Resources for Security +

Mkroadrush

What are your thoughts on measureup.com for the practice test? Also, the exam has labs, do you know a site (freebie) where to practice or suggestions for passing those questions. Thank you!

tkerber

So I am about a week away from taking my Security+. Have been getting about 90 - 93% on the practice exams using UCertify through WGU. Recently though I wanted to branch away from that and try something different because I was struggling through the encryption section. I tried Professor Messers free Security+ videos posted on his website and I have to say they're absolutely fantastic. I even logged into the IM tool on the site and spoke with Mr. Messer himself!! (Don't know how rare this is).. He gave me some extra tips and places to go for more material.

I'm not entirely sure one could pass the Security+ exam on only studying the entirety of his free videos. However, they do really bring together concepts and make it easy to visualize the big picture. My favorite thing he does is give clear and understandable examples where as in UCertify is just straight up jargon and definition.

ITNewbie2

I used measureup quite a bit to study for my Network+ and CCNA studies. They are not bad, but depending on how much you have to pay for the practice tests, it's what you should weight your decision based on. Because there are plenty of practice tests with hundreds of questions that comes with almost any book you can buy pertaining to the subject. Also free ones found on google is not bad too. Most books will include a CD loaded with the test engine and free download code to the practice test questions.

As someone who just passed the exam on Friday, this has been my experience in regards to studying for Security+. I took a summer semester class first at a local college. The material the professor used to teach is basically straight from the Exam Cram 4th edition book by Diane Barrett. I think it's because the book is a Comptia authorized material, not because the book is necessarily better than other materials such as professor messer. I also watched the entire 250 plus videos on youtube by professor messer.

My conclusion is that both the book by Diane Barret and videos by professor messer provides information the others don't necessarily have. Both are helpful. The book is harder to understand because the author uses very long sentences that can fatigue your mind real quick.

The nature of the Security+ exam is meant to be vendor neutral and very broad in it's subjects. My CCNA and Network+ studies definitely helped shorten the study time, but it's quite difficult to be an expert on every subject Comptia expect you to understand on Sec+.

The exam was definitely harder than I anticipated. During the first 30 minutes or so, I thought I was going to fail because the sim questions really threw me off balance until I regained my composure. One good thing is the Comptia exams allows you to go back and change your answers if you have any time remaining or feels uncomfortable with any answers you gave. Cisco does not allow that.