Passed CSA + Today

fire692

Passed this morning barely by several questions.

Lets just say that my study habits are not the greatest and I procrastinated toward almost losing my NW+ and Sec+ that would have expired tomorrow. I'm around 50 y/o and I work on the Infrastructure and Server side of things for a living. I started off with A+ in 1999 and I've challenged myself to take another certification every couple of years.

The only advice I can extract from my exam experience this morning is to "know how to read different logs".

Time studying: I started dabbling in July and then really spent the last two weeks at 6-8 hours a day using:

1. Sybex CSA+ Study Guide by authors David Seidl and Mike Chapple:
I had a very hard time with this material in mostly because the subject matter was very "dry" and the digital format (Kindle) was unappealing. I wound up simply extracting each chapter's review questions and exercises and creating PDF review sheets that my poor wife continuously quizzed me on. I paid around $35 for digital content on Amazon.

2. 2.uCertify CSA+ : Cybersecurity Analyst+ (CSA+) CS0-001 Test Prep, Exam simulation,Practice Questions -uCertify
I really only used the test questions and quizzes (Test Prep) from uCertify. I really liked the apps uCertify providided here for the iPhone - iPad. Very easy to run through practice questions/answers on the PC as well. I paid $98 last month for the Lessons and Test Prep with a discount code that may have been mentioned here (not sure).

3. CyberSec First Responder (Exam CFR-210) with CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst+ (Exam CS0-001) LogicalLAB
CyberSec First Responder (Exam CFR-210) with CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst+ (Exam CS0-001) LogicalLAB
I found this last Monday evening and for $75, I believe this may have been the tool(s) that got me over the finish line.

4. Tech Exams > Forums > Other CompTIA Certifications (Edit)
I need give credit where is truly due. I would not have had the drive or success without the invaluable resources provided by this site and it's contributing members.

Not sure if I am going to do CASP but I sure will be working on CEU's for the next couple of years : ) .

Many Thanks!

palmett0

Congrats Fire!

I'm in a similar boat in that I have a goal for myself to try to knock out a new cert every so often for the CEUs, along with the knowledge and resume enhancement prepping for these exams come with.
I just picked up CSA+ AIO book last week and am slowly getting into it.
I ran through some sample questions on the included CD and noticed there were quite a few questions that made you examine a pcap.

CSA+ is next on my list while I also passively read the AIO CISSP beast of a book.