Today I took the CWSP exam and passed it with 90%. It’s exactly one year after I passed CWNA and the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment is great. The original plan was to study during winter and spring 2020 in order to take the exam in April. Then the COVID19 pandemic hit and changed all our priorities.
The current exam was CWSP-206, which has an official study guide from Certitrek (authored by Badman, Bartz, Carpenter, Hill, Morgan) and an almost updated (CWSP-205) study guide from Sybex (authored by Coleman, Westcott, Harkins).
It’s good to study both books: the Sybex is a high quality reference guide to understand our work, and the Certitrek a more exam-oriented tool with great content, but somewhat poor editorial depth (e.g. no chapter/section navigation, no index).
I did not practice or setup a lab specifically for this exam, as most of my day to day work already touched most of the topics. Keeping up to date with blogs, Twitter and webinars was very useful, see my Twitter profile @MonorailHandles for my followed profiles which are almost all wi-fi related.
The CWNP practice tests were very useful to gauge my level of readiness and study the finishing touch. As with CWNA, the pass threshold is 70% and having scored 90% in the exam means I overstudied and delayed: chalk it up to an astonishing year with a pandemic, african locusts swooped over Milano by high altitude winds, and an earthquake near home.
Pearson Vue’s online proctored exam worked smoothly, I sat in an empty room at my office and the absolutely bare space may have helped the experience. It’s a good alternative to the physical exam center, in both convenience and comfort.
Now to the next thing: the original plan was CWDP, but my interests and professional curiosity drive me towards CWAP. Let’s see in the next weeks.