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.
