Passed SY0-301 Today - This post is about the material I used, my exam experience...
I and one of my friends took the exam and we both passed
I scored 865 and my friend 850. Guess we are one of the last guys to take 301.
Materials Used For Exam:
1. Darril Gibson's 'Get Certified Get Ahead' Study Guide (SY0-301)
2. Free practice questions on internet
We used Darril's book and studied cover to cover for 3 to 4 times to make sure we are good with all the exam objectives, answered sample questions at the end of the book and two days before the exam, we browsed few practice questions available on the internet and is pretty much all we did to prepare for the exam. Our technical experience/knowledge supported us in some of the exam objectives, Darill's book did the magic for the rest.
Exam Experience:
The exam was easy.
For Future Test Takers:
1. Set a goal, slowly pick up the pace and work towards it.
2. Use Darril's book as a starting point, make sure you are strong and confident on all the exam objectives. Make sure you try the sample questions at the end of the book.
3. Go through the sample/practice questions on internet and try answering them, invest good amount of time on simulation questions. The catch in correctly answering the question during practice tests and on the exam is the thin line that you need to identify 'what the question is asking' and ' the correct answer'. To achieve this, I would suggest to try a lot and by lot I mean a lot of sample/practice tests which will give you an idea about how the questions will be framed on the exam.
4. At this point of time, you should be good. However, as every individual's technical knowledge/experience/perspective varies and if you are not strong/confident on any of the exam objectives or a considerable amount of answers are incorrect when you try the questions at the end of each chapter, sample questions at the end of Darill's book and sample questions on the internet, you need to work on topics that are pain points for you. Use other resources such as other popular book(s),videos,practice questions etc., The goal is to make sure you are confident with all the exam objectives.
Expect simulation questions on the exam. For me, it was 4 simulation questions, out of which 3 were drag and drop and the other was on configuration. Simulation questions were not tough and the exam had a total of 74 questions (simulations included).
Thank you note:
This forum was very very very useful. Before preparing for the exam I was wondering on what book to pick as a study guide, I then hit on this forum and noticed that Darril's book was recommended by most of them. His book is perfect, an amazing write up. God will always help him for writing the best book. A heartfelt thank you to Darril from Chennai, India.
What's Next:
For a background information, I worked as a desktop support engineer for two and half years, then joined another organization and worked as support guy for a leading vulnerability scanning company for 3 years, though my role was not into practical things. My role was limited to educating clients on the vulnerabilities detected on their infra and how to resolve them, help clients understand and achieve PCI compliance. From the last 10 months, I am working as technical consultant for an organization that is into infrastructure monitoring.
I would like to do CISA next, but my professional experience does'nt seem to fit the pre-requisites..thinking on the lines of ISO 27001 or CISSP, not sure if I am eligible, I have to look at the pre-requisites. I am a commerce graduate, but found out that I am interested in computers. I Studied and passed MCITP server 2008 and redhat v5 and would like to hear from you guys on the cert that suits my not so good professional experience.
Today is a beautiful evening and weekend evenings are always wonderful with a beer
I scored 865 and my friend 850. Guess we are one of the last guys to take 301.Materials Used For Exam:1. Darril Gibson's 'Get Certified Get Ahead' Study Guide (SY0-301)
2. Free practice questions on internet
We used Darril's book and studied cover to cover for 3 to 4 times to make sure we are good with all the exam objectives, answered sample questions at the end of the book and two days before the exam, we browsed few practice questions available on the internet and is pretty much all we did to prepare for the exam. Our technical experience/knowledge supported us in some of the exam objectives, Darill's book did the magic for the rest.
Exam Experience:
The exam was easy.
For Future Test Takers:
1. Set a goal, slowly pick up the pace and work towards it.
2. Use Darril's book as a starting point, make sure you are strong and confident on all the exam objectives. Make sure you try the sample questions at the end of the book.
3. Go through the sample/practice questions on internet and try answering them, invest good amount of time on simulation questions. The catch in correctly answering the question during practice tests and on the exam is the thin line that you need to identify 'what the question is asking' and ' the correct answer'. To achieve this, I would suggest to try a lot and by lot I mean a lot of sample/practice tests which will give you an idea about how the questions will be framed on the exam.
4. At this point of time, you should be good. However, as every individual's technical knowledge/experience/perspective varies and if you are not strong/confident on any of the exam objectives or a considerable amount of answers are incorrect when you try the questions at the end of each chapter, sample questions at the end of Darill's book and sample questions on the internet, you need to work on topics that are pain points for you. Use other resources such as other popular book(s),videos,practice questions etc., The goal is to make sure you are confident with all the exam objectives.
Expect simulation questions on the exam. For me, it was 4 simulation questions, out of which 3 were drag and drop and the other was on configuration. Simulation questions were not tough and the exam had a total of 74 questions (simulations included).
Thank you note:
This forum was very very very useful. Before preparing for the exam I was wondering on what book to pick as a study guide, I then hit on this forum and noticed that Darril's book was recommended by most of them. His book is perfect, an amazing write up. God will always help him for writing the best book. A heartfelt thank you to Darril from Chennai, India.
What's Next:
For a background information, I worked as a desktop support engineer for two and half years, then joined another organization and worked as support guy for a leading vulnerability scanning company for 3 years, though my role was not into practical things. My role was limited to educating clients on the vulnerabilities detected on their infra and how to resolve them, help clients understand and achieve PCI compliance. From the last 10 months, I am working as technical consultant for an organization that is into infrastructure monitoring.
I would like to do CISA next, but my professional experience does'nt seem to fit the pre-requisites..thinking on the lines of ISO 27001 or CISSP, not sure if I am eligible, I have to look at the pre-requisites. I am a commerce graduate, but found out that I am interested in computers. I Studied and passed MCITP server 2008 and redhat v5 and would like to hear from you guys on the cert that suits my not so good professional experience.
Today is a beautiful evening and weekend evenings are always wonderful with a beer