Current status of Network+ Exam : Unbearably hard now with new update

Mpstyler

Hey everyone. Just voicing my concerns and giving some feedback about the new Network+ Exam.

So currently I am Security+ certified and Linux+ certified (passed on the first try on Mar. 7th and Mar. 21st 2016 respectively) but have failed the Network+ Exam on two attempts (670 first and 640 the second). I find this exam to be unbearably hard. If you've taken any CompTIA Exam's, you know the standard format and how difficult the questions can be. The Network+ I find is again, much worse. I have found the new N10-006 to be the hardest exam I have ever taken, and I study very hard. To try and give some context, I find a lot of CompTIA questions to be roughly around maybe 1-2 layers deep, i.e. "What port does this service use?" and "What service would you disable at the firewall to stop intruders from pinging the inside of your network, etc." Roughly easy questions. The new questions I feel are "3-5 layers" deep if that makes any sense. Very involved, complex questions with lots of moving parts. You misread one word, one phrase, and it all falls apart. The simulations are much easier than the multiple choice, and the multiple choice are paragraph questions that a lot of times leave you guessing with "choose the BEST answer."

To give a little backdrop, I've been doing Net+, Sec+ and Linux+ bootcamps through a training vendor in the area called Infotec that has a high pass rate and I do not fault my instructors. After failing the Net+ exam the first time, I decided to audit the class two more times just to absorb as much information as I could since the exam objectives covered so much content. Then, after failing the Net+ exam a 2nd time and just being beyond surprised at how difficult the exam was, I decided to email the director of my school, and this is what she said. And I quote:

"Thank you so much for taking the time to express your frustration and experience with the training. Though disturbing, this feedback is vital. The results Infotec and other training vendors have been seeing from the Network+ exam is startling. We are observing individuals taking the Network+ exam - failing, and then taking the CCNA ICND1/ICND2 exam and passing. A person that can pass both ICND1 and ICND2 should certainly be able to pass a Network+ exam. We, as you, and many in the market feel this exam should be re-evaluated. When I read the below, I immediately forwarded this to our Regional CompTIA Manager. I have seen the work in your IKA and have spoken to the trainers. It is evident your dedication, drive and passion to this goal are in place. I have been leading training companies for over 25 years and have never experienced such concern in the market as I have seen with the Network+ exam. Please don’t get discouraged or question your ability . . .you are not alone."

So there you go. I think her response speaks enough. And just another little sidenote, I have no professional IT experience which obviously would have helped, and I've been told by some others that to really gain the knowledge I need to pass the exam, I'd need to work in a networking environment, the catch-22 being that in order to work in said networking environment, you need the Net+ cert. The irony.

Hope this helps somehow, and perhaps gives other people an idea of what they're getting into. I'm not really sure how to prepare at this point other than to keep studying and going deeper. The director of my school said she was having one of the instructors attend a CompTIA Net+ conference call with some of the folks at CompTIA, and then gather results on how to proceed from there.

Mpstyler

Just one more intimate detail. My instructors and director said the Network+ Exam, since updating to the N10-006 currently has a 30% pass rate nationwide. There's some hard stats.

jeremywatts2005

Glad I hold my Net+ if it has gotten that hard Keep trying and read closely you can do it.

danny069

Does it give you a breakdown percentage of topics? You could spend more time on those areas in which those percentages were not at a passing mark.

hipsterdylan

I have to agree with this post. I've worked in a data center for 5 years, not as a System Admin, but in a monitoring job, watching for outages, opening tickets, etc. But still, I was around all the equipment, and studying for the exam really wasn't that hard, as I already had a good understanding of most of it. Subnetting was new to me, but I went into the 1st exam full on confidence and failed miserably (660). I then enrolled in a CCNA class at a local community college, and studied it AND the Network+ at the same time, because there was a lot of overlap. I love the CCNA 1 class, very fun and easy to me. Only hard sections were subnetting and ipv6 addresses. Well, fast forward 6 weeks, and the ccna 1 class is finished and I passed, went to take the network+ exam again, studied again for it...failed. 693. To be fair, a lot of the questions on the exam were NOWHERE in my online reviews, practice scenarios, etc. I even emailed one company complaining about it; I paid for their online tutorials, but they only laid a foundation. The questions were way above what I was taught. Don't know if I'll take it again; I'll probably get my CCENT instead.

Magic1333

Update for those still following post.
I passed the Newest version of Network+ today with a 735. I would agree that this version is a bit more difficult than the previous exam.
I had around 20 minutes left with about 40 questions remaining. I literally blazed through the remaining questions, luckily they seemed to get easier as I proceeded. A little back drop I hold a valid CCNA and A+ Net+ along with several college accolades and CIT degree. My recommendation for people would be to stay focused on the questions early, as well as the sims in the beginning and pray you have enough time near the end. After my review and double takes i submitted with one minute remaining. I was relieved to have passed, and now dont feel so bad about my 735 score. Quicktip* VCE **** are useless, and the latest Exam Cram book which I used to study for do not help much. I do have working XP as an Network Engineer which definately helps. Keep your heads up fellow IT people and never give up.

