Study guides

Plain-language help for IT certification exams from the people who draw the BoardITGuy boards.

• How to Study for an IT Certification with a Visual Study Board
  How to learn an IT exam from a mind map: read the map, recall it with flashcards, prove it on practice questions and see what is left on a Treemap.
• CCNP ENCOR, ENARSI and SCOR: Which Cisco Exam Comes First?
  How the Cisco CCNP core and concentration exams fit together, what ENCOR, ENARSI and SCOR each cover, and a sensible order to study them.
• Common Network Ports Cheat Sheet for Network+, Security+ and CCNA
  A free cheat sheet of the well-known TCP and UDP ports, the secure version of each service, and the IP protocol numbers that IT certification exams ask about.
• Security+ SY0-801: What Is New, and Should You Study 801 or 701?
  What changes between CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 and the new SY0-801, which dates CompTIA has confirmed, and how to choose which exam to study for.
• Visual Study Boards vs Video Courses, Practice Exams and Books
  An honest comparison of the main ways to prepare for an IT certification exam, what each format does well and badly, and how to combine them.
• What Changed in CCNP ENCOR v1.2 (350-401)
  What the March 2026 ENCOR v1.2 update changed, the exam domains and weights, and how to tell whether your study material is out of date.
• CCNA 200-301: Should You Take v1.1 or v2.0?
  What changes in the CCNA 200-301 v2.0 exam, the dates for each version, and how to decide which one to study for.