How it works

How IT PATH works

A two-minute orientation: the study loop, what each section is for, and how every number on screen is calculated.

Back to dashboard

The study loop

Follow this order the first time through. After that, the dashboard tells you what is next.

  1. 1. Set your goal

    Choose your certification target, experience level, study days and session length. Everything else is ordered around those answers.

    Open Settings

  2. 2. Learn one topic

    Read the lesson, then answer the recall questions, work the practice activity, teach it back in your own words and decide the real-world scenario.

    Open Learn

  3. 3. Prove it in practice

    Run the lab for the topic, work a written practice task, then take a quiz. Scores only move when you produce work.

    Open Labs

  4. 4. Come back to what you got wrong

    Every wrong answer is logged. Review schedules it again on a spacing ladder; Weak Areas builds a quiz out of it.

    Open Review

  5. 5. Run a timed session

    Study Plan assembles one session from your due reviews, weak topics and next topic. Pomodoro logs the minutes as you go.

    Open Study Plan

What each section is for

Several sections test you in different ways. This is the difference.

Study

  • Dashboard — Your progress at a glance and what to do today.
  • My Path — The ordered route through your chosen certification.
  • Study Plan — Build one timed session from your open work and due reviews.
  • Pomodoro — Focus timer that logs the minutes you actually study.
  • Learn — Every topic lesson, searchable, with recall and teach-back.
  • Resources — Official reading and video from vendors and course authors.

Practice

  • Practice — Written tasks graded against a model answer.
  • Labs — Step-by-step hands-on walkthroughs and fault drills.
  • Quiz Me — Randomised exam-style questions on any topic or certification.
  • Troubleshoot — Simulated incidents: diagnose, fix, verify and document.
  • Career Mode — A simulated support queue across five job roles.
  • Exam Simulator — A full-length timed mock exam with a pass or fail report.
  • Weak Areas — A quiz built only from questions you have missed.
  • Review — Spaced repetition plus your full log of mistakes.

Career

  • Certifications — Readiness per certification and the material behind it.
  • Career Skills — Job-ready skills scored from the work you have recorded.
  • Portfolio — Write up completed work as evidence for employers.

You

  • AI Tutor — Builds a detailed question to ask a tutor or chatbot elsewhere.
  • Second Brain — Save notes, links, videos and files; IT PATH reads them and connects them to your topics.
  • Bookmarks — Everything you saved, plus your topic notes.
  • Progress — Detailed scores per topic and per skill dimension.
  • Learner profile — Mastery, retention and error patterns per concept, with what to study next.
  • Insights — Trends over time: study habits, accuracy and repeated mistakes.
  • Study record — Download a transcript of your recorded work, or back up and restore progress.
  • About — Who built IT PATH, version number and contact details.
  • Go Pro — One-time upgrade that unlocks the AI Tutor, AI grading, labs and more.
  • Settings — Your goal, experience level, study days and session length.

The six skill dimensions

Every topic is scored on six separate measures. Reading alone only moves the first one.

  • Understanding — Recorded when you work through a lesson and answer its questions.
  • Recall — From recall questions answered without the lesson in front of you.
  • Application — From practice activities and written practice tasks.
  • Practical ability — From completed labs and their checklists.
  • Troubleshooting — From incidents and career tickets you diagnose, fix and verify.
  • Retention — From passing spaced reviews at longer and longer intervals.

What the words mean

The same word can mean different things on different pages, so here they are side by side.

  • Mastered topic — All six skill dimensions for that topic are high, backed by recorded work — not just by opening the lesson.
  • Mastered review — You passed that topic's review at the final 90-day step on the ladder of 1, 3, 7, 14, 30, 60 and 90 days.
  • Mastered lab — You completed the lab and wrote a reflection that shows you understood why the steps worked.
  • Certification readiness — A weighted figure from topic scores, quizzes, labs and practice for that certification's topics only.
  • Career readiness — Skills are scored from evidence across every activity, then weighted for each job track.
  • Open mistake — A missed question still waiting to be answered correctly. Answering it right clears it.

Honest numbers

Nothing here is simulated. Every percentage, streak and readiness figure comes from work you recorded on this device, and your data is saved locally in this browser. If you have done nothing yet, everything reads zero — that is correct, not a fault.