eliminated the ease of cheating from India and other countries. The exams would become way more valuable. I get sick and tired of people from India contacting me on LinkedIn offering to take CompTIA exams for me for a fee. Even when their reported, they pop up like wacamole. Multiple choice exams are just not good to me without hands-on labs integrated into the exam.

Click to expand...

There are newbies on Reddit who are passing exams with zero experience by watching Messer's and Dion's videos while using Quizlet to study definitions and acronyms. Over the years, the exams have become far too easy. I didn't have a single subnetting question on the most recent version of Network+.

They should make HALF the exam PBQs. Separate the exam crammers from the real tech people.

Shea Bennett said:

I really don't pay anything from Robert Half any attention. At least in the gov space. I have never seen anyone ask for or care about Cloud+...ever.

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I was under the impression that Robert Half is where entry-level tech people go between jobs.

I really don't pay anything from Robert Half any attention. At least in the gov space. I have never seen anyone ask for or care about Cloud+...ever.

I'm still working through the CertMaster Linux+ course so December is good for me!

Stephen Schneiter said:

At last!! We are finally ready to kick off our special TTT series around the CompTIA Compcert courses. While these will not be tied to a CompTIA certification exam, as always, we will provide a certificate of attendance that you can use to show for professional development.

Our first series will be the new version of CompTIA AI Essentials and AI Prompting Essentials. This will be a five-session series designed to provide the following knowledge and skills:

• Learn what defines artificial intelligence from other types of intelligence and computing
• Practice communicating about AI effectively
• Explore AI tools and the ways they can support your organization
• Craft effective prompts for AI chatbots
• Navigate the privacy and security concerns AI technology presents
• Prepare for AI's effect on the future of technology
• Evaluate AI outputs for accuracy, bias, and quality

What: AI Essentials & AI Prompting TTT series
When: Mondays and Wednesdays, December 1-15, 2:00 - 4:00 pm CST
Who: Nick Pierce
Where: ON24
Register Here
View attachment 2467

Click to expand...

joining this one!

My concern from an outside observer perspective about Compcert is best illustrated by a comparative analysis of two offerings. The first offering is connected directly to the CySA+, and as noted it is tied to the Certmaster learning products. The second offering is tied to both the CySA+ and the Compcert learning products. I have to wonder if we are dealing with a forked direction where two products from the same organization are competing against each other and if that is a good idea.

AI certification may have some demand, but the non-IT focused batch will likely crash and burn. That's what happens when execs are focused on money and don't talk to industry. If they focused on more hands-on and eliminated the ease of cheating from India and other countries. The exams would become way more valuable. I get sick and tired of people from India contacting me on LinkedIn offering to take CompTIA exams for me for a fee. Even when their reported, they pop up like wacamole. Multiple choice exams are just not good to me without hands-on labs integrated into the exam.