CompTIA Security+ Exam Preparation and Experience



In February of 2019 I decided to take the CompTIA Security+ certification exam # SYO-501 and I gave myself two months to study for it.

 The Security+ exam expires every 3 years and requires you to either renew it via taking courses or passing another certification exam. The certification is entry level but is also required for many government and government contractor positions.

 I spent around 50 hours studying. While I don't currently work in security I do come from an IT infrastructure background with 10+ years of experience working in high security environments.

 I am typically not the best test taker.

 To prepare for the exam I did the following 5 things (please note that I am not endorsed by any of these companies):

1 READ

I read from front to back the book CompTIA Security+ Certification Guide by Ian Neil published by Packt:


I felt that the book was pretty good and covered the topics well. I did notice some typos and errors which was surprising to me but overall the end of chapter reviews and questions were very helpful.


2 WATCHED VIDEOS


Once I read the book I decided to watch about 15 hours of training videos. I find myself being able to learn from videos better than any other medium. I chose the course by Jason Dion of Dion Training provided by Udemy:


I found this course to be excellent. It really helped me fill in the gaps from what I missed reading the text book. The instructor speaks clearly and gives great exam tips. I recommend this series to anyone looking to take this test. I know there are free resources on YouTube but I felt this was high quality. Each section has its own short practice exam and a final large practice exam at the end of the course.

While this blog is not a review of the Udemy app itself I have to mention how convenient the app is. A feature I really enjoyed was being able to download all of the videos while on wifi so that during my commute by train where I am sometimes underground without service I can still watch the videos.

I watched the videos with closed captions on and at x1.25 speed. This saved me time and helped me in case I missed a word or two.

At the end of the course was an excellent practice exam. I scored an 85% on this exam and so I scheduled the exam 2 weeks from that day. I did this because the information was fresh in my mind and I felt that it would motivate me to study even harder since I knew the exam was coming up.

3 PRACTICE EXAMS



During the studying process I decided to not take notes as I felt note taking might distract me too much. Instead I took practice exams and reviewed the questions I got wrong to figure out which domains my weaknesses were in. I spent about 5 hours taking the free practice exams from Exam Compass. I took all Security+ exams available.
https://www.examcompass.com/comptia-security-plus-practice-test-1-exam-sy0-501

4 READ MORE


 I then decided to purchase and read Professor Messer's Security + Exam Notes:


The PDF was cheap and I feel was worth it. I wanted to read the study materials again but didn't want to reread the entire text book that I had read earlier and since I didn't take notes I thought this was a great option. The PDF is only 100 pages and really summarized the materials nicely. Not only did I read all 100 pages but I also reread the sections that I got wrong on the practice exam. 

5 GOOGLE THE EXAM TOPICS


I spent an additional few hours just going through the exam topics especially those I got wrong on the practice tests and simply googling these topics and reading about them until I could explain them thoroughly to myself.

DAY OF THE EXAM


I scheduled the exam for 10AM which I felt would give me enough time to rest and get ready. I ate a good breakfast and drank some coffee. I also drank an energy drink which I do not typically drink due to how unhealthy they are, but felt that it gave me a slight edge in concentration and energy.

During the exam I stayed calm and focused. Some people recommend skipping the simulations and flagging them for later.  While that is great advice, for some reason I didn't this. It just felt like the right thing to do at the time and I felt that I could complete them confidently. 

While taking the test I kept an eye on my remaining time and flagged any questions I wanted to go back to. I made sure to put my best answer down for each question in case I ran out of time and made sure to not leave any blank. I used regular exam taking tips like eliminating 2 choices from a multiple choice question giving you a 50% chance of getting it correct. When the test was done I only had 5 minutes remaining and could only review a few questions that I had flagged before the test ended.

After the test they ask you to take survey questions which is stressful because you just want to see what your score was!

After that I was so relieved to see that I had passed. I called my wife to tell her the good news. The test was more difficult than I was anticipating, but taking all of those practice exams helped prepare me and my mind for the types of questions I would need to answer on the exam.

Be confident going into the exam, follow my 5 exam prep tips and you will do fine.