Security+ Exam: No Experience

Hi,

What's the level of difficulty of the Security+ exam?
Is it harder than Network+ ?

I have NEVER taken A+ or Network+ exam. However, I have taken many courses in University related to Business and IT related courses.

I have no industry experience. But I'm willing to buy a Security+ textbook and spend 1 year reading the book and take the exam next year.

I just don't know where to start. And I don't think A+ or Network+ is worth taking.

Any advice or suggestion is appreciated.

Thanks

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dynamik

The A+ might help you land an entry-level job, but it's not going to help you with the Security+. You should have a decent handle on basic networking concepts, so if you're a bit shaky on those you might want to pick up a Network+ book, even if you don't want to take the actual exam.

The Security+ has a higher passing score than the Linux+, A+, or Network+, so I guess that increase the difficultly a bit. The real difficultly stems from the breadth of the material. You're going to be learning about a lot of different things. However, I didn't feel like any of the items were really difficult themselves.

You could probably knock this out in a few months if you wanted to. I spent a month on mine. This book should get you started. That's a relatively cheap download directly from them, but you can also get a hard copy from Amazon or other bookstore.

laptop

Thanks for the response.
I should probably take Network+ before I pursue the Security+ exam.

sir_creamy_

As a general rule, never spend more than 1 month studying for a CompTIA "exam".

You should have minimal difficulty with Security+ if you've taken university-level courses.

dynamik

sir_creamy_ wrote:

As a general rule, never spend more than 1 month studying for a CompTIA "exam".

You should have minimal difficulty with Security+ if you've taken university-level courses.

No CompTIA thread is complete until you come in and rain all over their programs

However (and to be fair), the amount of time it takes to prepare for an exam does depend a great deal on previous experience. I don't think any of the material in the Network+ is difficult, but it would be a lot to take in for someone who has never manually configured a NIC before.

There's also a lot of things, such as Family, work, school, etc. that can eat into people's time. Everyone's experiences and schedule are different, so I wouldn't try to set a strict time limit, especially since this is your first exam. However, I do think a year is a bit excessive for most circumstances.

Daniel333

laptop,

I don't believe Security+ is a good place to start. It builds on a lot of fundamentals that are fully covered better and more practically by other exam paths.

Depending on your path you want in your IT career here are better starting point you might want to research.

Networking -
CCENT

Administration -
A+ or Linux+

Database -
MCITP - SQL Server 2005

Just some thoughts...

Vogon Poet

Daniel333 wrote:

I don't believe Security+ is a good place to start. It builds on a lot of fundamentals that are fully covered better and more practically by other exam paths.

Exactly. You should have a handle on some networking fundamentals such as ports, directory services, access controls, etc., in order for the info to have any use for you. It really depends which certification path you ultimately want to go with. Or if you're looking for only one cert, I don't think Sec+ will really be much help to you.

laptop

You are right. I should start at a beginner level.

My goal is to become a junior security analyst when I graduate next year.

Would you suggest me to start off with Network+ then Security+ ??

or

A+ then Network+ then Security+ ?

Thanks

nicklauscombs

laptop wrote:

You are right. I should start at a beginner level.

My goal is to become a junior security analyst when I graduate next year.

Would you suggest me to start off with Network+ then Security+ ??

or

A+ then Network+ then Security+ ?

Thanks

I think you should buy some A+ and Network+ books, if the material seems ridiculously easy to you then do a little preparing, go knock out the tests and move onto security+, if the material is over your head you know you have some learning to do

shednik

nicklauscombs wrote:

I think you should buy some A+ and Network+ books, if the material seems ridiculously easy to you then do a little preparing, go knock out the tests and move onto security+, if the material is over your head you know you have some learning to do

goforthbmerry

I think with your goals, you don't absolutely need A+. However, at the entry level, A+ helps more to get the first IT job. If you will have a college degree, it may not be as important. HR people are usually impressed more by degrees than maybe they should be.

Just my opinion

coffeeking

laptop wrote:

My goal is to become a junior security analyst when I graduate next year.

Thanks

I am working as a Jr. Informations security officer, so I relate to your desired profession. A serious advice, do not take security+ as your first cert. I did that last year before I was getting into this job, I had no industry experience as well, it seemed easy but I failed it. Didn't really have a clue what I was getting into. It requires you to have built your basis through other certs; Network+, CCENT. You will pick up a lot of stuff and learn about it in Security+ but you won't have a good idea of how it exactly works, at least that is what it was in my case. I have put the Security+ on hold for right now and am pursuing CCNA first and I already have good feeling that I will pass security+ next time I take it. They recommend that you have 2 years of experience before you take Security+, you don't really need that much but definetly a bit of it at least. I have been at my job for little over 2 months now and already have a good feeling about passing the security+ now, since I have had a good exposure to security stuff.

Good luck with your goals, it is a great proffession to be in.

KMYost

The Security+ definitely builds on the Network+. Also be aware that the Security+ exam just changed in December and now covers more linux and cloud-based stuff than it used to.

Bill3rdshift

nicklauscombs wrote: »

I think you should buy some A+ and Network+ books, if the material seems ridiculously easy to you then do a little preparing, go knock out the tests and move onto security+, if the material is over your head you know you have some learning to do

Best advice!!

joshmadakor

sir_creamy_ wrote: »

As a general rule, never spend more than 1 month studying for a CompTIA "exam".

You should have minimal difficulty with Security+ if you've taken university-level courses.

I know what you're trying to say here, but I would probably equate that in hours instead of days.
For example: I studied for and passed Security+ in about 2 weeks, but i studied probably about 6 hours a day.

As for the difficulty level, Security+ was more difficult than Network+, which was more difficult than A+. To study, I used Darril Gibson's book as well as Transcender and passed with a score of ~850.

Wipwire

Generally speaking the Security + exam tends to be focused more on port numbers, SSH, SSL the difference between physical and virtual security, the simulations are quite basic in their approach, however you shouldn't spend too much time on these as you only have 90 mins to answer all 66 questions.

PS. If you do have any time up your sleeve after you answer all the questions, go back and take another look at the questions you're not sure about.
DON'T second guess yourself, majority of the time the first answer you select is the correct one!

OctalDump

If you are reasonably IT fluent eg you can describe the layers of the IT stack, use a couple of operating systems, troubleshoot basic problems, perhaps a smattering of programming and basic server configuration, then you could jump into Security+.
Network+ is more relevant to Security+ than A+ is.

Honestly, if you do have the IT skill and a reasonable brain you could study for it in a couple of weeks, even without experience.

Ekwuruibe Marshal

Having a vast networking knowledge will get u into security+. I suggest u do network+ or ccna