CompTIA Security+ Exam

D'Agger

Hi All,

So I'm after booking my exam for the end of the month & I'm now starting to cover back over the materials from a week-long course I sat a few months back.

I'm working as a sysadmin with a decent bit of knowledge on security related products so alot of the technical aspects I can relate to - protocols, network devices etc.

Currently I'm just reviewing with Professer Messers videos and doubling over the content from the book. I imagine I will need to brush up around the theory parts such as Risk Management, Security Controls etc. as I think that's where I'm weakest currently. I'm wondering if anybody has any tips on the exam, any particular content that caught you out or perhaps you feel needs the most attention? Does the exam contain many situation or scenario based questions as some of these have come up in the test exams I've done as part of the course i.e. should the Activities covered in the book such as setting up IIS on WinServer2012 be given much credence?

Any tips appreciated!

dakid

Hey mate, I am interested in doing this also but haven't looked into it yet so no tips. Have you Sat it? How did you find it? If not best of luck with it :-)

D'Agger

Yeah was coming here to update the thread that I managed to pass on Friday so very happy with it.

I did a course in February so had materials to work with from that - namely the MeasureUp test exams (These were helpful in getting used to reading the question slowly, fully and understanding what's being asked - sometimes the question seems somewhat vague in that you could give two answers - but the way it's worded may give you the answer from there).
I also used the CompTIA book provided with the course. That said I studied the ProfessorMesser videos - had them open on one screen, with a google drive doc open on the other taking notes per topic. that I was able to read through in the last day or two leading up to the exam. I left section 2.0 until last as I felt this was the most theory based section, covering topics from a good few chapters of the book, I got through the other topics fairly quickly.

This guide is very helpful - it's an overview of what you'll need to know in each topic - there are videos for each one in Professor Messer and it points out the ports & acronyms you'll need to know (although I think the acronyms go overboard, you won't need to know them all inside out, but the ports you should take note of them - MS RDP (3369) came up in the exam along with SSH, TFTP and a few others.

So my suggestions are the same as what I'd seen others recommend constantly on message boards:

- Book the exam to give yourself a deadline
- Go through professor messer videos & take notes
- Do some test exams (Doing this before revising the material gave me a kick up the arse to revise well and I took notes on what Q's I got wrong and needed to revise in particular).
- Revise using your notes and reviewing the Messer videos again for particular topics/content.
- Test exams, test exams, test exams. If you don't have measure up then these were quite good - each one seems to lean heavily on one topic so doing them will give you an idea on what topics you need to brush up on once again.


All the best if you decide to sit it, very glad I don't have to re-sit it, the exam is about €300 to do, so give yourself time but put in the effort because the passing score is 83% (750/900) so, given the relatively broad nature of the topics covered - you'll need to be well prepped.

Back2work

D'Agger wrote: »

Yeah was coming here to update the thread that I managed to pass on Friday so very happy with it.

I did a course in February so had materials to work with from that - namely the MeasureUp test exams (These were helpful in getting used to reading the question slowly, fully and understanding what's being asked - sometimes the question seems somewhat vague in that you could give two answers - but the way it's worded may give you the answer from there).
I also used the CompTIA book provided with the course. That said I studied the ProfessorMesser videos - had them open on one screen, with a google drive doc open on the other taking notes per topic. that I was able to read through in the last day or two leading up to the exam. I left section 2.0 until last as I felt this was the most theory based section, covering topics from a good few chapters of the book, I got through the other topics fairly quickly.

This guide is very helpful - it's an overview of what you'll need to know in each topic - there are videos for each one in Professor Messer and it points out the ports & acronyms you'll need to know (although I think the acronyms go overboard, you won't need to know them all inside out, but the ports you should take note of them - MS RDP (3369) came up in the exam along with SSH, TFTP and a few others.

So my suggestions are the same as what I'd seen others recommend constantly on message boards:

- Book the exam to give yourself a deadline
- Go through professor messer videos & take notes
- Do some test exams (Doing this before revising the material gave me a kick up the arse to revise well and I took notes on what Q's I got wrong and needed to revise in particular).
- Revise using your notes and reviewing the Messer videos again for particular topics/content.
- Test exams, test exams, test exams. If you don't have measure up then these were quite good - each one seems to lean heavily on one topic so doing them will give you an idea on what topics you need to brush up on once again.


All the best if you decide to sit it, very glad I don't have to re-sit it, the exam is about €300 to do, so give yourself time but put in the effort because the passing score is 83% (750/900) so, given the relatively broad nature of the topics covered - you'll need to be well prepped.

Can I ask what the name of the course you took please?

D'Agger

New Horizons

Company asked if we had training courses we'd be interested in so covered this - tbh I wouldn't be doing it if I were to provide funding myself for Security + as Professor Messer & a decent text book should be sufficient. However I say that as somebody who has recently been working on PKI at work along with some other types of Security related software implementations so perhaps having a tutor/guide to explain some topics as is covered by the above course could be beneficial if you're not working in Security and will be coming across some of these concepts for the first time.