Hello Everyone
I just passed Sec+ with a score of 867.
I have no other experience within the IT field. I do a little programming in Java at home, it helped with understanding key points like Buffer Overflow, Code Review, SQL, etc... Aside from that though, everything was really new to me or I simply did not understand the topic well enough (I knew about Spyware, Trojans, but not enough to explain what they really did).
My main book was by Darril Gibson. His study guide was amazing.
I also studied the application with that book. This was an invaluable tool as well. Really helped me understand the content.
My study method for this test was as follows:
- Read Gibson's book. Make notes of everything, even if I thought I understood it well.
- Do the Android application. Read the flashcards until I can answer without multiple choice.
- Do question after question and test after test. I just repeated this process until I knew my material. I did so many questions. Any question I got wrong, I added it to my notes about that technology, protocol, etc... This was immensely helpful in getting pass this test.
- The most important point of all, read the objectives list and explain each point aloud (thanks to TallDude7). If I couldn't explain it, I read the chapter in Gibson's book or used Google for an answer. I was hard on myself with this, I didn't give an easy answer and move on. This took a lot of time. Even after I studied all the content (30 hours+), I spent 10 hours alone doing this ensuring I understood everything.
I did not purchase any practice labs. I looked up youtube videos for practice labs and saw what they did (Look again at Gibson's videos on his site, Professor Messer, etc... During the test, doing this helped a lot. If you know the material the lab is easy.
Hope this helps some people.
