I passed the Network+ in November of 2023. The exam itself had some pretty straight-forward questions on it, plenty of network troubleshooting and best-use case scenario questions. Questions that you’d need to know the practical knowledge to answer and not just being able to memorize definitions. Read below if you want a fun story about my experience during the exam…
Story Time
I had booked this certification for a Friday morning for which I even had requested PTO for. However, due to the nature of the beast, my company had an IR come down that required people onsite. I hate coming into our IRs late, so I reached out to my team lead about wanting to go onsite despite my PTO request, if I can just have that morning off. We got it sorted out, and planned on me either taking the exam from the hotel room or from an office room the client had - if they’d be willing to accommodate.
They were more than happy to let me take the test onsite (cleared from the CTO himself), to which I then took an empty office and begin the exam. There was a slim window with some pulled blinds that I put a piece of paper in that said “Do Not Disturb - Test In Progress”. I think you can guess where this story is going. About 45 minutes into the exam, a lady starts knocking on the door and trying to peer through the window at me asking, “who’s in there?” Ignore her, hoping my coworkers or someone from the client’s IT team would hear her and recognize that she was potentially disqualifying me from the exam, but that never happened.
I messaged the proctor and let them know that someone was banging on the door, despite my note, and they might come back. They didn’t respond. Eventually, I hear the lady outside of the door with someone from facilities UNLOCKING THE DOOR. I immediately told the proctor as I heard the key slot in.
On top of the anxiety that comes with taking a couple hundred dollar certification, I was also dealing with this lady who would potentially disqualify me. I didn’t recognize her from the company’s employees and was likely someone from one of their other third-parties that had people onsite. “Can you not read? I’m likely going to be failed on this exam now. I with <company name here> .”
She began apologizing profusely after saying, “I just wanted to know who was in here.” I can’t even begin to understand the ego-trip of NEEDING TO KNOW who was behind a locked door with a “Do Not Disturb” sign up.
Fortunately, the proctor then just required me to rescan the room after she left and let me resume the test. I passed, but scored lower than I expected. It was definitely hard to concentrate with someone banging on the door and yelling.