9bits

Interesting to hear this exam is this difficult. But given that, and since CCNA is much more valuable on a resume than Network+, people might as well just pursue CCNA and forget about Network+ all together.

tmtex

I took a free class last summer from a accredited school (2 weeks) (Free from unemployment) Anyway the instructors said it was really difficult compared to the previous one that they all wrote letters to CompTIA saying WTF

Nik 99

lol. I just made a post a min or two ago about the difficulty of the Network+ exam and saying I'd seen on the forums that N+ was far harder then it should be now. Glad to know others have confirmed this to be true. I really like networking and consider myself pretty decent at it, so it upset me a bit that my score was pretty close to a fail.

Hmm....maybe Sec+ will be a gentle exam compared One can only hope.

sillymcnasty

While studying for the N10-005, it expired and I had to go for the N10-006. The 10-006 was INFINITELY harder than the 005. Insane. I took the CCNA, and 2 AWS certs since then and did not sweat during any of them. I studied for A VERY LONG TIME for the N10-006 with LOTS of practice simulations, and still barely passed by like 20-25 points?

BIGW0W

I got 776!!! Definitely the hardest test I've ever taken. I recommend anyone who wants to pass this exam to study hard like you never studied before.

xengoreth

9bits wrote: »

But given that, and since CCNA is much more valuable on a resume than Network+, people might as well just pursue CCNA and forget about Network+ all together.

This is indeed the case. Even though the knowledge required to pass the Net+ is not completely useless, it has the stigma of being a CompTIA cert. However, what makes this test difficult is probably that it tries to cover way, way too many subjects (although with little depth). CompTIA could make a more useful cert if the narrowed the scope a little and increased the depth in those subjects. Additionally, its not a fun cert to study for, unlike the CCNA, where you can from zero to awesome with a little reading and an awful lot of labbing!

But, I can say I would have never even considered the Net+ (or A+) if it weren't for WGU.

9bits

xengoreth wrote: »

This is indeed the case. Even though the knowledge required to pass the Net+ is not completely useless, it has the stigma of being a CompTIA cert. However, what makes this test difficult is probably that it tries to cover way, way too many subjects (although with little depth). CompTIA could make a more useful cert if the narrowed the scope a little and increased the depth in those subjects. Additionally, its not a fun cert to study for, unlike the CCNA, where you can from zero to awesome with a little reading and an awful lot of labbing!

But, I can say I would have never even considered the Net+ (or A+) if it weren't for WGU.

What I find interesting and odd is that people report the older Network+ being not too bad, but now this new version is some Odyssean nightmare. I don't understand CompTIA's thought process on the change. Their value was being an entry level cert that people used a stepping stone to certs like CCNA. Now they've made the cert harder than the certs it was supposed to be a stepping stone for. If they were thinking the added difficulty would bring more interest and prestige to the cert, I believe they miscalculated. It would be like Boone's Farm putting out $60 bottles of wine. No one is going to buy them because the name already has a solid cultural association that isn't easily changed. What I think will happen is people will simply lose interest in the cert all together.

usha3kt@gmail.com

Hi,
I have worked at Infosys ,I got trained on CCNA and CCNP training and after i did my probation for 1 month later i got my location to pune . So, i got quit. Now i am working at cognizant ,The project which is not at all related to networking.

Now I need to undergo a course.

Which course is better? I need to do MCSE. If I do that course ,the courses which i have undergone at Infosys are taken into valid or not?


I need clarity on what happens if I do?

Whether the couses are taken into account or not?


Please help me out on this . Awaiting your reply.

swamprat

Mpstyler wrote: »

Just one more intimate detail. My instructors and director said the Network+ Exam, since updating to the N10-006 currently has a 30% pass rate nationwide. There's some hard stats.

To my understanding, Comptia never releases information such as this, so that number is a rough guess, at best, not hard stats

TAshman847

Hi just registered after reading this thread the other day.

I was incredibly worried about taking the exam due to the comments in this thread.

I have already got my MCSE Private Cloud 2012R2, MCSA Windows 10, 8.1, 7, XP and a couple of specialist exams.

I passed my Network+ today with a score of 803.

I had 30 minutes of time left by the time I'd finished.

This was not a difficult exam, if you learn the material and understand a lot about VLANS, Spanning Tree and can subnet using your hands / brain then it's quite simple.

The only resource i used was CBT Nuggets Net+ and IPV4 & 6 Subnetting courses. Also with our CBT Nuggets we get transcender tests which i found amazing to help me identify areas that needed improvement.

No brain **** were used as i feel its cheating and very wrong in my eyes.

I'm not a network BOD i deal with virtualisation, AD, Exchange and Kemp Load Balancing Solutions.

I really wanted a better understanding of Networks and will be doing my CCNA next.

I have been working in IT for 10 years, but had no idea even about wireless access point channel interference and resolution.

It took me two weeks to study for this 8hrs after work finished.

Even though the certificate is vendor neutral so say all the router examples are cisco so i would recommend hands on experience or use gns3.

Hope this helps someone out.

Tom

volfkhat

TAshman847 wrote: »

Even though the certificate is vendor neutral so say all the router examples are cisco so i would recommend hands on experience or use gns3.

Hope this helps someone out.

Red Card!