CIW v MS v Cisco v WGU v CompTIA Exams

(Updated) -- I've seen people post what tests/providers are the hardest in the WGU lineup. I'll go ahead and post my thoughts. I'm doing IT w/Sec Emphasis so my experience may be different than yours. I have over 15 years of real world experience from Desktop goober to Network geek to Boss. I've also had the technical alphabet soup after my name in the early 2000s (MCSE, CCNP, A+, Others...). Translation, I've taken a few test in the past 20ish years. Mostly passed too. Shocking. My personal order of difficulty from easiest to hardest as for 2014/2015 from a WGU point of view:

1. WGU assessments
2. CIW
3. MS
4. CompTIA
5. Cisco

On the WGU test, the amount material can be overwhelming as in the bio course. However, the bar tends to be set low. Most of the time, you can get it down to a 50/50 coinflip on the questions you don't know. The material always seems to match the test. No question will be a surprise topic. Plus some of the recorded lectures tell you how to take the test well. Last, you get to stay home and take it so the comfort of home helps (provided your house is quiet, the neighborhood is quiet, etc...)

CIW has seemed to be the easiest testing-center test makers. Part of it is due to the fact the questions are truly from the material. There haven't been any surprises taking this line of testing. In addition, it seems like some of the concepts are common sense and can reason your way into the right answers, especially if you know the definitions of the words/terms. These test also seem to be simply definition/term based. Unlike the Cisco, MS, and CompTIA, there wasn't a lot of application of knowledge to a situation.

It may shock you to see MS next, but the 2 tests were entry level tests for Win7 and something else. The material provided by WGU seemed to be sufficient with my experience to pass these fairly easy. I would not be shocked to hear the more advance server courses had some difficultly and were harder than the CompTIA.

CompTIA. I actually thinks these are some of the more interesting tests with the scenarios they offer. The study material offered past the A+ needs some updating within the curriculum & course of study. The material WGU offered for Project+ was spot on, especially the uCertify resource. Net+, Sec+, Linux+/LPI all took outside resources. I'd list the difficulty within these sub-tests from easiest to hardest:

• Net+ (Its what I do/did so only had to learn 1 section)
• Project+
• A+
• Sec+
• Linux+

The carry-over of my network life helps a lot on the first 3, but the Linux to a windows person required some hands on retraining. As for the people who will say CompTIA deals with outdated tech, I'd argue most environments will have some flavor of outdated equipment you'll have to support, or help upgrade. Knowing how the old stuff works will help make good choices when proposing and upgrade to your boss/customer/spouse. The last pro on the "old" information is that you can communicate with the people who got off their tech career tracks a while back and are coasting it home to retirement. These people exist (sometimes in high places). The reality of work and life.

Cisco. Disclaimer, I failed the CCNA Sec the first time (888 vs 898 - not happy). I thought the material was ok (Books + Video), but the other material on Cisco's site is a must. The site material was the difference between pass/fail. I didn't take the CCNA (ICND) within WGU as I came in with it. These tend to have a very high bar to reach for a passing grade(85% or higher), require some hands-on, and know some random ass stuff buried within the material. Plus, its difficult to get true hands-on practice for this one. WGU says use GNS3 (which I advocate too), however, getting an IOS to run is challenge.

I've also taken the CWNA and ITIL exams in the recent 18 months. Below is how I'd group all the tests I've taken in the past 2 years from my point of view.

1. Relatively Easy: WGU courses, CIW (ALL), Entry MS courses
2. Moderate: ITIL Foundation, A+, Net+, Project+
3. Somewhat Difficult: Sec+, LPI exams/Linux+, CCNA R&S
4. Difficult: CWNA, CCNA Sec

 

CJV1 Passed -- CIW Database

Took the CJV1/CIW Database exam. 84 points achieved, 74 needed.

Test vs Material: the course and WGU material pretty much covered the test. Again, the practice questions aren't word for word the test, however they provided a good overview.

Test itself: Was actually fairly readable for an IT test. 50 questions, and only had one, maybe two questions where I had to decipher the phrase/word the test makers were dancing around. Again, nothing unexpected or new on the test.

Study Method: read the material end to end. Did chapter quizzes and exams. re-read 1-6 quickly. Did the 6 domain area quizzes. Did the domain area exams. Took test. Was making 90-94 on domain exams/quizzes. I didn't do any of the labs. I had enough practical experience in my few efforts query a DB to know the basic commands. SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, CREATE, DROP, ALTER, ...etc.

Onto MGC1. Took the pre-assessment and made a 76. Guess I should schedule it...