I passed but barely. Scored a 730 and ran out of time with 2 sims partially unfinished. I prioritized the non-sim questions so I did those first and then came back to the sims at the end. I must say the experience was kind of humbling and I was a bit let down. I really felt like I knew my stuff going in and seeing questions missed on the results printout in areas that I know I am strong in was a bummer. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy I passed, (And get to keep my job lol), I just thought I was going to score much higher. As someone said in one of the other threads, it's as big a test in reading comprehension as it is knowledge. In retrospect, this was my first CompTIA exam and although I had read so much about how the test would be I really wasn't prepared for their style of questioning. I'll be much better prepared for that with A+ next, (Which I probably should have taken first.)
For the interested:
I had no prior networking experience before this. Study time was approx 4 months.
I used:
-Professor Messer videos + his course notes
-Mike Meyer vids on lydia
-Examcompass tests
-Kindle version of Mike Meyers CompTIA Network+ All-In-One Exam Guide, 6th ed.
-GooglePlay version of Microsoft Windows Networking Essentials (Yes, sad to admit this road started out as studying for 98-366 before realizing Net+ was the superior choice)
-Pearson N10-006 Simulator
-Subnettingquestions.com
-Multiple sets of flashcards on Quizlet before frustration with various authors style led to making about 800 of my own on Anki.
Hands down the biggest help was the Mike Meyers All-In-One book. I did as he suggested, reading it through the first time as if it were a novel, and then reading it again a 2nd time taking notes and cards out of it. Even after finishing it the 2nd time I can't even fathom how many times I ended up going back to that book to look things up after some Google search on an exam objective further complicated a subject leaving me even more confused. The Kindle version was great because of the easy searching and bouncing around. As far as Mike Meyer's style, fortunately I'm a movie and gaming nerd as well so I get his humor. I'm pretty sure there was only 1-2 questions max on my test that cited something not in his book.
The least helpful was examcompass. The style of questioning is much different on the actual test. Examcompass is by no means worthless, I feel like I had just put wayyy too much faith into it thinking I was ok after I was scoring 90%+ on all of the practice tests on it.
Lastly, the Pearson simulator has several threads going so I guess I'll throw my .02c there. I feel like it helped a little but it doesn't get deep enough. For example, on the wap placement one it would have been nice if it had you configure the actual settings on the wap itself. Like setting IP addresses and SSIDs, etc. The intermediate IPv4 addressing practice 1 was good, but it really would have been nice if there were was a 2nd or 3rd version to play with on it. You can only do the same lab so many times! The whole lab part itself also would have been really nice if it had two modes, like a learning and question mode. After going through the sims several times I would have liked to try things without the how-to instructions present. Despite those grips, I would buy the sim again if I were to have to do it all over again because it really wasn't that expensive but I wouldn't rely solely on it. Maybe in 3 years there will be a more elaborate one
