Well, I don't have experience studying for that (specific) field, but I'd say figure out some way to get practice. Maybe ask relatives if they need computer help? Beware, once you're considered the "computer person" there is no help for you...
Oh I already know haha. I've been helping my family with computer junk for years now - but I've just started college for it this year. It's pretty intense because everything that I knew how to do (build computers, diagnose problems, etc.) was covered the very FIRST day of class. I got into class and the teacher was like "alright, take this Gateway (ew) computer from 2003 apart and put it back together". So in short there was a lot of learning but not enough, in my opinion lol. As for practice; I can't really practice anything because I know most of the hardware stuff; what I need to focus on is fixing bootmbr, assigning IP addresses (easy, but still got it wrong on the certification that I already took), and just mainly software stuff, which is hard to replicate in some instances. OH and terminal; gotta learn dat too, which isn't all that bad - but still..
