Ten guides · every exam fact dated
One question per guide
Each of these answers a single thing someone types into a search box before they book an exam. Where CompTIA states the answer on its own page, the answer is quoted and dated. Where CompTIA states nothing, the guide says so and stops, which happens more often than anyone expects.
Two exams of identical length with different pass marks, different subject matter and different failure modes — and the version rule that binds them together.
Which IT certificate to take firstFour doors into IT support, compared on what their issuers publish rather than on what they promise: CompTIA Tech+, A+, Network+ and the Google IT Support certificate.
What A+ costs, and the pages that would not saySix CompTIA pages, one delivery partner and a search that ended with no exam fee. The record of what was opened, what redirected and what was empty — plus the two money figures CompTIA does publish.
The A+ passing score, and what it does not mean675 for Core 1, 700 for Core 2, on a scale of 900. What a scaled score is, why it is not a percentage, and why nobody can tell you how many questions you need right.
Yes, A+ expires — and the cheapest way to stop itThree years from the day you earn it, four single activities that renew it, a $75 fee that only applies to one of them, and the rule that makes A+ maintenance-free once you go further.
Google IT Support certificate against CompTIA A+One is a certificate of completion from a course provider, the other a certification from a certifying body. That distinction decides most of the comparison, and it is the one both marketing pages blur.
How hard is A+, without a pass rate to lean onCompTIA publishes no pass rate, so difficulty has to be assessed from what it does publish: recommended experience, question formats, breadth of domains and the shape of the retake rules.
How to study for A+ without buying anything firstA study order built on the two documents CompTIA gives away and the free video course most candidates use — with the point marked where free material genuinely runs out.
Is A+ worth it? The checkable partsAn answer with no salary figure and no pass rate in it, because neither can be sourced — and a list of the things A+ demonstrably does, which turns out to be longer than expected.
Network+ after A+: what CompTIA actually recommendsCompTIA writes A+ into the recommended experience for Network+, which makes the ladder explicit. What the second exam contains, what it scores, and why its renewal costs twice as much.