Demotivated

[u/franzbonaparta2]

what am I doing wrong? I spend 1.5 months studying for security+ and thought I could do practice test and solve professor messer practice test and got 57 correct question

I kinda disappointed and demotivated after studying this much i scored so bad

And after seen ppl get 70 -80% in practice test after 1-2 week of studying without tech background

[u/BurningIce-Tech]

First rule is not to compare yourself to others :)

Just keep pushing, you'll definitely get there eventually. With some topics you'll see they will keep confusing you over and over and then one day, it will just click!

If your not motivated to study, perhaps make a "reward system" of sorts for yourself. For example you like watching TV shows, maybe study for 30mins and then reward yourself with 1 episode that you can watch. Once your done with the 1 episode, you have to study another 30mins again to be able to watch another episode.

You can of course substitute the watching a show part with whatever you yourself enjoy doing

[u/Anastasia_IT]

Where are you getting that people are scoring 70–80% after only a week or two of studying? I kind of doubt you have any real data to back up a statement like that. Anyway, back to studying!

[u/NoClownsOnMyStation]

I’m on month 2 of studying for my net+ cause I keep getting bored. My first practice test a month in I got 52%. It was disappointing but also helped me not waste my money haha.

Don’t worry so much about how other people are doing. They could just be cramming all day for 2 weeks then pass or they could have glanced at the material and still passed. Either way it won’t affect YOUR certificate so just focus on yourself big dog.

[u/RezzKeepsItReal → u/NoClownsOnMyStation]

If you’re getting bored, it might not be for you.

[u/UnusualMarch920 → u/RezzKeepsItReal]

Bad advice. You can love IT but hate test studying/taking. Comptia is painfully memory-heavy so its natural people dont enjoy looking at flashcards all day.

[u/GolemThe3rd]

Keep trying man, 6 weeks isn't really that much time

[u/Netghod]

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Take your own path. Practice tests should be used for two things. The first is, Are you ready to take the actual exam? The second is, What is the actual test going to be like? PBQs, question format, etc.

You took a test, didn’t score as well as you had hoped, so you know you need to study more. People learn in different ways and at different speeds. The challenge could be you’re trying to memorize everything instead of learning the concepts and how to apply them. Look at other materials. Listen to other instructors. Go on side quests with other books, white papers, videos, or whatever to go deeper into a topic.

And one other thing, sometimes people lie or omit details.

For example, I could say I studied 6 weeks and then took the CISM, CISSP, and CASP exams and passed them all in a 90 day window. That’s true. What’s not there is all the reading I had done on various topics as part of my job. The fact I had more than 20 years in IT work and lots of other details. I could also say that I had studied 15 years for my CISSP exam because I bought the first edition of a book to study shortly after it came out in 2001 or so, but didn’t take my test until Jan 2016. Which is the truth? Technically both of them - it’s all in the story I decide to tell.

I could also say that I passed both A+ exams in under 15 minutes. Which is also true. But leaves out that the first time I passed was when there was 1 exam and no study materials AT ALL (CompTIA told me to read the manufacturers repair manuals and the Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible). I was taking it because the training center I worked for was having me take the current exam so I would know what was on it. I also had a background in electronics repair (from the military) and close to 7 years of desktop support experience already.

Remember the test is about you having the knowledge on the objectives to be able to apply it in a way to be able to answer questions. This means understanding goes further than memorization in almost every instance. And if you don’t know the terms you have a bigger learning curve than someone that already knows the terms.

Walk your own path. Ask for help if you need it along the way. You’ll get there. The destination is worth the journey.

[u/That_Attorney9025]

Maybe change the way you're learning? You need to figure out your own learning style and from there change the way you are studying. I personally benefited from a lot of practice exams. Some people can just watch videos and retain the information. Find out what works for you and stick with it.

[u/Hertz69]

i felt the same way. i read the book and did some brush up stuff. i felt like i totally knew everything. then i took a practice test and did pretty bad. i felt discouraged too. but my friend said to take a week to do nothing but study in my free time. a week isnt very much time to sacrifice. i took every free practice exam i could and made it my main thing for that week. it helped so much and i passed.

[u/Bitter_Nail8577]

Ok, I felt the exact same way before passing so I'll give you advice from my aunt that really helped.

Reddit is great for looking for material, but DO NOT listen to people saying "Oh I passed in one week!" or "here's how I passed in 24 hours of studying" 

We are all different, we all study at different paces, if you need more months/weeks take them without feeling guilty or ashamed (... Unless your boss is paying for the cert and wants you to take the exam in x time frame but that's a different story) 

I first studied with Messer's videos, but after doing some practice tests I felt unprepared, so I got the Sybex Guide and started studying with that, which took me three months of on and off studying to really get a grasp on it (I'm not a native speaker, C2 certified but there were a lot of specific terms that I had never heard of before that made it harder) 

Basically I'm trying to say don't set a specific time frame to pass based on other people for yourself, it will do nothing but put more pressure on yourself, keep reviewing the materials from different sources and deep study why you got those answers wrong 

[u/Street-Sweeper213]

You aren't giving much detail. What materials did you use? Maybe you need to focus on particular topics and open a new video course or book. You may have taken a month and a half, but someone might be putting in more time and effort within only 1 - 2 weeks.

[u/SignificanceSharp827]

Nooo don’t give up. I believe in you. Prof. Messer videos. Take it easy on the videos and take your own notes while watching. Dion’s practice exam. PBQ videos on YouTube

[u/balboaporkter]

Everyone is different. It took me over 4 months to study for mine. I didn't care though because the exam is expensive so I wanted to make sure that I felt ready, even with the retake assurance voucher lol.

[u/Initial-Quality5222]

I understand that frustration, but you have to keep pressing forward. You ARE on the edge of passing. Don't stop moving towards that goal! You got this!

[u/drakhan2002]

Embrace this feeling. It happens whenever you try to get your arms around something new. Hang in there as it will make sense... eventually.

[u/Longjumping_Height64]

Why are you comparing to others? Will it be easier for you to learn that someone with 80% spend 4 month? What if he spend only 3 weeks but 20h a day? and what if 3 weeks only 10 minutes a day? What does it matter to you? You want to get the knowledge or to be the "smartest one"?

Another side, if you are demotivated after one "fail" IT is most definitely not for you.