Passed CSA+ !
Hello Friends,
I passed CompTIA CSA+ today! Am I happy? YES!
Only I, Mr. Geelo will give you the "real deal".
First to note:
1) This is NOT an easy exam, any one who gives the "illusion" that it is, is not relaying to YOU.. the real true facts.
2) The majority of book vendors / courseware vendors "DO NOT" have 100% accurate info in regards to "all the domains / objective" that this exam covers. The "lessons learned" here.. is sometimes it's better to wait a bit longer to get more metrics on who has the best learning material "WHEN" that material is available.
What I used in studying:
1) GTSLearning Book and Live Labs (they use practice-labs.com .. seems like a lot of courseware vendors do).
2) Sybex CSA+ Study Guide by authors David Seidl and Mike Chapple
3) Skillsoft CompTIA Cyber Security Analyst video course by instructor Dan LaChance
What you need to know:
1) At the time that I write this, read and study from multiple vendors/book publishers because again.. I do "not" feel like there is a "one stop" learning course/book that covers this exam.. sorry.. but "NO".
2) If you look at the domains / objectives, all of them are almost "equally weighted" percentage wise, so make sure that you are studying it "all" and are good to go. The majority of times, everyone tends to be better in "this domain.. rather then that domain" for an exam.. not the case in this exam.
3) DO NOT, and I repeat DO NOT solely rely on learning THE LABS! There is a lot of talk, about how you really need "ON HANDS LIVE LABS" for this certification (and others) going forward. Trust me, LEARN THE DOMAINS and OBJECTIVES first.. really well, then play around with the labs to get a "little bit" of on hands experience.
This REALLY IS a great certification to get, it is NOT a beginners certification but it is very much worth getting for defense SOC job roles and incident handling. Certainly will be DoDD 8750/8140 approved soon as well.
I hope that helps you guys out.. I am not a young guy.. I'm an old guy.. over 25+ years in Information Services.
I passed CompTIA CSA+ today! Am I happy? YES!
Only I, Mr. Geelo will give you the "real deal".
First to note:
1) This is NOT an easy exam, any one who gives the "illusion" that it is, is not relaying to YOU.. the real true facts.
2) The majority of book vendors / courseware vendors "DO NOT" have 100% accurate info in regards to "all the domains / objective" that this exam covers. The "lessons learned" here.. is sometimes it's better to wait a bit longer to get more metrics on who has the best learning material "WHEN" that material is available.
What I used in studying:
1) GTSLearning Book and Live Labs (they use practice-labs.com .. seems like a lot of courseware vendors do).
2) Sybex CSA+ Study Guide by authors David Seidl and Mike Chapple
3) Skillsoft CompTIA Cyber Security Analyst video course by instructor Dan LaChance
What you need to know:
1) At the time that I write this, read and study from multiple vendors/book publishers because again.. I do "not" feel like there is a "one stop" learning course/book that covers this exam.. sorry.. but "NO".
2) If you look at the domains / objectives, all of them are almost "equally weighted" percentage wise, so make sure that you are studying it "all" and are good to go. The majority of times, everyone tends to be better in "this domain.. rather then that domain" for an exam.. not the case in this exam.
3) DO NOT, and I repeat DO NOT solely rely on learning THE LABS! There is a lot of talk, about how you really need "ON HANDS LIVE LABS" for this certification (and others) going forward. Trust me, LEARN THE DOMAINS and OBJECTIVES first.. really well, then play around with the labs to get a "little bit" of on hands experience.
This REALLY IS a great certification to get, it is NOT a beginners certification but it is very much worth getting for defense SOC job roles and incident handling. Certainly will be DoDD 8750/8140 approved soon as well.
I hope that helps you guys out.. I am not a young guy.. I'm an old guy.. over 25+ years in Information Services.
Vendor Neutral Certified in IT Project Management, Security, Servers, Workstations, Software, Networking, Windows, Unix and Linux and.. Cloud. :-)
Comments
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p@r0tuXus
Member Posts: 532 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congratulations!Completed: ITIL-F, A+, S+, CCENT, CCNA R|S
In Progress: Linux+/LPIC-1, Python, Bash
Upcoming: eJPT, C|EH, CSA+, CCNA-Sec, PA-ACE -
GeeLo
Member Posts: 112 ■■■■□□□□□□
Vendor Neutral Certified in IT Project Management, Security, Servers, Workstations, Software, Networking, Windows, Unix and Linux and.. Cloud. :-) -
palmett0
Member Posts: 19 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congratulations and thanks for the info.
I just picked up the AIO CSA+ exam guide by Maymi and Chapman this week and did ran through one of the practice quizzes on the CD. I was surprised at how many "simulation like" questions were in the quiz. I don't want you to give away any exam content, but if you could ballpark a percentage of questions in that format what would you put it at? -
trojin
Member Posts: 275 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congratulations for the achievement GeeLo but do not overestimate this exam.
Its fun but still is completely not recognized
I would advice you CCNA Cyber OPS - very similar and different is same time.
I found Cisco course more interesting and related to everyday workI'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry
xx+ certs...and I'm not counting anymore -
Gago77
Member Posts: 29 ■□□□□□□□□□
I totally agree with GeeLo 100%. It is not an easy exam. I passed a few weeks ago with a 768. If you have access to skillsoft use it. His voice sounds dry at times to me but he does break things down nicely. The Sybex book as well as their practice test helped me a lot. Utilize them, I can't stress this enough. Like every other COMPTIA exam, trim the fat and understand what the actual question is. Good Luck to anyone pursuing this certification. -
rev_pt
Member Posts: 5 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats Bro...
Im an old guy too looking to take this exam... 22+ years in IT... was supposed to take it today but realised earlier that the hands on wasn't there... got access to practice-labs... using GTS-Learning and Sybex... lets see how it goes... Giving labs one month to sink in...
