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How to Create the Perfect Fortinet NSE 4 Study Plan

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Published on June 16, 2022

Fortinet is one of the largest IT security-focused companies in the world. Fortinet products are known throughout the IT community as one of the best security ecosystems. Learning how to use the Fortinet ecosystem is complex, though. As IT professionals, we always need to stay on our A-game and constantly upgrade our skills. So, let's get into it.

How to Create the Perfect Fortinet NSE 4 Study Plan

Earning the Fortinet NSE4 certification is only half the battle. But really, it's the journey of studying for the Fortinet NSE4 cert that offers real value. The NSE4 certification is valuable on your resume, but the knowledge gained from earning that accreditation is far more precious.

Fortinet offers a wide range of products. They have specialized routers, gateways, VPN appliances, management software, etc.  The NSE4 certification covers all of the Fortinet products as a whole ecosystem. That ecosystem is designed to mitigate security risks and harden information services. In short, Fortinet offers cyber security. Fortinet's dogma is based on realized cyber security practices. That means studying for the NSE4 certification also teaches valuable, real-life cyber security and network management skills. This is why studying for the NSE4 certification is so helpful.

To be successful, you'll need to create a proper Fortinet NSE4 study plan. We're not all created equal, though. We all learn and retain information in different ways. So, instead of walking through a one-size fits-all NSE4 study plan, let's go over the critical components of developing your own study plan instead.

Find a Fortinet NSE 4 Lab

First things first, before starting on your Fortinet NSE4 study plan journey, you need to find a good lab. Here's why.

IT labs are essential to the IT pro. We need to learn new software constantly. We also need to investigate updates to software. We need to understand how software and systems work. Finally, we need to learn how to connect different software and systems from various vendors together.

You don't want to learn this stuff in a production environment.

That's why you need a lab. A lab is a safe place where IT folks can practice and play with new software. Labs are great places to learn new skills, too. The best part is if you blow something up in your lab, you can reset it and start from scratch. No one gets hurt.

You will make mistakes and break things while working through your Fortinet NSE4 study plan. Whether you are a visual learner, a hands-on learner, or somewhere in between, you will need hands-on experience, too. The only safe way to accomplish these tasks is through a gapped, safe IT study lab.

There are a variety of services that offer Fortinet labs. Find one that fits your personal needs.

Find Fortinet NSE 4 Practice Exams

The typical advice given by many experts is to take practice exams for IT certifications after studying but before taking the cert exam itself. Why would you do that, though?

The whole idea of learning new skills is to put those skills to use later in life. There are very few people that learn new things for the sake of learning for fun. We typically learn new skills because of a passion, a hobby, or work.

Since we are learning new skills, in this case studying for the Fortinet NSE4 cert, we want to make sure our time spent learning is impactful. That means we need a structured learning plan. While it's fun to bumble about and pick up knowledge piecemeal, it is much more effective to follow a structured learning path. Structured learning paths build knowledge pieces on top of each other. In addition, those learning plans help introduce key concepts and how they fit together with different concepts.

That's why I recommend finding good Fortinet NSE4 practice exams before creating your NSE4 study plan. A practice exam will give you the highlights of what you need to learn. Most certification exams are designed to test knowledge in layers, too. For instance, most exams won't ask questions about configuring a VPN before configuring a firewall (at least not in-depth). Instead, we can use these cues to determine what we need to study and when.

Likewise, reading over practice exams before studying Fortinet topics helps establish prior knowledge. It's much easier to learn new skills if you recognize topics along the way. Practice exams introduce those knowledge points ahead of time. It also gives you a chance to organize your current knowledge base to relate existing skills to new skills.

Find a Fortinet NSE 4 Expert

We need mentors. When we learn new skills, mentors guide us along our learning journey. But, of course, we might not know a real-life Fortinet guru. Thankfully, we live in an age where anyone can be a mentor whether they want to be or not.

What do I mean by that?

Have you checked out YouTube lately? There are tons of people that post how-to and educational videos on literally every subject known to man. We can use these types of videos as a mentorship.

Granted, you may not get real-time feedback like you would with your yoga instructor or baseball coach. You can identify issues you have with those instructional videos, though. In addition, they give you a way to compare experiences without having a Fortinet guru standing right next to you.

Best of all, a Fortinet expert can help identify critical pieces in your NSE 4 study plan. They can help structure your study plan around their personal skill set and real-world experiences.

Final Thoughts

Now it's time to put your Fortinet NSE4 study plan into practice. By now, you should have a lab to play with Fortinet products available to you, some practice exams to challenge your learning experience and a Fortinet expert that can guide you along your learning path. So, it's time to put your nose down to the books and start learning.

Of course, you are likely going to have questions along the way. You may also want help creating a Fortinet NSE4 study plan, or you may not have the time to make a study plan yourself. Sometimes in life, we just need things to work. While it's fun to take ownership of projects and design systems yourself, you may not have the time or experience required for that. Developing your study plan takes as much effort as the actual learning and studying itself.

There are lots of online Fortinet NSE4 training courses. Don't be afraid to utilize these courses. They are often led by industry experts and vetted ten times over. At the same time, we encourage all IT pros to try creating their own study plan (after all, learning new skills is a vital IT skill set), which may not be the appropriate answer for you. In this case, use an NSE4 online training course instead.


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