Failed Security+ Help!!!

Ranjnas

Hi,
I have taken the Security+ exam 4 times have failed. I am doing the question on ********* and *********. I have gotten 722, 700, 690. I have been going to study groups and done all the questions from ********* and ********* and Darril Garbison books. Please shoot me a line if you have passed the exam.

TheFORCE

Don't use **** and study the materials to understanding. Just doing questions wont cut it.

Ranjnas

Thanks for replying. I keep on studying and studying. When I take the exam, the questions are so different. I don't know what I am doing wrong.

DataFox

Hi Ranjnas

Keep at it, Security exams are in my opinion, are harder than the average tech exams. They require you to know the information.
I mentor junior techs in my company and the one thing I see all the time is, they all want the big certs in the fastest time possible. Unfortunately, they will go off and get the **** and cram, cram, cram, sit the exams, pass and come back into the office on Monday morning, boastful about their achievements. The reality is they have wasted their time and the company’s money.

The most recent example of this was a young employee joined our company as a graduate with BSc (Hons) in Computing, we activity run staff training and promote our staff to learn and we offer to pay for exams, training material as well as mentorship from our senior staff to help them get the exams they want. Now we do have limits, we would not allow you to go forward for a CISSP exam without having the relevant background and foundation in place.

The employee in question had already taken and passed A+ and Net+ and on joining he wanted to give the Security+ a crack. He studied for 4 weeks in his own time, sat the exam and failed. Again, he studied for another 4 weeks and the result when he came out of the exam, fail.
He was deflated, and upset and ready to give up and he did, he spent real money on buying “****” and they all failed him. He was referred to my team due to his interest in InfoSec and I meet with him for a coffee in the canteen. It was apparent in our first meeting that he was never shown how to study for exams and, it was also apparent that he “dumped” A+ and Net+.. The basic building blocks where not in place for him to attempt the Security+
We started the next few evenings with me showing him how to study using the official materials, we spent a lot of time on the CompTIA website, looking at exam topics, listing out the needed knowledge. We checked of what was known and what was missing. We then planed out our study time. We had 2 weeks focused on A+ and another 2 weeks focused on Net+, all before opening the book for Security+

(CompTIA Security+ Study Guide Sixth Edition By Sybex)

When we got to Security+ he was on his own, He knew how research the exam for the content it was needing, he was able to plan and manage his own study time and more so, he was confident in opening the official material and getting the information he needed to succeed.
He took his Security+ exam 2 weeks later and passed with flying colours. More to the point, he can hold his grounds with any of the Senior Guys, and he can activity, participate and contribute at team meetings. He’s no longer the guy hiding in the back and he’s not sly about asking questions....

1. Get your hands on a copy of (CompTIA Security+ Study Guide Sixth Edition By Sybex)
2. Visit the CompTIA site and look at what you need to know for the exam.
3. Plan your study.
4. Focus on one topic at a time.
5. When your confident, sit the exam. If you fail great. look at where you failed and get more knowledge.

Kuvuli21

In some ways its best to understand networking in depth as well, how much experience do you have on hand? or A+ and network+?

Ranjnas

Thanks for replying to my post. I am in IT but found these exams are so hard. This is my first certification. I am doing the **** and exams question from Darrel Gibson. I have done some Network questions.

nisti2

**** won't help, maybe it will give you an idea about the questions but you need to understand what they are asking if you don't understand that... you will be failing and failing.. sorry for saying that ...

Here is a good resource to pass the CompTIA Sec+ http://bit.ly/2ci3SbQ (Hope this work for you)
I'm also studying to taking on October.

Ranjnas

Thank you so much for sending me this link!

Trucido

Yeah don't do ****... just devote more time to studying, get another book, watch all the videos you can, make flash cards, take all the practice tests you can, print out the objectives and go through each one, know everything about the objectives front to back, then go sit again.


Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGlm87dP0MA

cyberguypr

I have to ask, do you actually know what **** are or did someone just tell you "go study this questions and you'll be fine"?

