My Experience With The CompTIA Network+ Certification
How I prepared for the CompTIA Network+ Certification:
In order to further my career in cybersecurity, I felt it was a good idea to start from the beginning. As said a lot in the cybersecurity community, “You cannot protect what you don’t understand”. I have been working with and using computers my entire life, but I never paid much mind to how networking actually worked on a deeper, more advanced level. I knew what a LAN was, what a WAN was, and of course I knew what WiFi was, but I only really had a surface-level understanding of these technologies. There were a lot of super helpful resources online to help me prepare for this exam, and it took me quite a bit of time to study for this certification, as it was my first IT or Cybersecurity certification, so I wanted to make sure I was ready. When I started preparing for the CompTIA Network+ Certification, I used Professor Messer’s Video Network+ playlist on YouTube – his videos were organized in a way that made learning the large amount of material a breeze. After taking a very large amount of notes while completing the video playlist, I decided I wanted to learn more in-depth about networking. I did so out of interest and out of desire to do the best I possibly could on the exam. I wanted to actually learn the material and remember it, rather than just learning it for the sake of passing. With this mentality, I bought Jason Dion’s course and practice exams on Udemy. For these videos, I did not take many notes, but instead used my previous notes from Professor Messer’s course to view the material Dion covered in a more detailed light.
After passing Dion’s course, completing several practice exams and answering around 700 practice questions, I felt I was ready to take the exam and bought my voucher. I hardly studied at all the day of my exam, and instead took the time to relax, de-stress, and maintain my confidence.
What I learned during my time preparing for and passing CompTIA’s Network+ Exam:
I learned a lot of useful skills and terms in relation to networking and cybersecurity. Preparing for the exam taught me significantly more than just what a term was and its definition; instead, it taught me reasoning and how to actually apply these terms and the knowledge I gained into the real world. I learned all about internet protocols like TCP/IP; I also learned about subnetting, routing, different types of networks (Star, Ring, Bus, Mesh, Hybrid, etc.), and the use cases and fault tolerance for each network type. I also learned different common ports and their numbers, some of the most important ones being HTTPS (TCP Port 443), HTTP (TCP Port 80), DNS (TCP or UDP Port 53), and SSH (Port 22).
I also learned the basics of network troubleshooting, the different types of cables (Coaxial, Unshielded Twisted Pair, Shielded Twisted Pair, Twinaxial and the use cases for each one, as well as the speed and distance of each of the cables.
One of the most important things I learned, however, was the OSI model. The OSI Model, or the Open Systems Interconnection Model, consists of 7 layers, each of which is referenced and used throughout the rest of the material. Everything I learned has some relation to the OSI Model. The 7 layers of the OSI Model are as follows, with 7 at the top and 1 at the bottom: 7: Application Layer, 6: Presentation Layer, 5: Session Layer, 4: Transport Layer, 3: Network Layer, 2: Data Link Layer, and finally layer 1: The Physical Layer.
How does my CompTIA Network+ Certification relate to ODU Global?:
I have had to take several networking classes throughout my courses through ODU Global. As a matter of fact, I am taking one as of Fall 2026 as well. Studying for and passing my Network+ Certification has allowed me to have a deeper understanding of networking, allowing the concepts covered and tasks assigned to seem familiar and significantly easier. During my current Networking and Cybersecurity course, much of the vocabulary and material we are covering was something I looked at in greater detail during my time preparing for CompTIA’s Network Certification Exam. This gives me a leg up in all of the related courses and helps to keep what I spent so much time and effort learning fresh in my memory. Overall, I would say that obtaining my certification while in college has been a great decision and only helped to further my education both in and beyond the classroom. While it was stressful managing both ODU classwork and studying for the certification exam, it was an amazing experience with extremely valuable knowledge that is crucial for my growth as I pursue a career in cybersecurity.