r/CompTIA

Legitimately crazy to me. First off I was 80% sure I was gonna fail during the test. Number two these tests, even though they're not super hard, have shown me I'm not as stupid as I think. Passed both on the first try.

Let's gooooo. Time for the next step to becoming a sys admin

To study, all I did was watch Professor Messer's A+ Core 1 & Core 2 videos on YouTube (With details notes), and then verified my readiness using Messer's practice exams.

Just passed my last exam! Got A+ certified last month so the exam gauntlet is finally over (for now)

This exam made me question all of my life's choices btw😅

I took my test this morning and I really thought I was failing this test. I was surprised to pass with 808! I had a total of 70 questions, including 5 PBQs. One of the PBQs I didn't get to finish because I ran out of time, and another one, which I did guess.

Study material

• Percipo - CompTIA Network+ Course, Practice Test, and Labs
• Andrew Ramdayal Udemy Course and Practice Exams
• Jason Dion Udemy Course and Practice Exams
• Youtube Videos
  • Professor Messer CompTIA Network+
  • MyFreeAcademy - CompTIA Network+ Full Practice Questions about 6 hours video (sped up)
  • MyFreeAcademy - CompTIA Network+ Practice Test - Acroyms
• I used Cisco Packet Tracer and built VMs for Windows 10, Kali Linux, and Windows Server 2022. Andrew Ramdayal will also guide you through those.

My CompTIA journey began during the COVID-19 pandemic, right after I finished my BSCS. I struggled to find Software or IT jobs for 2 years after completing my degree. I had a bit of a panic thinking I should get a CompTIA certification to beef up my resume, but I ended up rushing myself and failing my first Sec+ test. Since then, I have always had an urge to pass the sec+, but with other priorities (family), I had to take a break. I got my first Software Engineering job in late 2022 after submitting many, many applications. My company needed an SA to work on a VM that required getting a Sec+ cert. This time, I really took my time to study and took A+ certs first to get comfortable with the CompTIA test style. As I get older, I have less interest in coding, plus there are AIs now that can code for you! I started pursuing cybersecurity and earned CySA+, PenTest+, and Security+. It tookl me about 2 years to accomplish A+ Core 1 to Security X and Network+. I know some people can do it way faster than that. These certs can also help me with the WGU MSCIA program and knock out some classes before I start. I'm excited to start the program with just 6 classes left!

https://preview.redd.it/stcr6n9xmdkh1.png?width=1075&format=png&auto=webp&s=395080d0740083baf88dba288efd4ae1a8897f20

Network+ is the last certification that I wanted to take until I renew again for Security X in 2029 or 2032.

If you would like to see the study material I used for CompTIA CySA+, PenTest+, and Security X below are the links. Good luck, everyone, as you pursue your CompTIA Certs and Programs!

CySA+: https://www.reddit.com/r/WGUCyberSecurity/comments/1smhnom/cysa_passed_in_4_weeks_family_man_and_fulltime/

PenTest+:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WGUCyberSecurity/comments/1tpichm/comptia_pentest_pass_is_a_pass/

Security X:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WGUCyberSecurity/comments/1up9sky/i_passed_comptia_security_x_in_5_weeks/

I slept like 5 hours. I thought I would share the resources I used because I didn't use Dion or Messer.

I took a college network plus class that was required for my degree. This is a community college the price was pretty good I got a student discount on the voucher.

I think that textbook is really good you can actually just buy the textbook and use that to study. I used Jill West Network+ 10th edition. It has a bunch of labs in it.

I also purchased from Pearson Plus the network 08 lab simulator. That was only 20 bucks but definitely helped me a lot. I would say that was the best thing for my buck!

I also made a home network lab. I had a server a workstation and a firewall. This really helped me actually understand networking.

I think you can use hack me to do like similar networking stuff and you should definitely be doing that if you're serious about this career.

I purchased Andrew Ramadal's practice tests. this was good to go over what I didn't know or I was weak on. but overall I felt like he went outside of the scope. some of the problems were a little harder and I didn't want to waste my time on studying things that were not relevant to the exam.

Overall, I really wanted to get a higher score. I felt like I studied enough to get a higher score. Maybe the lack of sleep or not expecting the questions to be worded like that or people moving around in the testing center every 5 minutes I don't know...

I have a technical interview with an MSP today! So this is working out for good timing!

(Background of IT at isp for 5 years)

After a month of only studying for two hours (mostly) every day, I passed with a 768!

I used Prof Messers videos for everything I wasn't super familiar with here. (I also used his practice tests). I then did quizzes on Quizlet, and used Wordwall for port memorization in tandem with This.

Then topped it off with a last minute study.

