Need Some Advice on Study Materials

Hello Everyone, I took the Network+ exam for the first time 2 days ago (11/14) and failed with a 625 (720 needed). To be honest, I did not do enough research before deciding what materials were needed to pass going in. I bought the 2 voucher/CertMaster combo from Pearson's website. I assumed that mastering the review from the test administrators would be sufficient, but to my surprise oh was I wrong!

Background:
2.5 years help desk experience
5 years technical education experience (Graduating in 8/16 w/ Bachelor's in Network Security)
No networking experience

Weaknesses:
Subnetting
The exam lab questions really kicked my butt. (Subnetting, setting up WAPs/switches via cmd)

I have one more voucher left, and going in want to make sure I pass this time

Plan:

ExamCram CompTIA Network+ (Emmett Dulaney)
All in One CompTIA (Mike Meyers)
CBT Nuggets?
Lab question guide though CompTIA's Website?

Above is my course of action, with my biggest concern being subnetting and correcting switch/router/host connectivity via CMD. Any feedback on study material would be much appreciated!

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Comments

Boxxer

I passed the network+ exam using only the CBT nuggets videos and taking notes as well as practice exams. The instructor of that series is amazing, his name is Keith Barker or something similar IIRC. I highly recommend learning from his videos.

Segovia

I can attest to the effectiveness of Keith Barker. He does a great job at teaching, not only for N+ but many other series as well. I have used Mike Meyers books in the past but in my humble opinion they are not great for people with some prior knowledge. You take this 1500 page tome and it is extremely difficult to digest, unless you are a complete beginner.

While I have not yet seen the ExamCram from N+ and Dulaney, I did use the ExamCram by Prowse for A+ and it was right on point. I'd really recommend trying that book over All in One.

Be sure to know how to subnet, I'd recommend CBT nuggets for that as well.

Good luck! I'm taking this in a few weeks as well.

thisissohard

I am using ExamCram to study for Network+. It served me very well for the A+ and, yes, I agree that it is much more focused than the All-in-One series was.

On the downside, I am a little disappointed by the Exam Cram companion CD. It provides only 200 questions for the Network+. For the A+, it included well over 700 questions. I guess you can't have everything.

Edin

Cbtnuggets for N10-006 and examcram book for N10-006.

byron66

I use CBT Nuggets and examcompass.com for practice test.

ac1d12a1n

For those who have taken the test, and have studied Professor Messers videos, how well did they hold up?

TDavault21

Update: Finished reading ExamCram, took notes, and did both practice tests (missed ~30-35 questions out of 100). Definitely recommend the book, I've already learned a lot of information. Moving to the CBT Nuggets, and then doing the CompTIA Network + Cert/Lab guide by Keith Barker.

simulcast

I used the Mike Myers & the exam cram. Of the two i would say the Mike Myers was more reflective & closer aligned. It seemed like the exam cram was just a general review & not specific. Having just took the exam & not passing I noticed that the questions & concepts they asked were completely different form either of the two review books. I wondered if I even had the right study guide & practice questions. Can anybody out there who has passed the present Net+ N10-006 exam recommend an actual study guide & poll of practice questions that really works?

FritzG

I'm taking the test tomorrow. I'll post afterwards and let you know what I think helped me ... if I pass ... or what hurt me if I fail.

FritzG

In response to this post:

The questions I got were closest to the Mike Meyers practice tests but not exactly and the Pearson simulations while similar were not the same. Since I actually wanted the knowledge this test is supposed to confirm you have, I did not seek out "shady resources". Both question and simulation formats were a bit different and harder than my resources (listed below).

You definitely have to work well under pressure and not just know the material. You also have o now how to apply it in the scenarios you are given (both written and in the simulations) because in many cases, you are asked to solve a problem, not answer a question. Those two things are key to getting a passing grade.

From my other post:

Well, I passed it with a 780 and I finished with almost no time to spare. However, I took my time because I am not the best test taker.

My available resources were:

- Pearson Book - Study Guide (6th Edition)
- Pearson Practice Exams
- Pearson Simulations
- Mike Meyers All-In-One Guide (6th Edition)
- Mike Meyers Practice Tests (900 Questions)
- Professor Messer's Notes v11
- 20 years of experience in I.T. (non-networking)

To be quite honest, I relied heavily on my experience to know a lot of the technical information. However, the Pearson simulations, Mike Meyers last 4 chapters and his practice tests are what I think got me over the hump.

I also think a bit of luck in what exam content you get versus what you are strongest on from the W-I-D-E spectrum of knowledge required for this exam also plays a part in it. The exam objectives document is 30+ pages long!

Anyway, this is most definitely not a Microsoft exam where you could cram for a couple of weeks and go knock it out unless you are a savant. There is a lot of information I was strong on that I didn't get a single question on. YMMV. Good luck to you all.

ac1d12a1n

Way to go! Thanks for the update!

StarJack

Congrats on the pass, and thanks for the information.

Segovia

Totally agree with Fritz. I also had to rely on my previous experience in networking to make it through some of the questions. For me I think professor messer definitely helped the most. But there are some questions/scenarios in the exam that you can't really study for.

Don't want to break NDA but you should actually research some of the more complicated Cisco commands that align to the exam objectives... And know your basic subnetting!

Good luck!