Should I take the A+ 220-601 & 220-603 or MCP 70-272?

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi Guys,

I have been IT support for just over 2 and half years now, I am going to take the next step by putting a qualification under my belt could you explain to me the difference between A+ 220-601 & 220-603 Vs MCP 70-272 in terms of difficulty?

I am enjoying remote support and it is something i want to carry on with.

Thanks for your time

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

The A+ is the basics of computers in basic terms it will teach what and how a hard drive works and how operating systems do etc it is a very good qualification to have regardless of what area of IT your in.

220-601 is mandatory for the A+ then you choose one of the electives most people go for the 220-602 IT Tech pathway. The 220-603 is designed at basic help desk support and as the A+ is vendour neutral it doesn't completly focus on one operating system.

As for the 70-272 this is the second exam in the MCDST certification and this goes into how you would support applications running on windows xp.

As for starting certs most people do the A+ followed by the N+ (basic networking) then they do the MCDST.

Hope this helps

 

Hi Greenbrucelee,

Thanks for the quick reply just a quick question reegarding 70-272 if i pass that exam does it class me as being an MCP??

If not which exams do i have to do to get the core MCP qualification?

 

Yes, it does.

Qs

 

yep it does, to get an MCP you need to pass any Microsoft exam.

 

Thank you guys i will be using this forum much more

 

Fixed.

 

Now I am confused older exams???

so if i went and did the 70-272 would that mean I am not a MCP?

 

the 70 series exam work under the old system - ie MCP, MCDST, MCSA, MCSE, the new one confuses me but the MCP is replaced with MCTS - technology specialist. I good be wrong on that but they are just different terms for effectively the same thing.

The 70 series exams are still current and if you pass the 70-272 you would be MCP.

Can I ask why are you planning on just doing the 272?

 

Hi Gingerdave,

thanks for clearing that up, the reason iam doing the 272 is because i have been working in a remote support for abouth 3 years now and feel this exam fits my skills better then the 271 which is for local onsite techies but will do this exam later on.

 

Ah I see. there is a lot of cross over between the two.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

I was looking at going straight into the mcdst then after reading this forum i decided to start with the A+. I then called my local exam centre to be told that the A+ is hideously out of date and a complete waste of time and that i should do the mcdst and forget the A+ but he said i'd need at least 2 years hands on server 2003 experience to have a hope of passing the mcdst. i'm now so confused that you wouldn't believe. HELP!

 

Whoever told you that is talking complete bollocks and is probably truing to get some money out of you.

The A+ is not out of date and there is a new version of it next year but it does not matter which one you do.

You do not need 2 years server experience for the MCDST, are you sure he wasn't talking about the MCSE? because that would be more accurate.

The MCDST covers XP anyway not servers.

The general starting point is A+,N+ then MCDST and no further until you have the required experience before progressing onto higher certs.

 

If they told you that, then that's a centre you certainly don't want to use for training!

1) The A+ is NOT out of date
2) The A+ is NOT a waste of time
3) The MCDST covers XP, NOT Server 2003 - it's a desktop support certification, for heaven's sake!

You'll stay confused if you keep listening to people who work at exam centers instead of people who are actually in IT. Get your A+, Network+, and MCDST, and you'll be all the better for it.

For the record, you don't HAVE to talk to anyone at an exam centre - simply schedule your exam online at Prometric or Vue, then show up to the exam at your scheduled time.

 

thank you guys. I feel a lot better. i'll continue with the A+ then. what you say bout the mcse makes sense about needing experience for that. it does look very indepth. I have been looking at the requirements for A+ and it seems quite straight forward for someone who has been playing about with pc's and settings for 14 years on an end user basis. would you agree with that or are there things i should be cautious about?

 

You will be ok to do the A+. The A+,N+ and MCDST require very little experience as they are entry level certs. Those certs are designed to help you into the industry.

The other certs after those like CCNA.MCSA and MCSE are certs to show your experience level. So for example the CCNA require that you actually work with CISCO gear. The MCSA requires that you have atleast 6 months experience as a network admin and the MCSE requires that you have atleast 12 months experience in supporting and administering a 250+ user multi server environment. Having these certs without the required experience can have an adverse effect on your job prospects.

 

thats exactly what i needed to know. thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. its reassuring to know there are people around who can and will answer questions without ulterior (sp?) motive.

 

Exactly right. There's some good people here, and they won't lead you wrong.

If I acted like some of those training centers, I'd tell you to pursue every certification under the sun and to buy Boson products while doing it. But even though that might be good for MY pocket, I *know* that wouldn't be good for YOUR career. My short-term gain would be your long-term loss.

In truth, I do have an ulterior motive. It is my hope that you will think, "Hey, this guy's got my best interests at heart - perhaps he puts the same level of care into his practice exams." Plus, it is my hope that you will become a contributing member of the CertForums community. Thus, my short-term loss becomes OUR long-term gain.

 

Repped!