A+ Certification Exam Objectives

A+ certification is the vendor neutral dominant entry level IT certification. It is an ideal starting point for new career entrants, career changers but also existing PC Support technicians that want more credibility in order to achieve better employability and higher pay.

To become an A+ Certified PC support technician you have to pass two exams A+ Exam 220-801 that covers mainly PC hardware knowledge and A+ Exam 220-802 that covers mainly PC software knowledge, mostly Windows OS but not exclusively.

The exams have through the years seen official as well as unofficial naming:

So what’s on the exam? Two ways to find out: Download below A+ exam objectives and practice with the CertBlaster for A+.

Download: CompTIA A+ 220-801 Hardware Exam Objectives

Download: CompTIA A+ 220-802 Software Exam Objectives

NOTE: The new and updated A+ certification exams 220-901 & 220-902 are due for release in December of 2015. The current 220-801 & 220-802 will, over an approximately six months “grace period”, remain in effect so until June or July of 2016.

A+ Certification and Pay

Although the average annual salary for an A+ certified technician is well over $50,000 the amount is determined mostly be experience. You do get a “certification bump” for being A+ certified but if you are a freshly certified new entrant in the field then your pay is more likely to be in the $30,000 to $40,000 range. However if you stick with it you will very likely end up well north of $50,000. Our research indicates that as an A+ certified individual you can expect to earnvabout 12% more than the average wage for the profession.

The Sponsor: CompTIA

This certification is sponsored by the Computing Technology Industry Association – CompTIA. By number of certified individuals this is by far the most successful IT Certification ever: In February of 2015 the one millionths A+ certification was awarded to Logan Murphy, a PC Support technician from Fort Collins, CO. No other IT certification have come anywhere near that number.

Other popular CompTIA Certifications

Other exceptionally successful certification tracks by CompTIA are Network+ and Security+. These are a more advanced than A+ but just like A+ they are also vendor neutral meaning that they apply industry wide not just to on company’s brand or product.