Hello!,
Well, I did it! I'm very excited that I was able to pass this test. Thinking back on the whole experience, I don't know how I would have handled the notion of dedicating this much time to learning about the requisite topics, but now that it's all over, I'm much the better for it.
Last night was horrible, I didn't sleep but like one hour, and I was sure that I wouldn't be able to do well. That said, I got into the testing center via driving through an unfamiliar city (stressful in and of itself), and after looking at the first two questions, I thought something like "What in the F*** are these people on to ask things of this sort??!?" Luckily my tiredness was more than offset by my caffeine intake and adrenaline, and that pushed me to be able to focus on the ass-backwards way they insisted wording the questions!
I worked my way through the questions, and upon reaching the end, re-read some of the checked questions as a review. I must have checked about 25 questions that I was unsure of, and I am very glad I decided to go back through them, because upon second glance, they were easier to decipher.
I got through the test, and wanted to go back through them again, but I was exhausted (this is about an hour into it or something), and I forced myself to resign to my fate. But no, it was not over! There were more questions that I needed to answer to see my score, and it was at this point that I almost lost it because I was such a nervous wreck (not the best test taker here!).
After it was all done, I found out that I scored much better than I thought--I thought at numerous times during the test that I was sure to fail, letting my worries get the better of me--and that I had scored an 852.
That said, here are some of the tools I used:
-Coursesim TestOut Navigator(I got into this on a recommendation from a friend)
-CBT Nuggets
-That ILT book that CompTIA jewed me into buying when I bought my test voucher
-The Sybex book (it looked good, but I opted for a book in print because reading on the computer just doesn't work well for me)
About in that order of importance, from most to least. When all's said and done, I probably spent about 90 hours in preparation for the test over a period of a month and a half or so.
My one warning to people who feel that they are ready is to not be intimidated by the wording of the questions. Go slow and think through what each question is aiming at--I found that in general, each question had an axe to grind about some specific topic that you probably know about, and the answer becomes easy when you think about how to specifically APPLY that principle in the given example.
In closing, I'd like to thank all the people who responded to my questions over the past month and a half. Without their help, I might not have scored nearly as well, or might even have failed. I really appreciate your help because I may not have continued with any other certs, period, had I not been assisted and aided in passing this one!
Thanks again, everyone.
PS Where to next?
-msbachman
