Passed Sec + 501!! Thoughts and Inputs

heezyhuynh404

I had to make this post because everyone on this forum helped me so much! Today I passed my Sec+ 501 on the first try. A little background and current situation. I am a deployed soldier currently overseas in the middle east. I work over 60 hours a week and most of my studying happens at night after duty hours. I work out here in Iraq as a IMO (information management officer) where I do basic IT troubleshooting and help desk related work. I work with IT contractors who have taught me some things that related very much to the exam, like working with Active Directory, granting network folder permissions, principles of least privilege, AUP, setting up computers for baselining, ETC. I'm also a college student majoring in Information Technology where my concentration is Software Development. Now, what I used and do to prepare for the exam.

1. Darril Gibson Get Ahead and Get Certified, read and did all pre-exam, chapter exams, and post exams, and read all definitions
2. Bought Darril Gibson Security + App for IOS
3. Watched all Professor Messer Videos
4. Watched 60% of Mike Myers Security + course on Udemy
5. Watched all videos on FedVTE on a Security + course taught at Carnegie Mellon University (Only for Military) 
6. Completed MeasureUp exams (Free for Military)
7. Used power point lecture slides covering each objective that I have obtained from soldiers who went to a Sec+ course in Kuwait
8. Listened to Darril Gibson Audio files
9. TestEngine simulator tool obtained by my IT Professor
10. Bunch of practice exams found on google
11. Bought Messer notes

While taking the exam, I honestly felt like I was dominating and killing the exam because I felt so over prepared, I honestly never passed the MeasureUp exam, I scored about 75% on the Gibson exams, every practice exam I found online and other resource I passed with about 70-75%. Me personally, I just cannot remember EVERYTHING, but I remember enough to use process of elimination. Again, I truly felt like I was dominating and killing the exam but I ended up scoring a 764/900 , I barely passed and I was shocked. The exam had 85 questions 5 performance based questions and many scenario based questions. I never got a question about ports, or anything relating to software development topics, nothing about hot, cold, warm sites, nothing on stateless and stateful firewalls, the exam was so heavily focused on Cryptography and PKI. Know the difference between RADIUS and TACAS+, understand EAP,EAP-FAST, EAP-TLS, etc. I started studying in Sept 2018 , finished the Gibson book in about 3 weeks and that laid down my foundation, honestly, if you remember everything in the Gibson book, you will pass this exam, the book literally covers everything I mean EVERYTHING! Good luck to everyone! 

heezyhuynh404

I’m shooting for CCNA Routing and Switching! 

heezyhuynh404

I plan to come back out into the middle east as a contractor in networking admin related duties, it’s super awesome and fun 

sensitivestoic

Congratulations on passing the 501!

haku

Congratulations! Mate

jacky6

Congrats on passing the exam!! You gave me so much insight on this exam and better ways for me to prepare, I was also supposed to serve in January (I live in the middle east), but since I have time, I can take this exam and hopefully many more. Good luck buddy and thank you.

averageguy72

Congrats!

Domm362

Congrats on your pass! I'm studying for the Security+ as well and this post is incredibly insightful!

scaredoftests

Congrats to you!!

ITStudent1

Congratulations.

atejeda03

Congrats on the pass! Im also studying for the exam out here in Kuwait. I downloaded multiple study guides, bought the book you mentioned, currently watching professor messer 140 videos, doing quizzes on exam compass and the FEDVTE practice course. I want to take the exam in less than 45 days. 
Do you recommend finishing one mode of instruction first? because i’m going through all of them, different sections at a time. 

heezyhuynh404

atejeda03 said:

Congrats on the pass! Im also studying for the exam out here in Kuwait. I downloaded multiple study guides, bought the book you mentioned, currently watching professor messer 140 videos, doing quizzes on exam compass and the FEDVTE practice course. I want to take the exam in less than 45 days. 
Do you recommend finishing one mode of instruction first? because i’m going through all of them, different sections at a time. 

Go through all of it , if you start with the book, complete the book, if you move in to FEDVTE, complete it, don’t mix it all up, i gaurantee you will pass, look into the Signal University at Arifjan!

atejeda03

I’ll focus on the videos for now since the book hasn’t arrived. the fedvte are so time consuming but they fill the gaps professormesser skips through. are the questions in domain order or are they just all over the place? 

i checked with the signal U but they don’t offer the training course to contractors. 

heezyhuynh404

PM me your personal email address and I'll send you some material I got from the course and some other resources I used, I'll send it tomorrow when I get into the office

DavidNichols

atejeda03 said:

I’ll focus on the videos for now since the book hasn’t arrived. the fedvte are so time consuming but they fill the gaps professormesser skips through. are the questions in domain order or are they just all over the place? 

i checked with the signal U but they don’t offer the training course to contractors. 

That's great to know that the Fedvte fills in holes from Professor Messer. I've been studying and making sure I do the labs from this book: Security+ by Darril Gibson. Huh. Until I pulled up my Amazon library I was thinking I really ought to check this Darril Gibson out! LOL

When it comes to Professor Messer. I don't try to listen to them all. I try to listen to the ones that I don't have a firm grasp on during my commute. I repeat that until it's a waste of time.

I personally can't stand just studying "one topic" or one source so I jump around from who I'm getting it from. Maybe being more focuses as it's suggested here would be faster, but I think it's like exercising. Keep changing how it's coming at you or your muscles will get efficient at what they're doing without getting as strong. That said. I do stick with whichever source I'm studying hitting something and again until I have it down. Often Professor Messer is used to review whatever I went over. Same with Kaplan.

I'm speaking just as someone who just passed the first half of A+, but I'm in a security+ class so I have to spend some time in it, even if Net+ is my primary study at this time.

