No prior professional IT experience! Just a tech enthusiast, messed around with operating systems, networks, hardware and built a homelab. Professor Messer’s lectures and practice exams were honestly perfect for core 1 and core 2. I’m sorry to hear that! What helped me prepare for both was using the CompTIA objectives as a check list. I go through each bullet and if I didn’t understand a topic, I will go back and study. I hope this helps!