30-day IT Support Technician exam study plan

Updated 15 September 2026 · 2 min read

This plan spreads a month of preparation across the areas a support technician handles, giving the most days to hardware and operating systems, followed by IT fundamentals and support practice. Networking, customer service and security fill the rest. Each day assumes about an hour of study, and many of the tasks can be done on a phone during breaks.

How this guide was made

Written for this site with AI assistance, then checked automatically before publishing. The topic table, sample questions, worked examples and study plan are generated from this site’s question bank: each worked example is recalculated by separate code, and each sample answer says where it came from.

The guide deliberately states no salaries, grades, pass marks or exam dates. Those change, and they could not be checked here, so take them from the advert itself.

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The 30-day plan

Day	Focus	What to do
Week 1
1	Hardware and operating systems	Study, then answer 20 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
2	IT fundamentals and support practice	Study, then answer 20 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
3	Networking fundamentals	Study, then answer 20 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
4	Public service, customer care and policy	Study, then answer 20 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
5	Cybersecurity	Study, then answer 20 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
6	Hardware and operating systems	Study, then answer 20 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
7	Review the week	Redo every question you got wrong this week, without looking at the explanations first.
Week 2
8	IT fundamentals and support practice	Study, then answer 30 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
9	Networking fundamentals	Study, then answer 30 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
10	Public service, customer care and policy	Study, then answer 30 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
11	Hardware and operating systems	Study, then answer 30 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
12	IT fundamentals and support practice	Study, then answer 30 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
13	Networking fundamentals	Study, then answer 30 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
14	Timed mock 1	50 questions in 60 minutes, in one sitting. Mark it, then list the areas you lost marks in.
Week 3
15	Public service, customer care and policy	Study, then answer 40 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
16	Hardware and operating systems	Study, then answer 40 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
17	IT fundamentals and support practice	Study, then answer 40 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
18	Hardware and operating systems	Study, then answer 40 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
19	IT fundamentals and support practice	Study, then answer 40 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
20	Hardware and operating systems	Study, then answer 40 questions untimed and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
21	Review the week	Redo every question you got wrong this week, without looking at the explanations first.
Final stretch
22	Revise: Hardware and operating systems	40 mixed questions on hardware and operating systems, timed at about a minute each.
23	Revise: Hardware and operating systems	40 mixed questions on hardware and operating systems, timed at about a minute each.
24	Revise: IT fundamentals and support practice	40 mixed questions on it fundamentals and support practice, timed at about a minute each.
25	Revise: Networking fundamentals	40 mixed questions on networking fundamentals, timed at about a minute each.
26	Revise: Public service, customer care and policy	40 mixed questions on public service, customer care and policy, timed at about a minute each.
27	Revise: Cybersecurity	40 mixed questions on cybersecurity, timed at about a minute each.
28	Timed mock 2	50 questions in 60 minutes, in one sitting. Mark it, then list the areas you lost marks in.
29	Mock mistakes	Work through every wrong answer from both mocks until you can explain why the right option is right.
30	Light review	Skim your notes and formulas for an hour, then stop. Sleep matters more than one more set tonight.

How the plan reflects the job

The weighting mirrors a technician's workload. Hardware and operating systems are the biggest area, because most tickets involve a computer, a device or its software. IT fundamentals and support practice come next, then networking and customer service, with security woven through. In the final days, the plan returns to those heaviest areas with timed practice.

Where to spend your study time

The suggested emphasis reflects what this position works with day to day. It is a study guide, not a published exam blueprint.

Area	Suggested emphasis	Questions in the bank	Practise
Hardware and operating systems	33%	961	Hardware & OS
IT fundamentals and support practice	25%	484	Hardware & OS
Networking fundamentals	17%	2,636	Networking
Public service, customer care and policy	17%	20	MIFOTRA ICT Officer
Cybersecurity	8%	541	Security

Turning study into practice

Wherever possible, do something rather than only reading about it. On a hardware day, identify the components inside an old computer or in clear photos. On an operating system day, find each Windows tool mentioned in your notes and see what it shows. On a customer service day, write down how you would reply to a difficult message from a user, then improve it.

If you already work in support

You may know much of the material from experience. Take the first mock early, around the end of the first week, and use the results to skip days on areas you already handle confidently. Spend the saved time on topics your job rarely touches, because those are the ones most likely to cost you marks.

Common questions

Is one hour a day really enough?

For most people with some IT background, a focused hour on most days over a month builds a solid foundation. If you are new to IT, start earlier or add time at weekends.

What should I do on review days?

Redo the questions you got wrong that week and update your symptom list. Leave new topics for another day.