What the Jason Dion Practice Exam Actually Does
I used Jason Dion Practice Exam to prep for CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ over the last few years. It's a question bank with a simulated exam interface that mirrors the structure of the real exams fairly closely. The questions aren't identical to what you'll see on test day, but they cover the same domains and hit similar cognitive levels. Some people swear by it. Others complain it's too easy or too specific. Here's what I found after running through it end to end a few times. The platform is divided into practice exams and flashcards. Practice exams are timed, multiple-choice, and give you feedback after each question or after the full section. Flashcards are simpler but useful for spaced repetition. I don't recommend relying on flashcards alone. They cover facts, not scenarios. The real exam rewards scenario-based reasoning more than rote memorization. Each exam covers the published objectives. For Network+, that's roughly 100 questions in two parts. Security+ is also two parts, with different weighting. You get a percentage score and a breakdown by domain. The domain breakdown is where most people learn something new.
You can buy individual exams or subscriptions. The subscription covers multiple certifications and tends to be cheaper per exam. I went with the subscription because I was testing for two certs and wanted to retake exams after reviewing weak areas.
How to use it without wasting time
Start with a full timed exam before you study anything. This gives you a baseline. Most people skip this step and immediately jump into questions without knowing where they stand. You will guess what you know. The baseline tells you what you actually don't know. After the baseline exam, review every question you got wrong and every question you guessed on. Even the ones you got right if you weren't confident. Read the explanation thoroughly. If the explanation is thin, look up the topic in the official CompTIA objectives or a trusted reference. Dion's explanations are generally solid but occasionally miss the deeper reason behind a correct answer. Take another full timed exam the next day or two later. Repeat until your scores stabilize above your target threshold. I aimed for 85 percent on Network+ and 90 percent on Security+. Stabilization matters more than one high score. A single good exam often means you guessed well on a few sections. Multiple consecutive scores above the threshold is a better signal.
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Don't burn through all the exams in one week. Your retention drops off sharply after about four exams back to back. Spread them out. Two per week is a sustainable pace for most people working full time. Use the flashcard deck sparingly. I kept it to 20 cards a day during the final two weeks before the test. More than that and the cards become background noise. The algorithm doesn't punish you for skipping days, but consistency beats volume here.
Where people get stuck and how to fix it
One edge case I ran into is the port question trap. The Jason Dion Practice Exam includes a lot of port questions, which is fair since ports appear on the real exam. But the questions sometimes list multiple ports together in one answer choice. I kept selecting the answer with all correct ports until I realized some answer choices had a subtle duplicate or a wrong port hidden among the correct ones. I started reading each port individually and crossing them off on paper instead of scanning the whole line at once. That small change reduced my port-related mistakes by about half. Another issue is timing. The simulated exam interface feels similar to Pearson VUE, but the clock pressure isn't identical. Some people finish early and then second guess themselves. I built a habit of committing to an answer within ten seconds for questions I knew. If I wasn't sure, I marked it and moved on. Coming back to marked questions at the end usually recovered points without eating into confident answers. You will also encounter questions that feel ambiguous. The real exam does this on purpose. Dion's exams sometimes mirror that style, but occasionally a question is poorly written rather than deliberately tricky. When you hit one, check the objective it maps to and move on. Don't spin your wheels on a single question for more than a minute.
When this tool isn't enough
Jason Dion Practice Exam is strong for multiple-choice coverage, but it doesn't replicate performance-based questions well. The site has some PBQs, but they're limited. If you're studying for Security+ or Network+, you need dedicated PBQ practice. I used third-party PBQ labs and the official CompTIA objectives list to fill that gap. The PBQ section usually accounts for about ten to fifteen percent of the exam, so ignoring it is a mistake. It's also the section where people lose the most points because they practice less there. Another limitation is that the question pool recycles. If you take the same exam multiple times, you will see repeated questions. That's fine for reinforcement, but it skews your perception of difficulty. If your score jumps significantly on a retake, it might be recognition rather than mastery. Retaking with a different exam set helps you verify whether your knowledge is actually stickier. For advanced exams like CySA+ or CASP+, the question quality drops slightly. The coverage is still decent, but the depth isn't as tight as for the entry-level certs. If you're targeting those higher exams, I'd supplement Dion with official study guides and vendor-specific documentation.
My setup for exam week
I stopped studying three days before the test. Not because I stopped knowing things, but because overstudying right before the exam increases fatigue and anxiety. Instead, I took one final timed exam, reviewed only the domain breakdown for my lowest-scoring sections, and rested. I also made sure my Pearson VUE account was ready, my ID documents were organized, and I knew the location or testing link. Those logistical details cost nothing to prepare and save stress on exam morning. The day before the exam, I did a quick run-through of port numbers, OSI model layers, and common attack types. Nothing heavy. Just enough to keep them active in short-term memory.
Who should use this and who should skip it
If you're preparing for A+, Network+, or Security+, this tool fits well into a standard study plan. It covers enough ground, the interface is reasonable, and the price is competitive. If you learn best from videos, pair it with a video course. Dion also has a video library, and the two complement each other when used together. If you already have deep hands-on experience and just need a quick check, you might not need the full suite of exams. A couple of timed practice exams plus targeted review is often sufficient for experienced candidates. If you're studying for a certification outside the CompTIA family, this resource won't help. It's focused on CompTIA exams, not Cisco, AWS, or Microsoft credentials.
