
First I must say that I procrastinated like crazy. I ordered the Sybex book about this time last year and it pretty much took my the entire year to read it. I stopped and started more than once and at some point stopped all together and started studying for Network+ (did the same thing with that also). I set a few dates, let it lapse, set dates again, let them lapse, until finally I decided that if I didn't have a hard goal that I wasn't going to get anywhere. So right before Halloween I ordered an early expiring discount voucher to give me a hard date to focus on (NOV 30). I read the fist half of the book, skipped around the lessons on Linux Academy (mainly focused on things that I had questions about) watched the Linux+ course on Cybrary.IT and did the Linux+ skillport classes. I passed the 103 with a 680 on Nov 24th. I then turned around and did the same thing again, Purchased another voucher with an expiration of Dec 31 and started the same process all over again and today I'm happy to say that I passed the 104 with a 700.
I especially want to thank everyone who has shared their experiences good & bad on TechExams. I didn't mention it at first but reading through various threads helped me gain confidence that I could succeed. My biggest problem is that I'm a scatter brain and have the focus of a child (I'm sure there are some children with better focus) But reading threads helped me put things in perspective and also showed me how much time I was wasting. Many times I would see posts about someone just starting to study for the cert, then later see posts of them passing the exams and moving on. My goal is to do better this year and continue finding inspiration from everyone here.