Ranjnas

Thanks for replying. The question **** have been very good. Everyone is using the same test question. It's can at least get to a 700. I am just having problems going over 750.

scaredoftests

That is how certification tests are, they change every time you take them. Anyway, use Darril Gibson's book and online resources. Well worth it. Also, UNDERSTAND it, don't memorize it.

cbd

As mentioned, you really have to understand how everything works in order to decipher the questions. I had poor study habits for the first 3 months, jumping around different chapters and topics. Finally, I started from page 1 on Darril Gibson's book, and went through each page with One Note as my note-taking app. It took right at a month to go through the book. I passed with a 781 but it was HARD for me. I really thought I was going to fail very early on. I never want to take this exam again.
Make sure you use more than 1 resource for studying, as not 1 source is good enough, IMO.

sillymcnasty

This whole thread is hilarious lol.

**** might help you pass a test, but when you get to a job interview, you will show that you know nothing and you will be embarrassed. Study the real way!

atippett

I just passed the Sec+ last Friday. I'll tell you that the GCGA premium is the best study material to TEST yourself. It has questions extremely similar to what is on the exam. But, like everyone else said, if you don't understand the material it won't do you any good. The GCGA premium performance based questions are almost exactly the same as on the exam. There was 2 or 3 of them that was the exact same questions. Hope this helps.

Ranjnas

I have done GCGA premiums and ********* and ***********. Two or three of the performance are the same. I always have been one question about attack it has a Database, CMRA, Application. It's a new question and always get that wrong.

danny069

You need to study and ask yourself why is it the right answer and wrong answer. If you don't understand why it is the right answer or wrong answer that's the reason you will fail. Don't memorize a **** and the answers. How do you know if the answers are correct? They could be false. You have know your stuff, how do you expect to succeed in the real world by cheating?

horusthesun

my advise is ... spend a week to try to figure out what you are doing wrong. We .. the forum can point out faults, but it takes you to realize it.

get a drink ... beer, rum, or gin... or whatever.

don't get discourage, everyone fails at some thing.

Take another week off and enjoy life.

After that, read different books (I say at least 3 ), create flash cards for vocab words, create a lab and use ideas and concepts that the books talk about. You can create a lab in the cloud. Sign up to AWS and spin up some instances and set up a Linux based firewall or a Cisco ASA virtual appliance. Set up Windows advanced firewall. Set up a VPN on at home. try out different antivirus ... anti-malware software.

Actually learn it , not cram it.

thank you for reading this and I hope you pass the next time you take the exam don't get discourage

shochan

I bought the CompTIA bundle which included the CertMaster software which has over 800 questions over the material of the objectives, a Sec+ exam voucher, and a retake Sec+ exam voucher, all for like $378. I didn't need the retake due to scoring a 786 on the exam. CompTIA Marketplace

I also participated on YouTube channel with Professor Messer monthly. He has a ton of videos out there you can watch, his $10 exam notes was an excellent study guide that I purchased too.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=professor+messer+security%2B
Professor Messer's CompTIA SY0-401 Security+ Course Notes | Professor Messer IT Certification Training Courses

At the time, I was working for Robert Half Technologies, which also gave me access to their Skillport website. There were LOTS of books, videos, etc that I used too. I went through questions at the end of those chapters of several books on Sec+ and it definitely helped.
https://roberthalf.skillport.com

As far as the performance based questions, I looked for Darril Gibson...I used his
401 Performance Based Questions - Get Certified Get Ahead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_1s9njlWLU

I did all of this studying for 9 months & actually pushed the test back a couple of times due to not feeling completely ready for it. You need to know it all. As far as the strategy during test day, I went to sleep early...getting 8hrs of sleep is a must. I also answered all of the questions I knew FIRST, and then went back a 2nd time through the exam to answer the harder ones. I did the performance based questions LAST.

Hopefully this helps!
Cheers!
Shonn

AntWrig

Does anyone else think those videos are a bit short?

alfred06

Subscribe to CBT Nugget for a week free. that should be enough time for you to watch all the Security+ Videos. also print out the Exam Objective. Answer the exam objectives. CompTIA detailed all the things you need to know for the exam. Good Luck.