Passed Today - Advice for others.
Lantzvillian
Member Posts: 24 ■□□□□□□□□□
in Security+
Hello everyone,
Passed today the security+, but I thought others may need a bit of advice on what I used to get 860 and my mindset on studying for exams.
I work for a SCADA security company so I have nothing short of experience since i have worked there nearly 8 months, various computer shops, two years of college in a hands on course called ITAS at a local univeristy and not to mention all the uncounted linux stuff I have been doing for years.
The security+ exam was easy if you know your stuff, but I would study first, re-read something if I didn't understand it and if I didn't get it the third time I just left a postit there as a reminder. Proceeding on I'd read the entire chapter and do the review. I didn't bother to do any of the hands on since I do waaaay more than that stuff at work so I kept going. I didn't do the practive exams until I had finished both books I was planning to read.
I read: Mark Ciampa's Network Security Principles and Syngress Security +(2007 ed).. The Security Principles book was easier to read and i thought provided better explanations on VPN,RAS,PKI, and Certificates. The Syngress did a much better job of the rest, but provided waaay more information and its review questions were god awefull at times and were worse than Comptias. Sure they made me think, but stupid..... (I learned in university if a question is really fracking awefull most profs wouldn't use it, so neither would a company like Comptia, however, this is just how you look at a question and everyones opinon is different)
I then did the practice exams, made notes on areas I needed improvement in, read my postits and notes on techexams. Proprofs notes were complete garbage since they didn't lineup to the material I had read and sure weren't likely to be found on the exam in my opinon. (It is nice to have a third perspecitve I agree, but it was one I could do without)
Since I could be what you call a provincial/state professional competitor for wakeboarding, I also ate my breakfast of champions. Most athlets keep diaries of what they eat for competiton and develop a formula on what makes them have a great day. For me no joke, Mcdonalds BLT and orange juice. Got to the testcenter, read my ntoes for 10 minutes - sicne if u don't know it then, you don't know it all and took the test.
Read each question throughly and you will do fine. Most of the time a first answer you choose is the correct answer.
Thanks,
Ronnie
Passed today the security+, but I thought others may need a bit of advice on what I used to get 860 and my mindset on studying for exams.
I work for a SCADA security company so I have nothing short of experience since i have worked there nearly 8 months, various computer shops, two years of college in a hands on course called ITAS at a local univeristy and not to mention all the uncounted linux stuff I have been doing for years.
The security+ exam was easy if you know your stuff, but I would study first, re-read something if I didn't understand it and if I didn't get it the third time I just left a postit there as a reminder. Proceeding on I'd read the entire chapter and do the review. I didn't bother to do any of the hands on since I do waaaay more than that stuff at work so I kept going. I didn't do the practive exams until I had finished both books I was planning to read.
I read: Mark Ciampa's Network Security Principles and Syngress Security +(2007 ed).. The Security Principles book was easier to read and i thought provided better explanations on VPN,RAS,PKI, and Certificates. The Syngress did a much better job of the rest, but provided waaay more information and its review questions were god awefull at times and were worse than Comptias. Sure they made me think, but stupid..... (I learned in university if a question is really fracking awefull most profs wouldn't use it, so neither would a company like Comptia, however, this is just how you look at a question and everyones opinon is different)
I then did the practice exams, made notes on areas I needed improvement in, read my postits and notes on techexams. Proprofs notes were complete garbage since they didn't lineup to the material I had read and sure weren't likely to be found on the exam in my opinon. (It is nice to have a third perspecitve I agree, but it was one I could do without)
Since I could be what you call a provincial/state professional competitor for wakeboarding, I also ate my breakfast of champions. Most athlets keep diaries of what they eat for competiton and develop a formula on what makes them have a great day. For me no joke, Mcdonalds BLT and orange juice. Got to the testcenter, read my ntoes for 10 minutes - sicne if u don't know it then, you don't know it all and took the test.
Read each question throughly and you will do fine. Most of the time a first answer you choose is the correct answer.
Thanks,
Ronnie
Comments
-
Slowhand
Mod Posts: 5,161 Mod
Congratulations on the pass, and don't forget to update the "Certifications:" section in your profile.
Free Microsoft Training: Microsoft Learn
Free PowerShell Resources: Top PowerShell Blogs
Free DevOps/Azure Resources: Visual Studio Dev Essentials
Let it never be said that I didn't do the very least I could do. -
dynamik
Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
Yea, the downside of Syngress seems to be their review questions. I always skip them and just use Transcender.
