What approach do you use when studying for certs you have 0 to little exp at?

Recently I have been studying for a certification that completely snaps into my job, however when I was younger I barreled through some CompTIA's and a few others that I knew very little about.

Eventually down the road I may want to get something outside my scope of work.

Is it only realistic to "cert up" on junior level certifications while requiring working knowledge to pass the harder ones, or is this a myth? A lot people on this forum mention they passed an exam, rarely do I see what their experience was preceding the exam. This isn't always the case but most of the time from my perspective it is.

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Comments

dave330i

I've passed advanced certs with little to no experience, so it's a myth.

cyberguypr

I did my MCSA and MCITP when I was still doing desktop support work. All my experience came from labbing, breaking things and fixing them. There's definitely a gap between the books and the real world but labbing puts them closer. For my CISSP although I had enough experience in several domains but others were completely foreign to me. Studied hard and passed. Now, in both cases I made sure I gained proper experience later on.