-: Welcome to this course 2 2
on the CompTIA Network+ certification. 3 3
This certification is considered 4 4
the first networking certification 5 5
that anyone who wants to enter the IT 6 6
or cybersecurity industry should study for and earn. 7 7
It's going to provide you with a great foundation 8 8
and baseline knowledge of networking. 9 9
And throughout this course and our time together, 10 10
we're going to cover how to configure, 11 11
manage and troubleshoot the network infrastructure 12 12
within your company or organization. 13 13
This certification is designed for beginners 14 14
who have less than one year of IT operations 15 15
or administration experience, 16 16
or for those students who have already completed 17 17
the A+ examination. 18 18
Now on the Network+ exam, knowledge of the CompTIA 19 19
A+ exam is considered assumed knowledge. 20 20
So we're not going to be re-teaching all of that content again 21 21
from the core one or core two exams. 22 22
Instead, we're going to be building 23 23
upon that foundational knowledge of hardware, software, 24 24
and computer networks throughout our time together. 25 25
But don't worry. 26 26
We're going to review any areas specific to networking 27 27
that you may need to know throughout this course, 28 28
even if it was covered on the A+ exam. 29 29
Now, if you haven't done your A+ exam yet, that's okay. 30 30
We're still going to get you through preparing 31 31
for the entire Network+ exam without any issues 32 32
if you pay attention to what we teach. 33 33
Now, the CompTIA Network+ exam 34 34
consists of five domains or areas of knowledge 35 35
that you're going to receive questions about 36 36
when you sit for your official certification exam. 37 37
This includes domain one, network fundamentals, 38 38
which makes up 24% of the exam. 39 39
It also includes domain two, network implementations, 40 40
which makes up 19% of the exam. 41 41
We're going to have domain three, network operations, 42 42
which makes up 16% of the exam, 43 43
domain four, network security, 44 44
which makes up 19% of the exam. 45 45
And finally, domain five, network troubleshooting, 46 46
which makes up 22% of the exam. 47 47
Each of these domains contains several objectives, 48 48
which make up all the topics 49 49
that you're going to learn about 50 50
throughout our time together in this course. 51 51
Now, we're not going to be teaching these domains 52 52
and their objectives in the order presented 53 53
on the CompTIA official exam objectives, 54 54
which you can download from lesson two of this course 55 55
as a PDF, but we are going to cover 56 56
each and every one of them throughout this course 57 57
and in all the videos. 58 58
At the beginning of each section, 59 59
I'm going to tell you which objectives 60 60
are going to be covered in the videos for that section. 61 61
And each video is also titled with the objective listed 62 62
in parentheses after its name, 63 63
so you have an easy reference 64 64
if you want to study a single objective 65 65
as you're reviewing for your exam. 66 66
For example, if you're taking my practice exams 67 67
for the Network+, you're going to be seeing 68 68
that in every explanation, we have something that says 69 69
OBJ and a number. 70 70
This tells you which objective from this downloadable PDF 71 71
is being covered by that test question. 72 72
And if you need to review that area, 73 73
you can look through this course 74 74
and find the video with that OBJ number, 75 75
and then watch that video 76 76
to make sure you're understanding the content 77 77
that's covered by that exam question. 78 78
On test day when you sit down to take the exam, 79 79
you're going to get a mixture of questions 80 80
from across all five domains and their objectives. 81 81
Now, some of the questions are going to be asking 82 82
about a single objective, 83 83
but others may combine objectives from different domains 84 84
into a single question to test your knowledge 85 85
a bit more in depth. 86 86
So as we go through our videos, 87 87
we're going to cover all the objectives 88 88
and we're going to be able to make sure 89 89
you can combine that knowledge 90 90
to answer these questions effectively. 91 91
Now, speaking of the exam, 92 92
when you sit down to take 93 93
the CompTIA Network+ certification exam 94 94
at your testing center or online 95 95
using the web proctoring service, 96 96
you're going to only have 90 minutes to answer 97 97
up to 90 questions. 98 98
Now, for the most part, 99 99
you're going to be answering multiple choice questions, 100 100
entering A, B, C, or D, 101 101
but you may have a few questions that are multiple select, 102 102
where they ask you to pick two or three correct answers 103 103
for a single question. 104 104
For example, they may have six options 105 105
and you'll pick the best two or the best three. 106 106
Also, you're going to get a couple 107 107
of performance-based questions. 108 108
These PBQ or simulations, as my students like to call them, 109 109
require you to perform some kind of job function 110 110
in a simulated environment. 111 111
For example, the exam might ask you to create 112 112
a few firewall rules to block or allow 113 113
certain ports into a network. 114 114
And then they're going to have you use your mouse 115 115
and keyboard to perform those actions. 116 116
Now, don't worry too much about these simulations 117 117
just yet, though. 118 118
I'm going to make sure you are well prepared for them 119 119
before you sit down for the real certification exam. 120 120
Now, as far as the number of questions 121 121
you're going to get on exam day, you may have noticed 122 122
I said you're going to get up to 90 questions. 123 123
Now, in truth that means you're going to get 124 124
somewhere between 70 questions and 90 questions. 125 125
If you have more PBQs or simulations, 126 126
you're going to have less multiple choice questions. 127 127
