PASSED....

AirborneDude

Hello all,
Took the test on Friday, Aug. 15th. Passed with an 865.

What worked for me as far as studying was reading Passport and going through a Bootcamp last week. It started on the Aug 11. 8 hours in class, 5 hours a night of studying using COMPTIA's Security+ book for cert prepartion.

The first 2 days of the class was just slides and lecture, Wednesday and Thursday was 1/2 slides and lecture and 1/2 days of studying in class on our own in study groups, Friday morning was study groups and we had a classroom Jeapordy Security+ which really made the last day good and took the stress off thinking of the test. At 3pm on Friday we tested.

We got homework every night. The school also supplied us with a Virtual PC imagine of XP that was loaded with 5 different practice exams from different vendors, their slides, COMPTIA Security articles, preparing from the exam, what to expect from bootcamp...etc... The vendor for the school also give us their practice exams which helped a lot. I used their exams and another one and kept going through them and what I got wrong, I would research in COMTIA's prep exam book.

I am a developer, not a network guy. If I can do it, any of you can to. I am not a brain, I usually freak out before the test with nervousness. So don't fear, study, study, study....

I would like to get A+ and network+ now. I figured, why not... but need to wait about 3 weeks and rest. I am worn out from the Security+ bootcamp. Feel's good to be done with it though.

dynamik

That sounds like a pretty thorough boot camp. Who offered it?

Congratulations on the pass.

Are you looking to get out of development or are you going to be working on related projects?

AirborneDude

The school that did the bootcamp was Vigilar Inc. Here is the website http://www.intenseschool.com/

I highly recommend this school. I didn't have any experience working in a server room. I have setup networks in the past with Novell and NT 4.0 and Windows 2k, but I didn't know how to secure a server really.

My experience is very minimal with Networking, like I said, I just write code.

The reason I got this cert was because I work on a military base as a contractor. The Department of Defense requires all IT people working with Admin rights on the network be certified. All my coworkers were/are worried about this. Basically our company said if you don't get the cert, you might come up on the layoff list if defense cuts come. So we all were really under the gun to get the cert. Although, I did inform my management I didn't need my admin account and could develop all my projects on an "offline" network and then just hand my software to the admins to deploy it. But they said no and that we have to get it. It was scary but I pulled through and it was like a big weight lifted off me when I got the cert. It was a lot of hard work through the bootcamp, but I just stayed motivated and got it. Plus our company paid for it, so hey, free training and a cert at the end of the training.

So to answer your other question: No, I don't plan to ever work in network security or be a network administrator. Everyone is telling us it is a good cert to get as a backup if we ever want to get out of writing code.

AirborneDude

Hey dynamik,
I am a Linux user and a big fan of Linux, even though I am forced to write software in .NET, I don't really like Microsoft. I have 6 Linux machines at home and just love Linux.

So my question to you is: How hard was Linux+ cert and how were your books and study habits to get the Linux+ cert. I would like to get it just to learn more about Linux and have it as a backup.


Thanks...

dynamik

Here's my pass post: http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36137

Just load up a distro or two and play around with it. I used the McGraw Hill book, which was good, but I probably should have added the Linux+ In Depth book as well. A big part of the exam is memorizing commands and switches, so just load it up and start playing around.

AirborneDude

COOL!!!

I just took the techexams.com test and passed with just the knowledge I have...


I will start researching this.


Thanks for the info...

shednik

congrats on the pass!!

NetAdmin2436

Congrats on the pass.

bubble2005

Way to go. Oh yeah, I did boot camp as well.

astorrs

Congrats on the pass!

AirborneDude

THanks everyone!!!

I think if you aren't familiar with something (Like I was) boot camps are the way to go.

Thanks again for all the support, this website helped also with me getting the cert.