I got an A+ in Feb 1998 and used it to get a first job in IT later that year, in the frenzy leading up to Y2K. I got thrown right into a quasi desktop support position, and worked in desktop support for the next several years.
Fast forward to July of this year. That would be 18 years. I'm driving a truck to make ends meet. (They meet rather handsomely, but the schedule absolutely sucks). I talked to an acquaintance at a cookout. We talked about my IT background and he suggested that he might be able to get me on where he works if I got a few more certs. I validated his perceptions by talking with a local IT recruiter in some depth.
I decided that N+ was the next logical cert to get after reading lots of forum advice.
I am a reader, not a visual learner. Videos put me to sleep.
First book was Mike Meyer's All in One. Loved his slightly irreverent style. He gives a very broad overview and I enjoyed reading the book. Did all the chapter questions. He has supplementary online stuff sprinkled throughout the book, but I was on a tight schedule (3 weeks of medical leave) and it's not listed in the table of contents. The book comes with a very detailed glossary, a .pdf of the book on the CD, detailed study plans, and Total Tester software. Meyers includes some labs on the CD, but they are a teaser for buying his full version of the labs on his website. Meyer's book is direct and to the point. It was my essential foundation for passing the test. But I found some errors. And his chapter on subnetting did not help me at all.
I wanted lots of exposure to test questions, particularly after reading how hard this revision of the test is, with the reported 30% pass rate. So I bought Mike Meyers full question set for Total Tester for $75. It includes 950 test questions. I wanted more experience with the scenario-type questions, so I got Pearson IT's Hands-On Lab Simulator. If you answer their survey question, they give you money off your purchase. I got mine for $34.99. Lastly, I got Darrill Gibson's 400 page book of test questions.
I spent an entire day working through Gibson's entire book of 300 questions. I answered all the questions, took each test, and made notes on the things I missed. Since I'm a written word person, writing reinforces the learning. From the notes I made for review, I wound up with a 50 page review document. It helped. If you choose to go this route, your doc may be less or more, depending on how confident you are of your knowledge retention. I am very thorough in test prep because the test is so expensive, so my doc was rather long.
I highly recommend the Hands-On Lab Simulator. It includes 58 labs and was essential in preparing me for the test. It covers a key portion of the test that you won't find anywhere else in as much depth. It's also a bargain at the price. I would not have passed the test without it.
Various forum posts indicated that the Meyers book was just not enough, by itself, to pass the test. I went to amazon.com and read reviews. I picked Glen E. Clarke's Network+ Certification Study Guide, $36.25 on Amazon. It included a copy of the same Total Tester software, but with 561 questions. I love this book. The chapter on subnetting finally made subnetting clear, which alone was worth the price of the book. In addition to the Total Tester software, the CD included with the book has a .pdf copy of the book, a lab book, a performance-based questions book, and a quick review guide. These were essential and alone were worth the price of the book.
The book itself is a little odd. For the exercises in the text, he assumes you have access to a virtual machine, and copies of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. I learned that Amazon Web Services (
https://aws.amazon.com/) offers access for a year to free virtual machines in the cloud. Included in the free tier are 2003, 2008 and 2012 versions of Windows Server. E2 is the section that features the VM servers. I didn't have a copy of Windows 8, but it wasn't essential for the test. A goodly portion of the book is taken up with these exercises, but it wasn't critical for the test. The other value in Clarke is that he goes into depth in some areas where Meyers doesn't, like subnetting, and some of the diagrams. His chapter questions required more thought, and were better prep for the test. I could not have passed the test without this book and the material on the CD. I will keep this book at hand for the server exercises, when I have the time. This book got my scores on the Total Tester software from the mid 80s to the low 90s. There is a checklist of topics from the test objectives. It was very useful.
My time window for taking the test was closing, so I scheduled the test. There were a few things I only glossed over, like IPv6, and I wasn't confident about subnetting, even after reviewing a variety of online resources. I had bought a CompTIA package that included a retake, so I felt that even if I failed, I would have at least seen the test, and would know how to better prep for a retake.
My experience with the test was daunting. As I read the first question, most of my confidence evaporated. Reading the second and third, the rest of it went. I'm an old hand at taking tests, so I flagged those questions and carried on. I went through the rest of the questions, flagging anything I thought was long or would take time. I wanted to see what the rest of the test was like, whether there would be many of the straight knowledge questions. I also kept an eye on the time, realizing that it was going to be critical. The majority of the test was straight knowledge questions. But there were plenty scenario/performance-based questions as well. I went thru all the questions, then went back to the nine flagged questions, working them one by one, again keeping an eye on the time. I finished with about two minutes left on the clock. I was confident that I had failed. I was so stunned to see “Pass” on the screen that I had to read it several times.
