Comptia's A+ Certification
A Primary Level Cetification
The A+ exam is in an adaptive format as of July 28, 2000. The adaptive score scale for both the Core and the DOS/Windows is between 100 and 900. The minimum score required to the pass the A+ Core is 445. The minimum score required to pass the A+ DOS/Windows is 465. The pass rate for the adaptive A+ test is the same as that of the previous conventional A+ exam.
Each question on the adaptive test has a known difficulty level. The test score is based on the difficulty of questions answered correctly versus the difficulty of questions answered incorrectly. For example, if easy questions were answered correctly and more difficult questions were missed, a lower score would be received. If harder questions were answered correctly and very difficult questions were missed, a higher score would be received. The A+ exam is passed if the candidate's test score is at or above the minimum passing score of 445 for the CORE and 465 for the DOS/Windows. Answering all of the questions correctly would give you a very high score, but not necessarily a 900. The score obtained would depend on the difficulty of the questions presented.
Although the adaptive version of the test is shorter than the conventional version, the ability required to pass the adaptive test is the same as that required to pass the longer conventional version. Remember there is no change to the minimum passing score of the A+ test. The only content change was the elimination of the customer service questions on the CORE. The items on the adaptive test are the same items presented in the conventional version.
Candidates are given 30 minutes to complete the CORE exam and 30 minutes to complete the DOS/Windows exam. There are 20 to 30 questions on the Core portion and 20 to 30 questions on the DOS/Windows portion.