Cracking the CWSP - How I Prepared
So after those two intense days of training with Hans van Ballaer (CWNE #340), hosted by 802.be, it was time to hit the books.
I fired up my CWNP account and got into the CWSP-208 Digital Study Guide. I also had access to the older CWSP-207 e-learning material as a backup reference — two bites at the same apple never hurt.
Now, here’s the thing. I was travelling a lot during this period. Sitting in the car, doing nothing but listening to podcasts. And then I remembered a conversation I had with a friend. He asked if I’d heard of NotebookLM. “Of course,” I said — and then went home and looked it up. 😄
NotebookLM is a free AI research tool from Google. You feed it your own documents — PDFs, websites, YouTube links — and it only reasons from what you gave it. No hallucinations from the open internet. Just your material, made interactive. The feature that sold me was Audio Overviews: two AI hosts having a podcast-style conversation about your study content. Weirdly compelling. And a lot more safe than staring at a PDF at 7am on the motorway
Of course, there was also actual studying involved. The Digital Study Guide, the official slide deck from the training, and yes — I even took it all along to my kid’s soccer practice.
#dedication
A few weeks of on-and-off studying later, it was time to schedule the exam.
Exam day
It starts the same way every time: Eggs. Bacon. Coffee.
And ofcource also a clean desk without distractions.
Given my previous experience with the CWAP proctoring — which was, let’s say, stressful — I was pleasantly surprised to find CWNP had overhauled the whole process. Onboarding was smoother, calmer, and actually let me focus on the exam rather than the setup.
The exam itself felt familiar. Same style as the practice exams in the CWNP courses, which made it a lot easier to get into the right headspace. Sixty questions. Ninety minutes.
And then:
4 down. 1 more to go.
Three years ago I wasn’t sure I’d ever get past the CWNA. Now I’m standing at the door of the CWNE. That’s not nothing.
The last certification hurdle will be the CWISA — but before I get there, something else is happening first. I’ll be doing my very first Wi-Fi presentation ever, before a live audience, at Wi-Co Belgium. Nothing to hide behind. Just me, some slides, and a room full of wireless people.
I will (hopefully) keep you all posted on how that went… 😄