I decided on Wednesday of this week that I needed to get moving on certifications again after spending a lot of time the past few months working non-stop without any time to study. I decided to take Security+ as an easy one to things rolling again for me and scheduled it last Wednesday for today (Monday). I didn't get a chance to start preparing until 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. I read straight throug the Sybex book and all of the Security+ Technotes as my only reference material. Most of it was review of things I was familiar with especially after the CISSP exam I took last September. A lot of the inforation for the exam was highly dated and definitely needed an update. After reading the Technotes and Sybex book I took the practice quizzes here at
www.techexams.net and then took the practice quizzes on the CD enclosed with the Sybex book. After scoring 29/30, 96/100, and 97/100 on the Sybex CD questions I was fairly confident going into the exam on Monday.
I tried to call the testing center scheduled the exam with using the phone number I recieved from Pearson Vue's site and found it to be disonnected. I was planning to call and find out about parking since I was taking the exam down-town and wanted to know the best place to park. This concernd me a bit so I gave myself some extra time to get there. I played it safe and parked in the large lot at the Mellon Arena and walked a few blocks to the testing center. I arrived at the building at 12:20 p.m. for a 1:00 p.m. test and had trouble getting buzzed into the building due to a poor sound system for the connection to the front door. It took until 12:32 to get in the front door to the building and the I proceed to the floor where the test center was located after a quick stop in the bathroom. When I arrived there was not a person to be found anywhere in the test center. I rang the buzzer which clearly sounded throughout the building and nobody answered. Ater waiting until about 12:45 p.m. and hitting the buzzer 5 times I took a walk through and found nobody in any of the offices on this floor. I saw someone get off the elavator and asked about it and he mentioned the guy who ran the test center was likely downstairs as he usually was and would tell him I was here. The guy came back up and mentioned he told him. It took another 5 minutes for the person in charge of the test center to arrive. I provided my ID and signed the required paperwork and began taking my exam.
The exam itself was fairly straightforward without many major surpises. There were at least 7-8 questions that I felt were very poorly worded considering the answer choices provided and wasn't sure if I had them correct primarily for this reason. Ultimately I finished the exam in 32 minutes (not incuding time to read the opening disclaimer and take the short survey after the exam). Upon finishing it the computer provided me with my passing score of 847. I would have hoped for a higher score but was satisfied considering my limited study time of reading through the book/technotes and taking those short practice tests.
During the test nobody checked in on me in my room so I am hoping there was a hidden camera as I was in a room by myself. I could my paperwork printed on the printer out in the hallway and waited a minute without anyone coming in. I stuck my head out the door and noticed not one person was in the testing center other than me taking my test. I waited about 5 minutes and the guy came back up and congratulated me on my pass. I commented on his hair since I noticed it was shorter than when I began my test. He said someone that works downstairs cuts his hair for him so he doesn't have to pay for a haircut. I was very dissapointed with my experience at this testing center that is used both by Prometric and Vue for a number of exams. I express my concerns about the incorrectly listed phone number, access to the building, and lack of service (and probable lack of moderation) while I was there.
Next I will be likely be going down the Juniper track since I am starting to work with Juniper Firewalls, IDP, and VPN solutions. Also on my list for certifications to take soon is CEH. There is only one other testing center fairly close by in Pittsburgh that I can use for these exams that I saw through Vue but if it is as bad as this one I might start travelling a bit further for my exam. If anyone from Pittsburgh can recommend a good test center please let me know. At least the testing computer didn't crash like some of the other reports I heard on these boards.
