Visual Study Boards vs Video Courses, Practice Exams and Books
There is no single best way to prepare for an IT certification exam. Different formats do different jobs, and most people who pass use more than one. This guide describes each format fairly so you can decide what to spend your time and money on. BoardITGuy sells one of them, a visual study board, and we say so; this is a description of the categories, not a ranking.
The formats
| Format | What it does best | Where it falls short | Typical cost model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video courses (for example, Professor Messer's free CompTIA videos, paid courses on Udemy and similar sites) | Teaches a topic from the beginning, with someone explaining it | Passive: watching is not the same as being able to recall it. Can be long. | Free to a few tens of dollars, or a subscription |
| Books and official study guides | Depth and a full reference | Slow to review. Hard to see the connections. | Paid, per book |
| Practice-exam engines (for example, Boson ExSim for Cisco, Jason Dion's practice tests, CompTIA CertMaster Practice) | Tests exam readiness and the exam style | Tells you what you got wrong, but does not teach the topic | One-time or time-limited access, depending on the product |
| Flashcard decks (Anki, Quizlet) | Fast daily recall of terms and facts | Only as good as the deck, and decks vary a lot in accuracy | Free, or freemium |
| Hands-on labs (home labs, simulators, cloud accounts) | Builds the skill that scenario and performance questions test | Takes setup time and sometimes money | Free to a subscription |
| Visual study boards (BoardITGuy) | Read, recall and test in one place: a map of the objectives, flashcards and practice questions written from the same cards, and a Treemap of what you know | Not a lab and not a full video course | One-time purchase |
Product details and prices change, so check each vendor's own page before you buy.
Free and low-cost tools worth knowing
Most of the best-known study tools are free or cheap, and a one-time board should be judged against them honestly.
- Professor Messer publishes free CompTIA video courses. It is a strong first pass, and it is video: you still need to review and recall afterwards.
- Jeremy's IT Lab publishes a free CCNA video course, and Cisco Packet Tracer is a free network simulator from Cisco Networking Academy. Together they cover learning and hands-on practice for CCNA at no cost.
- Pocket Prep is a mobile question app. MeasureUp and Tutorials Dojo sell practice exams, with Tutorials Dojo best known for AWS. They are good for checking readiness and exam style, and prices and access terms differ, so check their pages.
A practice-question bank costs less than a board and answers one question: _am I ready?_ A board answers three: _how does this connect, can I recall it, and what is left?_ If you only need exam-style questions, a question bank may be all you need. A board adds a map of the whole objective list, flashcards written from that map, questions tied to the same sheets and a Treemap that shows what you still need, with no subscription or expiry. It does not replace a video course, a lab or a simulator for performance-based questions.
How people usually combine them
- Learn the topic with a video course or a book.
- Read, recall and test with a board: read the map so the topics link up, recall it with daily flashcards, prove it on practice questions, and let the Treemap show what is left.
- Rehearse the exam style with a practice-exam engine that simulates performance-based questions, close to the exam date.
- Build skill with hands-on practice for the exams that test it.
Questions to ask before buying anything
- Does it follow the exam version I am booking?
- Does it explain wrong answers, or only tell me I was wrong?
- Is the content original, or is it recycled from leaked exam questions?
- Do I keep access, or does it expire before my exam?
- Can I try a part of it first?
A note on exam dumps
Sites that sell "real exam questions" are selling leaked material. CompTIA and other certification bodies treat using it as cheating, with bans and cancelled results. Practice questions written to teach the objectives are the legitimate alternative.
Where BoardITGuy fits
BoardITGuy boards cover the read, recall and test step in one place, with a Treemap that shows your progress. Each is a one-time purchase between $29.99 and $49.99, opens on the website with no download, and has a free preview. Read about BoardITGuy, or see the study boards.