Mike Meyers' Security+ Certification Passport

Ghent

After hearing all the horror stories about Security+, I was wondering if anyone had tried Mike Meyers' Security+ Certification Passport. I loved his A+, and heard some issues about his Net+, so I was wondering how well he did on Security+.

RussS

ummmm - muh mommy always told me that if I can't say anything good to keep my mouth shut

Actually this one isn't written by Mike and in my opinion it shows.

Ghent

So is Myer's just selling his name out to other people's books now? After looking a little more on bn.com I found a Server+ book that was done the same way. Myer's name is in the title, but he's not the author. Kind of some tricky marketing.

ajs1976

I think he wrote the A+ Passport with Tracey Rosenblath. the other books just have his name in the title and someone else wrote the book.

I used them for the Net+ exam and for AD exam. they were OK, but I would recommended avoiding them, if the Passport books is going to be your only source.

janmike

I have been looking at Security+ books. Amazon has really good reviews on Security+ Study Guide and DVD Training System. It has multi-authors shown(6 of 'em), so could be a good thing with that much brain power involved.

rcoop

Ghent,

I started with the Security+ Certification Passport, and it was probably my primary 'reading' material, as I actually read the book cover-to-cover. I had other references and actually had taken a college class on computer security, so I felt I was ready... then I took the practice test on here for the first time. Needless to say my initial score and some of the comments on this board regarding the Sec+, made me to decide I needed to be sure I wasn't going to be spending another $225 because I wasn't properly prepared the first time. I ended up purchasing the Que Exam Cram2 Security+ book, mainly because of the included PrepLogic practice exam, the two additional 125 question in-text practice exams, the discount voucher offer on the inside back cover, and the fact that it had the CompTIA Authorized Curriculum logo on it. For the $30 it was just what I needed... and although I hit a few of the chapters that I don't have much hands-on experience with pretty thoroughly, I pretty much relied upon the Sec+ Passport book for the meat of test objectives.

Here is IMHO review of the Passport Book:

It was written by Trevor Kay, not Mike Myers (he's not even the technical editor on it), like many of the Certification Passport series books. If you like Mike Myers as a certification writer, it isn't a reason to get this book.

I like the Passport format in general (better than my experience with ExamCram and others), but I don't believe the book alone (along with its' two ExamWeb practice exams that look so nice while book shopping) are enough to pass the exam, unless you have a pretty good understanding of many of the exam objectives beforehand.

I believe the book was written before the exam was out of beta. It seems to be shallow in a few areas, whereas in others it was very adequate for passing the exam.

So far, out of BFQ, TestOut, PrepLogic, ExamWeb, Boson, TechExams.net, Cert21, and the original ExamCram practice tests, I like ExamWeb's the least. Mainly due to not being able to sit down and take a test quiz of a variable number of questions (Thanks Webmaster for adding that feature here!), so I don't have to spend 20-30 minutes in front of the computer, when I only have 15. The interface looks nice, the controls are a bit small and at the top of the engine (which seems a little misplaced to me). The content of the questions weren't bad, and there was only one or two questions (per practice test) that I would dispute the answer (or the wording of the question) on... that would still be less than I would for the actual exam itself.

What I like best about the book is the Passport format mainly, the estimated time for completion for each chapter, and the Checkpoint and Review Q&A sections. I'm hopeful that Osborne will put out a Second Edition that adds a bit more content into the book, maybe make Trevor Kay take the current test, and elaborate a bit more on the content of the final released exam, and convince ExamWeb to alter their exam engine to allow test of variable length (and have at least 100 questions in each pool). Then it would definitely be a better resource.

Anyway, good luck... and hope that helps.

Take Care,
rcoop