I'm not sure why, but it didn't click to me until last night that I'm not going to be quizzed on everything covered all at once. So that meant I didn't have to memorize EVERYTHING, but instead just get a good base understanding. After that, I went in and faced my SEVEN PBQ's marking the ones that I wanted to follow up on. If you're nervous, it's going to be okay. You're probably actually doing great.

A big thank you to the community for the resources posted here.

Edit: forgot to include that I used messers quizzes!

[removed]

Just passed the N10-009 on my first attempt with a 747 (pass line is 720), and I want to give back with the approach that got me there, because it's different from the "just grind practice tests until you hit 90%" advice you usually see.

Background: Working through a networking degree, prior CompTIA certs under my belt. Studied hard for this one over several weeks. 5 weeks to be exact and 2 of those weeks were 18 hour days 7 days a week.

Resources I used (all solid):

Professor Messer — free, objective-mapped videos. Backbone of my concept learning.
Jason Dion practice exams — for realistic, scenario-style questions.
Andrew Ramdayal — good supplementary course coverage.
A YouTuber called DarkBird Tech — long practice-question walkthroughs where he breaks down why each option is right and the others are wrong. This one quietly mattered a lot (more below).
Claude (AI) — this was invaluable. After each practice exam I'd feed it my misses and it would analyze them, group them into weak-topic clusters (routing, DNS tools, wireless attacks, subnetting, etc.), and drill me on each cluster until it stuck. Turning a scattered list of wrong answers into a targeted, prioritized attack plan is a huge time-saver, and it made my studying way more surgical than just re-reading everything.
The core mindset shift — recognition ≠ mastery:
The single biggest trap is retaking the same practice test until you score high, then thinking you're ready. You're not — you've just memorized that specific set. A high score on questions you've already seen predicts almost nothing. I learned this the hard way on a previous exam.

What actually builds readiness:

Take each practice exam COLD, once. That first-attempt score on fresh questions is your only honest signal. Burn it, don't retake it for a "better number."
Drill your MISSES, not the whole test again. After each exam, pull every wrong answer and work it until it's locked. (This is exactly where having Claude cluster them by topic paid off — it found the patterns in my misses I couldn't see myself.)
Drill the whole family, not just the right answer. If a question's answer is OSPF and the distractors are RIP/EIGRP/BGP, learn all four cold — because any of them can be the correct answer or the trap on the real exam.
Prove the logic transfers. This is where DarkBird helped: I didn't memorize his answers, I absorbed his elimination reasoning, then tested whether I could walk that same logic on a brand-new question with a different scenario. If it transfers, you actually know it.
Subnetting to reflex. Learn the simple block-size method and TRUST it — don't overcomplicate under time pressure. Devices needed + 2 (network + broadcast) → round up to the next power of 2 → prefix. /30 = point-to-point. Drill it until it's automatic.
Exam-day tactics:

Do the multiple-choice FIRST, then go back to the PBQs with 30–40 minutes banked. PBQs eat time.
Memorize the acronym list in the back of the official CompTIA objectives PDF.
Domains 1 and 5 carry the most weight (~47% combined) — don't under-prep them.
Read the last line of the question first to know what it's actually asking, kill two obvious wrongs, then decide the final two on one precise fact.
Use the clock. Rushing is a silent killer — read each stem twice.
One extra thing that helped: I built my own offline drill app to hold my missed questions and re-shuffle them (both question order and answer positions) so I was recalling the concept, not a letter position. You don't need to build one — flashcards or a spreadsheet do the same job — but shuffling matters.

If you're on the fence: trust the method over the memorization. Cold reps, drill your misses, learn the why. Happy to answer questions in the comments. Good luck to everyone sitting soon. 🫡

This one?

Felt a lot worse about core 2, but I scored pretty similar to core 1. Good luck to everyone getting their A+!

Hi everybody,

Just wanted to share that I passed Network+ today with a score of 833/900.

Here are the resources I used:

- Andrew Ramdayal course (highly recommend. The teaching style suited me much better than Messer and Dion. Didn’t take any notes as the Josh Makador cards helped to cement things)
- Dion practice exams set 1 from Udemy.
- Josh Makador Flashcards: https://youtu.be/8Aj1lgrWpj0 (1600 cards, very good for recall)

The week before the exam, I did this routine each day:

- Targeted learning on weak topics from the previous day’s Dion practice exam (rewatching Andrew Ramdayal course for some topics but AI worked for the majority of things as a refresher)
- Do a fresh Dion exam
- Analyse the right and wrong answers and make a weak topic focus (for the targeted learning for the next day before the fresh Dion exam on that day)
- Anki flashcards from Josh Makador

Let me know if you have any questions about anything and I hope this info helps you!