How To Pass The Net+ AND Not Lose Your Evenings Doing It
A day-by-day study plan that only takes an hour a night
I’ve noticed something recently.
But before I get into that, some thanks are in order. For the first one, thank you to all the new email subscribers that joined the Avid Administrator Newsletter. Y’all are real ones. We are coming up on 300 subscribers to the Avid Admin.
May not seem like much but that’s almost 300 people that said they were interested in something I had to say or share. I’m thankful.
The last thank you is related to my Twitter. I know the bulk of my subscribers have come from clicking the link in my Twitter profile. I just passed 1200 followers.
Thank you for the support. I hope I have at least shared one thing that has benefitted you. Much of my time on Twitter has been exploratory. I’ve been trying to figure out the topics that people need and are interested in. I dial it a bit better each day.
It may sound weird but my long term goal is for you to unsubscribe from me. Right now I cover the basics for IT careers and IT certs. Once you master those basics I hope that you move on to more challenging topics.
Now for that thing I noticed recently…
A lot of you want to get your Network+. And that is freaking fantastic. That means you know that networking is important. You don’t want to be one of those cringey reply guys that says nothing is possible. You just want to pass your Net+ and start slaying it in your new career.
So here’s your…
Day-By-Day Guide To Passing the Network+
The below tweet is the short version but for more information…read on.
You might be think there’s no way it’s that simple. Well it is. It is just like studying for any other test like you would in high school or college. If you’re like me though, you didn’t study in high school or college and had to learn good study habits, painfully, later in life.
The “trick” is consistency. DO NOT OVERTHINK IT. You need 3 main things to pass your Network+:
A primary piece of study material. For the Net+ this can be the Jason Dion or Total Seminars Network+ study course. For those that prefer books go for the All in One Exam Guide on Amazon.
A supplementary piece of study material. I like Professor Messer’s Network+ YouTube videos for this. Go to these for a different explanation on material you just can’t quite grasp.
Practice test. Go for Jason Dion’s six practice exams on Udemy. You should shoot to score above 75% by the fifth and sixth exam.
You can grab all Udemy resources while they’re on sale and spend less than $40. Sales happen frequently. The book costs about $45 on Amazon.
Days 0-22:
The Total Seminars Network+ video course on Udemy is 21.5 hours long. Jason Dion’s is 26 hours. You could stretch this to 26 days if you opt for Dion’s course.
Spend 1 hour a night watching instructional material. The best way to do it is to split it into two 25-minute chunks and two 5-minute chunks. Here’s what a 1-hour long study session looks like for me:
25-minutes: Watching instructional video
5-minutes: Writing down everything I remember from what I just watched into a notebook. I will not reference the material at all while doing this. I’m trying to pull it all from memory.
25-minutes: Watching instructional video again
5-minutes: Last note taking session. Write down everything I can from memory.
Why do it this way and not take notes while watching video?
Well for starters I can’t listen and write notes down worth a flip. What usually happens is me constantly pausing the video and writing stuff down. More often than not I write down a bunch of useless stuff.
The second reason is because we want to practice pulling stuff from memory as quickly as possible. What are you going to do on the test? Pull information from memory and select the right answer. Start practicing it now and reinforce it with the practice tests.
Days 23-34:
In 12 days you will take 6 practice tests.
Your pattern should look something like this:
Day 23: Take the first practice exam. Score between a 40-60%. You may be disappointed but you shouldn’t. This is common. What you’re doing by taking practice tests is identifying your weak spots and misunderstandings.
Day 24: Identify why the wrong answers are wrong and the right answers are right for each question missed. Rewatch videos, Google answers and reference your notes. Spend an hour figuring out why all your answers were wrong.
Repeat from Days 25-32.
Day 33: By now you should be on your last practice exam. You should be scoring a 75% or higher. People have passed with a score of 70% on the practice exams but you want to push for that 80% range to be comfortable.
Day 34: The amount you need to review for your last practice exam should be smaller. By now you have solid idea of what you are weak in. Hit those topics HARD.
Day 40:
On day 40 you should be ready to take the exam. This is the best case scenario. Many of you might not reach this step until Day 50+. That’s because it’ll take longer to grasp some concepts or you miss some days because of life events. It happens. Either way you’re on track to pass the Network+ in ~2 months.
You have two options for taking your exam.
Option 1: Take it online through PearsonVUE. I did this for my CompTIA Network+ and Security+ exam. Most people make it through no problem assuming they have solid network connection and a quiet place to take the exam.
Option 2: Schedule through PearsonVUE but take it in person at an exam center. This is now my preferred option. I took my CISSP certification exam through an exam center and had a good experience. It eliminates any worries about your network dropping out, background noise because of family or anything else that could happen that’s out of your control. If you’re at a testing center and something goes wrong, it’s the testing centers fault.
If you pass, congratulations! If you don’t, identify what went wrong. It doesn’t mean you aren’t suited for the field. If you fail more than twice though then you need to make sure you are being honest with yourself. People that fail more than twice often didn’t follow the study plan or never tried to understand the material.
Once you pass DM me on Twitter and tell me how you feel. I felt AMAZING after I passed my first certification exam.
Until then though…
Good luck,
Tanuki