I passed CompTIA Security+: my experience, study sources, tips
On August 17th I passed CompTIA Security+ with a result of 817 (750 passing score/900 total)
While it is my first security certification, it was my first certification exam ever.
And after two weeks, I decided to reflect on my study process and share some lessons I learned while preparing and taking the exam.
Here is a list of subtopics of this post:
Let’s start.
My background.
I started my preparation for the exam in my third year (out four) of the university. My specialization is “Systems of Information Security”. So I have some skills in the network, Windows and Linux, and some programming. Also, as it can be seen in my blog, I develop my ethical hacking skills using Hack The Box and TryHackMe platforms. But I have no enterprise experience.
Also, I think it’s important, English is not my first language, but I have no problem with understanding and speaking. So passing the exam in English was not a problem, because it doesn’t use any advanced vocabulary, except maybe some terms.
Why did I choose this certification?
My specialization is pretty new in my country, so I felt that I had some missing spots in my studies.
So I looked for entry-level security certification which has a wide range of topics to create a solid base for my future knowledge and practice. Security+ was perfect for this goal.
Why didn’t I wait for SY0-601?
I had started my preparation before SY0-601 was announced. And when CompTIA gave news about the new version I almost finished my studies. So it was too late.
But I would advise passing SY0-501 while you still can (will be available up to July 2021), because study resources for 501 are already here and you can start right now when it would take some time for trainers to create it for 601.
Preparation.
Sources
After I picked the certification exam, I read some forums about Security+ and wrote down the most common mentioned study resources. Then I looked them up and chose what will work best for me.
Here is a list of my sources:
- Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-501 Study Guide by Darril Gibson
- Professor Messer’s Training Course on YouTube
- Professor Messer’s Study Groups
- Dion’s practice tests
Study process
My total time of preparation for this exam was about two months studying about 3 hours a day.
BUT, the time needed for you may be different, it depends on your background and amount of spare time.
I started with reading posts on Reddit. People write here about their experience with exam and preparation. So I got familiar with the process of the exam and then planned my study process.
I used Study Guide by Darril Gibson as my primary source. I perceive information better from reading, so book was the best variant for me. Explanations were clear and practice tests were close to the real exam. One chapter took me about 1-2 days for reading, highlighting important parts after, and creating flashcards in Quizlet. Then on the next day, I passed the chapter exam and if I had any mistakes, I returned to these topics.
My advice here is not to memorize but understand concepts; it will help during the exam because CompTIA has situation-like questions.
After finishing a book and receiving about 85% on the post-assessment exam, I decided to refresh some topics by watching on x1.5 Professor Messer’s course on YT. I felt this course was kind of brief, but I didn’t need more for a secondary source of studying.
Then I bought Dion’s practice tests in Udemy, which was highly recommended on Reddit. I took all 6 exams with scores 85-90, but I am not sure if I would recommend them. Explanations on some questions were not clear and, idk, not convincing, I guess. Moreover, after taking the exam I am not sure that they were close to the real one. Just my opinion, it may work better for you.
During preparation, I took any chance to test my knowledge and study groups became a great opportunity for that. Study Group is a stream with two parts. First part is several questions written exam-like with then given explanations. Second part is Q&A. Most of the Study groups I watched recorded, so it has timestamps in every video, which is very useful.
Therefore, my final tips on preparation:
- Understand, not memorize
- However, some ports you still need to remember. I created Quizlet flashcards for that.
- Get familiar with logs.
- Get yourself a primary and secondary study source.
- For primary source take what really works for you: books/video course/etc.
- Test yourself to find weak points, but do not overreact your mistakes, better work on them.
- Take rest during preparation. It is not a sprint, but a marathon.
- Read about other’s experiences but always remember that everyone has a different background, some things might work for them might not work for you and vice versa.
The X-day
Buying the voucher and scheduling the exam.
Firstly, I bought the voucher for the exam on the official CompTIA store. I was hoping to receive a student discount, but sadly it is not available in my country. But I used a 10% discount from CompTIA’s IT Career News subscription.
Then I created an account on PearsonVue, chose the exam, filled details, chose the testing center, and in the end, I entered my voucher number. Done. My exam was scheduled.
I was so happy that I decided to do that about a week before the exam because my first choice testing center closed for quarantine a day before I went scheduling the exam on PearsonVue. So I chose the next available.
Why did I choose to take an exam at the testing center?
Well, it may not have been the best time for the certification exam with this pandemic, but I wanted to take a test before the start of my final year at the university. CompTIA has or had (depends when you are reading) an option to take an exam at home. But I was not sure in my ISP, so not to worry I scheduled an exam at a local testing center.
Exam process.
I arrived at the place about 15 minutes earlier. The administrators of this testing center were very polite and nice, so I am glad that I chose this center.
First, they measured my temperature. Then was registration: they checked my ID and took my picture, I signed papers. After they took me to the computer and the exam started.
[Quarantine note: the whole exam I sat in the mask, so take note if it may be not comfortable for you]
I had 82 questions, 5 of them were performance-based. I read that many candidates were feeling like they are going to fail even they passed the test. So I was ready for that, but I was pretty confident and calm during the test. I read the question two times and if I was completely lost and marked it for review and moved to the next one. In the end, I review marked, then all questions and tried not to change my answers if I was not 100% sure.
In total, I took my exam for about 60 minutes. Then completed the survey and after that, there was so desired word “Passed”.
I hope it was helpful to you. If you have any additional questions about Security+ certification, feel free to tweet me @m0rn1ngstr Good luck!
