My Procrastinating then Panicked, Frantic Journey to Passing Security+ Today
I practice a lot of the concepts at work and already had Network+ so I kind of didn't have any excuse to fail right? Well let me tell you I was scared out of my mind!!
Sec+ is now a requirement in my career field for anyone with elevated privilege access to network devices and servers. So being given 3 weeks notice that I had to have it by this week was a little unsettling at first but I procrastinated because I figured eh... know this stuff already.
Well fast forward to last week... I was scheduled to take the test Thursday morning but I chickened out and rescheduled to today. Mostly because I hadn't studied much at all but also because it was in the middle of the week and I am dead tired when I get home these days.
I basically studied a single study guide for 2 hours on Saturday, none on Sunday, and put in a 14 hour (minus 2 hours eating and breaks so 12 hours straight studying) marathon yesterday.
I didn't make it all the way through the study guide but I went to bed feeling fairly confident there were no gaps in my knowledge wide enough for me to not be able to figure my way through most questions. Woke up this morning terrified because I lied there in bed realizing I hadn't really retained anything from the last 3 to 4 hours or so of studying because I was just too tired and in zombie reading mode.
I jumped out of bed, pulled up my PDF study guide, and got in another 2 hours reviewing stuff before I had to head out for my 9am test time. (another mistake doing it in the morning!)
A lot of stuff I wasn't expecting was in the test but the trick for me was that I didn't just read the practice questions and try to memorize keywords. Every time I came across something I didn't fully understand or already know I went out and googled it and read up on it.
So understanding the concepts really seems to be the key to Comptia certs like most others. Hope that helps someone
Sec+ is now a requirement in my career field for anyone with elevated privilege access to network devices and servers. So being given 3 weeks notice that I had to have it by this week was a little unsettling at first but I procrastinated because I figured eh... know this stuff already.
Well fast forward to last week... I was scheduled to take the test Thursday morning but I chickened out and rescheduled to today. Mostly because I hadn't studied much at all but also because it was in the middle of the week and I am dead tired when I get home these days.
I basically studied a single study guide for 2 hours on Saturday, none on Sunday, and put in a 14 hour (minus 2 hours eating and breaks so 12 hours straight studying) marathon yesterday.
I didn't make it all the way through the study guide but I went to bed feeling fairly confident there were no gaps in my knowledge wide enough for me to not be able to figure my way through most questions. Woke up this morning terrified because I lied there in bed realizing I hadn't really retained anything from the last 3 to 4 hours or so of studying because I was just too tired and in zombie reading mode.
I jumped out of bed, pulled up my PDF study guide, and got in another 2 hours reviewing stuff before I had to head out for my 9am test time. (another mistake doing it in the morning!)
A lot of stuff I wasn't expecting was in the test but the trick for me was that I didn't just read the practice questions and try to memorize keywords. Every time I came across something I didn't fully understand or already know I went out and googled it and read up on it.
So understanding the concepts really seems to be the key to Comptia certs like most others. Hope that helps someone
Comments
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brilowe88
Member Posts: 8 ■■□□□□□□□□
Congrats!
And I helps me out as this will be the next task at hand! -
Blade3D
Member Posts: 110 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats, similar experience for me, I forgot to reschedule after only reading 4 chapters of Cram Exam book.Title: Sr. Systems Designer
Degree: B.S. in Computing Science, emphasis Information Assurance
Certifications: CISSP, PSP, Network+, Security+, CySA+, OSWP