D20

Congrats on passing!!! I'm currently studying for this certification.

nisti2

Congrats on the pass! 

gjminer

Thanks for the Tips

annamae

Congratulations! As the first person stated, a pass is a pass. The certificate that you get will look just like everyone else's.

shhhpark

heezyhuynh404 said:

I had to make this post because everyone on this forum helped me so much! Today I passed my Sec+ 501 on the first try. A little background and current situation. I am a deployed soldier currently overseas in the middle east. I work over 60 hours a week and most of my studying happens at night after duty hours. I work out here in Iraq as a IMO (information management officer) where I do basic IT troubleshooting and help desk related work. I work with IT contractors who have taught me some things that related very much to the exam, like working with Active Directory, granting network folder permissions, principles of least privilege, AUP, setting up computers for baselining, ETC. I'm also a college student majoring in Information Technology where my concentration is Software Development. Now, what I used and do to prepare for the exam.

1. Darril Gibson Get Ahead and Get Certified, read and did all pre-exam, chapter exams, and post exams, and read all definitions
2. Bought Darril Gibson Security + App for IOS
3. Watched all Professor Messer Videos
4. Watched 60% of Mike Myers Security + course on Udemy
5. Watched all videos on FedVTE on a Security + course taught at Carnegie Mellon University (Only for Military) 
6. Completed MeasureUp exams (Free for Military)
7. Used power point lecture slides covering each objective that I have obtained from soldiers who went to a Sec+ course in Kuwait
8. Listened to Darril Gibson Audio files
9. TestEngine simulator tool obtained by my IT Professor
10. Bunch of practice exams found on google
11. Bought Messer notes

While taking the exam, I honestly felt like I was dominating and killing the exam because I felt so over prepared, I honestly never passed the MeasureUp exam, I scored about 75% on the Gibson exams, every practice exam I found online and other resource I passed with about 70-75%. Me personally, I just cannot remember EVERYTHING, but I remember enough to use process of elimination. Again, I truly felt like I was dominating and killing the exam but I ended up scoring a 764/900 , I barely passed and I was shocked. The exam had 85 questions 5 performance based questions and many scenario based questions. I never got a question about ports, or anything relating to software development topics, nothing about hot, cold, warm sites, nothing on stateless and stateful firewalls, the exam was so heavily focused on Cryptography and PKI. Know the difference between RADIUS and TACAS+, understand EAP,EAP-FAST, EAP-TLS, etc. I started studying in Sept 2018 , finished the Gibson book in about 3 weeks and that laid down my foundation, honestly, if you remember everything in the Gibson book, you will pass this exam, the book literally covers everything I mean EVERYTHING! Good luck to everyone! 

man I'm extremely nervous as I'm taking the exam tomorrow and even though i passed most of the measureup stuff I was right on the edge.  Did you have a lot of questions on command line tools and their specific switches?  I dont know if i should last minute cram the switches even though I know the tools itself.  My mind is racing right now knowing im taking it in less than 24 hours...

Dakinggamer87

Congrats!!

heezyhuynh404

shhhpark said:

heezyhuynh404 said:

I had to make this post because everyone on this forum helped me so much! Today I passed my Sec+ 501 on the first try. A little background and current situation. I am a deployed soldier currently overseas in the middle east. I work over 60 hours a week and most of my studying happens at night after duty hours. I work out here in Iraq as a IMO (information management officer) where I do basic IT troubleshooting and help desk related work. I work with IT contractors who have taught me some things that related very much to the exam, like working with Active Directory, granting network folder permissions, principles of least privilege, AUP, setting up computers for baselining, ETC. I'm also a college student majoring in Information Technology where my concentration is Software Development. Now, what I used and do to prepare for the exam.

1. Darril Gibson Get Ahead and Get Certified, read and did all pre-exam, chapter exams, and post exams, and read all definitions
2. Bought Darril Gibson Security + App for IOS
3. Watched all Professor Messer Videos
4. Watched 60% of Mike Myers Security + course on Udemy
5. Watched all videos on FedVTE on a Security + course taught at Carnegie Mellon University (Only for Military) 
6. Completed MeasureUp exams (Free for Military)
7. Used power point lecture slides covering each objective that I have obtained from soldiers who went to a Sec+ course in Kuwait
8. Listened to Darril Gibson Audio files
9. TestEngine simulator tool obtained by my IT Professor
10. Bunch of practice exams found on google
11. Bought Messer notes

While taking the exam, I honestly felt like I was dominating and killing the exam because I felt so over prepared, I honestly never passed the MeasureUp exam, I scored about 75% on the Gibson exams, every practice exam I found online and other resource I passed with about 70-75%. Me personally, I just cannot remember EVERYTHING, but I remember enough to use process of elimination. Again, I truly felt like I was dominating and killing the exam but I ended up scoring a 764/900 , I barely passed and I was shocked. The exam had 85 questions 5 performance based questions and many scenario based questions. I never got a question about ports, or anything relating to software development topics, nothing about hot, cold, warm sites, nothing on stateless and stateful firewalls, the exam was so heavily focused on Cryptography and PKI. Know the difference between RADIUS and TACAS+, understand EAP,EAP-FAST, EAP-TLS, etc. I started studying in Sept 2018 , finished the Gibson book in about 3 weeks and that laid down my foundation, honestly, if you remember everything in the Gibson book, you will pass this exam, the book literally covers everything I mean EVERYTHING! Good luck to everyone! 

man I'm extremely nervous as I'm taking the exam tomorrow and even though i passed most of the measureup stuff I was right on the edge.  Did you have a lot of questions on command line tools and their specific switches?  I dont know if i should last minute cram the switches even though I know the tools itself.  My mind is racing right now knowing im taking it in less than 24 hours...

Did you pass? lol