And if you have more multiple choice questions, 128 128
you'll have less PBQs or simulations. 129 129
Now, most candidates who take the exam 130 130
are going to get three to five simulations 131 131
and roughly 70 to 80 multiple choice questions 132 132
when it comes time to take their exam. 133 133
Also, when you take your exam, the simulations 134 134
are going to be your first three to five questions 135 135
when you start taking the exam 136 136
and then the rest of the exam will be a mixture 137 137
of multiple choice or multiple select questions. 138 138
To pass your Network+ exam, 139 139
you have to score at least 720 points 140 140
out of the 900 points available on your certification exam. 141 141
This is roughly equivalent to about an 80% or higher. 142 142
Now to take this exam 143 143
you have to pay an exam fee to cover the cost of testing. 144 144
And you do this by buying what's known as an exam voucher. 145 145
You can do this by going to store.comptia.org 146 146
and buying it from their web store. 147 147
If you go to the CompTIA store, 148 148
you're going to see vouchers costing about $338 149 149
in the United States, 150 150
but depending on where you live in the world, 151 151
this price is going to change because CompTIA 152 152
uses regionalized vouchers. 153 153
Now, if you'd like to save some money on your exam voucher, 154 154
you can visit diontraining.com/vouchers 155 155
and buy your voucher directly from us. 156 156
This is because we're a certified platinum level 157 157
CompTIA delivery partner, 158 158
and we help tens of thousands of students 159 159
every year pass their CompTIA exams. 160 160
And they provide us with a discount rate 161 161
for those exam vouchers and we pass those savings 162 162
on to our students. 163 163
So if you take that one extra step 164 164
of going to diontraining.com/vouchers, 165 165
you can purchase your exam voucher from us. 166 166
You'll save 10% and you'll also get access 167 167
to our searchable video library, 168 168
where you can use this for your last-minute studies 169 169
by searching for keywords and phrases before test day. 170 170
Now, before we begin studying for the exam, 171 171
I want to give you my four tips for success in this course 172 172
to help you better study for the exam. 173 173
First, we provide closed captions for every video 174 174
in this course, and this is captioned by a real human 175 175
to ensure a high level of accuracy for you. 176 176
Many of my students who speak English 177 177
as their second language 178 178
really love having these captions playing along 179 179
so they can read along while I'm teaching. 180 180
To turn them on, just click the CC button 181 181
in the bottom of the video player. 182 182
There's also a transcript function available 183 183
for each video that you can access 184 184
and search for specific keywords or phrases 185 185
within that video if you need to. 186 186
Next, when it comes to speaking, some people say 187 187
I talk too fast and others say I talk too slow. 188 188
Either way, though, you get to control 189 189
the speed of instruction by adjusting the playback speed. 190 190
If I happen to be talking too fast for you, 191 191
you can slow me down by reducing me to 0.75 or 75%. 192 192
If I'm talking too slowly for you, 193 193
you can speed me up by putting me at 1.5X or 150%. 194 194
Either way, faster or slower, the choice is yours 195 195
so you can learn more efficiently. 196 196
Next, I want to point out that the information 197 197
I'm going to teach you in this course is also covered 198 198
in our downloadable study guide in PDF format. 199 199
You can download that PDF from lesson two of the course 200 200
where you can download it, print it out, 201 201
and then use it to take notes on 202 202
or highlight and circle important information 203 203
as we go through the videos. 204 204
By doing this, you're going to be more active in your learning, 205 205
and you're going to learn better. 206 206
Now, this PDF is great for offline studying 207 207
before you take the final exam as well, 208 208
because you'll see all your notes in one place. 209 209
My fourth and final tip is that I want you to know 210 210
we have a Facebook group set up specifically to help you 211 211
succeed with this and your other certifications. 212 212
If you have any questions or you get stuck with something, 213 213
or you just want to talk to other students 214 214
who are studying for the same exam, 215 215
you can do all of this and more 216 216
by going to facebook.com/groups/diontraining. 217 217
Also in the Facebook group 218 218
we post daily questions to help you 219 219
as you're studying for your exams. 220 220
If you join the Facebook group, 221 221
we have people there ready to answer any question 222 222
you may have as well as many other students there 223 223
helping you out. 224 224
Currently, we have over 25,000 students in our group. 225 225
So if you have a question about the CompTIA Network+ exam 226 226
or any of the course content, 227 227
I guarantee somebody there has the answer for you, 228 228
and they'll get it to you very quickly. 229 229
Now, if you don't have Facebook and you need help, 230 230
you can always send me an email 231 231
at support@diontraining.com. 232 232
When you do this, my system will log that message 233 233
and make sure it gets routed to either a teaching assistant 234 234
or me personally so we can respond to it 235 235
during normal business hours. 236 236
Like I said, the Facebook group 237 237
does tend to get your questions answered a little bit faster 238 238
because we have so many people online 239 239
anytime of the day or night, 240 240
but our email support is there if you need it, too. 241 241
So with all the basics out of the way, 242 242
let's get started learning all about computer networks 243 243
in this CompTIA Network+ course.