NRG passed his A+... :)

[Prof.Wizard]

Congrats dude! WTG.

[Rocco Siffredi]

Thanks... no big news but hey I'm not complaining :mrgrn:

[The Giver]

The giver sends his congratulations! Stop by the bar and have a drink on him. But keep your hands to yourself young man. :)

[Rocco Siffredi]

Don't worry, I always keep my hands to myself unless I'm being payed :wink:

Seriously though, A+ is a joke. Hey at least now I have... er... 10 paper certs to hang on my wall. along with the other nine BrainBench ones :mrgrn:

[JKKJ]

A+ ?

[Rocco Siffredi]

http://www.comptia.org/certification/aplus/index.htm

[JKKJ]

Ahh, I see. Congrats! :)

[Mercutio]

I have a completely different appreciation for the material since I started teaching it (I teach A+ and Network+ classes a couple times a week and also the odd "Build a Computer" or "Troubleshooting" class).

We take a lot of these things for granted. We can see how everything fits together. I'd say that many here have an empathic appreciation of hardware that in some cases might approach unity. Or maybe I'm just a geek.

When I look at the material that I have gathered and written for myself, to present to the people in my classroom, most of them newbies to techwork, I see almost 300 pages of Outline material plus three dozen diagrams, illustrations and worksheets.. NRG can gloss over that - he's lived it.

But, really, I can say I can't remember when I learned how cable select IDE works or the hundred different rules about cabling SCSI or the millions of other tiny details that make up the A+ test. Going back, looking through everything I've collected and written, I have a volume of information that positively stuns me.

Far as things go, I think the tests are easy. If you get that far. Anyone who makes it to participating here (even non-techies like Santilli) can probably pass the test with minimal effort. Still, for anyone who does, the mastery of that material still represents a significant accomplishment. In my life I can *see* just how hard it is for someone who hasn't lived the material to take in the volume of material that makes up the test. The person who passes the A+ test has accellerated past probably 90% of the people who work on computers professionally and deserves the accolade of certification.

In case you're wondering, I believe that what NRG has done really means something. I wish it meant a little more - the test targets someone with six months rather than 18 months of professional experience now (I'm certain he still would've passed but maybe some other people who took the test with him might not)- but nonetheless he deserves a handshake and a hearty congratulation.

Me? I'm staring down the Server+ (topics include planning wiring, cross-platform system administration and SAN config) exam and wondering whether it'd be anything worthwhile to staple another piece of paper to my wall.

[Bartender]

Well done NRG - drinks on the house!

[Dr. Willy]

Congratulations Professor Siffredi. The Führer will be pleased to know of your success. We could use people like you in the regime.

[Rocco Siffredi]

We take a lot of these things for granted. We can see how everything fits together. I'd say that many here have an empathic appreciation of hardware that in some cases might approach unity. Or maybe I'm just a geek.

True... I cannot, for example, imagine trying to teach this stuff to my Dad. He'd find it amazingly difficult. But then again, if you're truly interested in computers you'll know it anyway from experience.

On the other hand, people who know the material through experience of working with computers will find it very easy. People who have almost never touched a computer and are trying to learn it from the book will find it more difficult but if they get their certification it will be useless "paper" cert.