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Passed N+ ... my experiences
Just passed N+ with a score of 867/900 two hours ago 
While I was well-prepared, I was still somewhat nervous. I know these exams can have overly ambiguous questions, and my concern was that mine would have a bunch of them. As it turns out, there were some vague questions, but most of the time, common sense is going to help you pick the right answer.
Overall, the exam wasn't exactly hard, but it didn't go as smoothly as most of the practise tests I've done.
Some tips:
1. Book your exam in advance. With $ 250 on the line, you WILL be motivated
2. Make your own 'Study Guide'! I made concise notes of every important subject as I went through Todd Lammle's book, and managed to trim the 700 pages worth of material into a document of no more than 60 pages. Moreover, by putting the material on paper in your own words, you force yourself to truely understand what it means.
3. Verify the validity of your summary against alternative information sources. Even officially approved study books contain mistakes. Go with the facts that are supported by the most people.
4. Don't blindly repeat the material! Use some sort of repetition scheme. Personally, for the static facts such as port numbers and cable lengths, I made use of Spaced Repetition (look it up in Google). This system involves repeating study material frequently at first, then in larger intervals as time progresses. This is more efficient use of valuable time, and helps you to retain stuff well enough.
Example scheme for repeating a certain subject:
Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 4 - Day 7 - Day 14 - Day 21 - Day 35
For subjects that require a bit more thought, make sure to apply (if possible) it for real. Stuff like building your own simple network with hubs, switches, a simple server and a few hosts can be done cheaply. Practise making your own straight/crossover cables. Practise using the command-line tools with various switches. I tend to learn better if I see something in practise.
5. Two weeks before the exam, start doing practise tests to gauge your knowledge, find your weak areas and see if your study material is missing anything.
6. On the exam itself:
- Don't go in over-dressed. The examination room where I took the test was hot and stuffy. You're going to be nervous on exam day, being all sweaty and warm isn't going to help.
- If allowed, use earplugs. You're sharing the room with 5-10 other people, who are going to be shuffling their feet, typing obnoxiously, clicking their pens and chewing their gum. It's going to get on your nerves.
- Use the process of elimination if in doubt. Every question is guaranteed to have two answers that are outright BS. On ambiguous questions, it's sometimes going to be a crapshoot deciding between the final two answers, but at least your chance of getting the right one is 50/50.
- Don't go around changing answers when it's time to review. I didn't review mine at all. I figure that my passing score correlates to about 5 wrong answers; I reckon it would've been hard to track down those 5. Just take your time during the actual test. Better to finish in 85 minutes without reviewing anything, than finishing in 40 minutes and spending the remainder of the time doubting every answer you've given.
That's all. The study material I've used were Todd Lammle's book, Gene E. Clarke's book and somewhat unrelated, Wendell Odom's CCNA books. The latter goes in-depth into many of the switching, routing and subnetting concepts, and has helped me tremendously in grasping the stuff that's only superficially covered in the Network+ books.
While I was well-prepared, I was still somewhat nervous. I know these exams can have overly ambiguous questions, and my concern was that mine would have a bunch of them. As it turns out, there were some vague questions, but most of the time, common sense is going to help you pick the right answer.
Overall, the exam wasn't exactly hard, but it didn't go as smoothly as most of the practise tests I've done.
Some tips:
1. Book your exam in advance. With $ 250 on the line, you WILL be motivated
2. Make your own 'Study Guide'! I made concise notes of every important subject as I went through Todd Lammle's book, and managed to trim the 700 pages worth of material into a document of no more than 60 pages. Moreover, by putting the material on paper in your own words, you force yourself to truely understand what it means.
3. Verify the validity of your summary against alternative information sources. Even officially approved study books contain mistakes. Go with the facts that are supported by the most people.
4. Don't blindly repeat the material! Use some sort of repetition scheme. Personally, for the static facts such as port numbers and cable lengths, I made use of Spaced Repetition (look it up in Google). This system involves repeating study material frequently at first, then in larger intervals as time progresses. This is more efficient use of valuable time, and helps you to retain stuff well enough.
Example scheme for repeating a certain subject:
Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 4 - Day 7 - Day 14 - Day 21 - Day 35
For subjects that require a bit more thought, make sure to apply (if possible) it for real. Stuff like building your own simple network with hubs, switches, a simple server and a few hosts can be done cheaply. Practise making your own straight/crossover cables. Practise using the command-line tools with various switches. I tend to learn better if I see something in practise.
5. Two weeks before the exam, start doing practise tests to gauge your knowledge, find your weak areas and see if your study material is missing anything.
6. On the exam itself:
- Don't go in over-dressed. The examination room where I took the test was hot and stuffy. You're going to be nervous on exam day, being all sweaty and warm isn't going to help.
- If allowed, use earplugs. You're sharing the room with 5-10 other people, who are going to be shuffling their feet, typing obnoxiously, clicking their pens and chewing their gum. It's going to get on your nerves.
- Use the process of elimination if in doubt. Every question is guaranteed to have two answers that are outright BS. On ambiguous questions, it's sometimes going to be a crapshoot deciding between the final two answers, but at least your chance of getting the right one is 50/50.
- Don't go around changing answers when it's time to review. I didn't review mine at all. I figure that my passing score correlates to about 5 wrong answers; I reckon it would've been hard to track down those 5. Just take your time during the actual test. Better to finish in 85 minutes without reviewing anything, than finishing in 40 minutes and spending the remainder of the time doubting every answer you've given.
That's all. The study material I've used were Todd Lammle's book, Gene E. Clarke's book and somewhat unrelated, Wendell Odom's CCNA books. The latter goes in-depth into many of the switching, routing and subnetting concepts, and has helped me tremendously in grasping the stuff that's only superficially covered in the Network+ books.
WIP: CISSP, MCSE Server Infrastructure
Casual reading: CCNP, Windows Sysinternals Administrator's Reference, Network Warrior
Casual reading: CCNP, Windows Sysinternals Administrator's Reference, Network Warrior
