Security+ - I'll have one of those please.

curio

Took Security+ this morning and I have to disagree with almost everything I have heard about it - it isn't that difficult (took about 25 mins) and doesn't go into much depth. Perhaps I was lucky with the questions but I defininely didn't need to study as deep as I did (Chinese Wall, Bell La Padula(she's my baby), Kerberos, Algorithm key lengths and block sizes). The questions in the Prep Logic practice exam were harder than the Qs in the exam. The Microsoft book goes well beyond what you need to know as well, no mention of kerberos, secure ldap, three pronged firewalls or many other things in my exam. I scored 884 which seems a bit odd because there are 100 questions and 882 would equate to 98 correct whereas 884 = 98.2. Perhaps they gave me an extra 0.2 Geek Points - woohoo!!

RussS

Congrats curio. Like all exams it is the luck of the draw with the questions. However it has been proven that there are invalid questions in the pool - plus ones that have more than one correct answer.

curio

Forgot to mention - but one thing that worried me before the exam was the thought of having 100 long scenario questions like the MS 218 exam type questions. They aren't like that they are just like

Q) What type of algorithm is RSA

a1) Volkswagen
a2) Chocolate Trifle
a3) symmetric
a4) assymmetric

( this isn't a braindump )

cheeblie

Just to let you know curio, you don't have MCSA:Security. http://www.microsoft.com/Traincert/mcp/mcsa/security/windows2000.asp You have to pass 2 security specialization tests and Security+ only counts for 70-227. You now need to pass 70-214. I may be mistaken and Security+ counts for both exams. I would be very happy in that case, because I too would be MCSA:Security. If I don't have to take 70-214, that would be very nice. Although, 70-220 is the one I'm really worried about.

Cheeblie

jrowe

I may be mistaken and Security+ counts for both exams.

Your not mistaken, you right in what you say.

he needs 70-214 to be MCSA:Security

Security+ can only be used in place of 70:227, so as he has got security+ he doesn't need 70:227

curio

I will check that out - my understanding was that it counted for both.

curio

Yes you are quite right and I will amend my Certs. I can honestly say that if I had known that I would never have taken it, I would have preferred to save a load of money and do the 2 MS certs in the first place.

rcoop

curio,

First, fantastic score. I took and passed the exam just over a week ago (8/29), and I had Bell La Padula, Kerberos, and LDAP (the question had references to two port numbers, thus it was assumed that Secure LDAP was known) questions on my exams. It was also pretty heavy with key exchanges and PKI, although I had seen a post saying it was light in that area for them. I must of had 4 or 5 questions alone on IPSec.

You obviously knew pretty much everything that was thrown at you though, and I have to agree on the question structure being pretty simple compared to the MS exams and even Network+. My recommendation for anyone taking this test is to study, I definitely had plenty of questions in each of the objectives, so spend time in those areas you don't already have down with experience.

I am glad to see the clarification on the MS Security specialty for MCSA & MCSE certs. I wasn't sure what was required, but knew my current path would take me close.

Take Care,
--rcoop