Congratulations on the pass and welcome to the forums!
On the the CISSP then?
-
Lantzvillian
Member Posts: 24 ■□□□□□□□□□
Yeah thinking about that or Network+ since it looks easy and network is pretty straight forward for me when compared to industrial stuff :P CISSP looks interesting and so does CEH or CCNP/CCWP. What is better in your guys opinion?
-
dynamik
Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
Depends on your interests. CISSP is more on the managerial side, CEH is more technical (you might be interested in the SSCP as well), and the CCNP is routing and switching. The "best" depends on what you're interested in. Are you referring to the CWNP wireless programs? Cisco doesn't have a CCWP, but it looks like they may add one in the future.
-
Lantzvillian
Member Posts: 24 ■□□□□□□□□□
CISSP I think would be right up my alley. I'm edging towards being able to do independent consulting so having that would be good. However keeping a CISSIP looks like a bit of work with their point system.
Whats the difficulty on the CEH in comparison to CISSIP? -
shednik
Member Posts: 2,005
Congrats on the pass and my vote will always go to the CEH looks like it is the "fun" cert to study for. The CCNA will also be a good one and may help with all the others. -
dynamik
Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
Lantzvillian wrote:CISSP I think would be right up my alley. I'm edging towards being able to do independent consulting so having that would be good. However keeping a CISSIP looks like a bit of work with their point system.
Whats the difficulty on the CEH in comparison to CISSIP?
I don't think maintaining it is that big of a deal as long as you stay on top of it. If you're a security professional, you should be keeping up with things anyway. You can apply podcasts, books, cbts, other certifications, etc. Here are a couple of more ideas: https://www.isc2.org/cgi-bin/content.cgi?page=756
I think the difficulty is going to be based a lot on your past experiences. The CEH is a very technical exam, and if you don't have a lot of experience, say, analyzing log files, you'll have a hard time with that. I think the CISSP is considered difficult no matter what
Good luck and keep us abreast of your progress. -
ITEducationPro
Member Posts: 6 ■□□□□□□□□□
Based on your long term interests, a potential perfect next step prior to CEH or CISSP is the SCNS, the Security Certified Network Specialist. The pre-req is Sec+ (which you already have)but will focus much more on the applied skills and less theory. www.securitycertified.net
eWeek just gave it very high ratings. http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/News/5-IT-Certifications-that-Still-Matter/ -
motogpman
Member Posts: 412
Congrats on the pass!-WIP- (70-294 and 297)
Once MCSE 2k3 completed:
WGU: BS in IT, Design/Management
Finish MCITP:EA, CCNA, PMP by end of 2012
After that, take a much needed vacation!!!!! -
UnixGuy
Mod Posts: 4,570 Mod
ITEducationPro wrote:Based on your long term interests, a potential perfect next step prior to CEH or CISSP is the SCNS, the Security Certified Network Specialist. The pre-req is Sec+ (which you already have)but will focus much more on the applied skills and less theory. www.securitycertified.net
eWeek just gave it very high ratings. http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/News/5-IT-Certifications-that-Still-Matter/
Thanks for the links !!
It's the first time I hear of such thing as "Security Certified Network Specialist" ?? what's this ?? and what's the "SCP" security certified professional ?? I never heard of such thing. -
dynamik
Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
UnixGuy wrote:It's the first time I hear of such thing as "Security Certified Network Specialist" ?? what's this ?? and what's the "SCP" security certified professional ?? I never heard of such thing.
http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31457
http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9573
http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24789 -
UnixGuy
Mod Posts: 4,570 Mod
dynamik wrote:UnixGuy wrote:It's the first time I hear of such thing as "Security Certified Network Specialist" ?? what's this ?? and what's the "SCP" security certified professional ?? I never heard of such thing.
http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31457
http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9573
http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24789
Thank you man !
Just what I thought, those certs aren't worth the trouble. I'm going for Sec+ -
mikka07
Member Posts: 21 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congratulations on the pass and thank you for the advice on where to proceed next.
-
Lantzvillian
Member Posts: 24 ■□□□□□□□□□
SCNS, the Security Certified Network Specialist.
Had a quick look at that when I was on a break earlier. Looks pretty promising, does anyone here even have it? It doesn't look too bad at all since i like hands on and have a bunch of that experience.
I'm studying for my network+ since its easy and then I'll get serious about taking that. I gotta see about getting my courses bridged for BCIT.....
