Just completed the core, Which test next...

I just finished the 70-294 exam. So to date, I have completed the 290, 291, 293, and 294. I am really thinking about completing the + Security track. So that has me taking the 298, and 299. I will most likely do the Security+ exam.

Can anyone recommend an order to take them in? Is there a particular order that makes logical sense? Like one builds on the other, etc?

Thanks.

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Comments

dynamik

The Security+ is kind of in a funny place right now. The old exam and the new 2008 exam are both currently available. I don't know if the old exam will be available long enough for you to complete it, and there aren't many resources for the new one available (I believe Sybex already has a book out though). Normally I'd tell you to take a break from MS and do something different, but going for this now may not be the best thing to do.

I think you can sit 298 and 299 on the same day; that's what I did. 299 will mostly be a review of the security topics from 291 and 293. There's some EFS, SSL, and maybe a couple of other things that are new or elaborated on, but it's mostly going to be review. If you've been paying attention to best practices and design recommendations, you'll pretty much be ready to sit 298 at that point. Run through the MS Press book and review the older topics, and you should be fine.

I read about your 294 experience as well. That sounded like it sucked, and I'm sorry to hear about that. I'm glad you made it through though, congratulations

ULWiz

Dynamik i was just wondering what certs you currently had since your not releasing it on your info?

royal

CBTNuggets are coming out for the new exam. I'd go for the new exam because the point of going for certs is to learn and what's the point if the knowledge is obsolete/old (assumption on my part as I don't know what changes are being made). Or if they aren't removing things, you get to at least learn newer things if they're adding newer stuff to the exam. either way, I'd wait for material for the new exam and do something else in the meantime.

jacev1

ULWiz wrote:

Dynamik i was just wondering what certs you currently had since your not releasing it on your info?

Knowledge+

It's when you take all of CompTIA exams in 1 shot (but it doesn't qualify as an alternative elective exam!) ...

dynamik

ULWiz wrote:

Dynamik i was just wondering what certs you currently had since your not releasing it on your info?

Nothing new recently. MCSE:S is still the big one. I haven't done anything for a couple of months because I've been busy with a college class, and I've been doing some security reading for fun. I'll probably wrap up this tonight. You can get a copy used for $6, and its an amazing book. You might even spot a review by a familiar name (not me).

jacev1: I've actually only done the Security+ and Linux+. A+ for creativity though

See what I did there!?

natestreet

I took the Security+ Exam for 2008 and passed it with only text resources released for the old exam. If I understand it correctly, you can take the old Security+ Exam until April 2009. However, it probably makes more sense to just go for the 2008 update. At the time that the old exam was released, the strongest wireless encryption was WEP which is "a joke".

To prepare for the 2008, I downloaded the new objectives that are available from the CompTIA website and googled the "areas" that I did not know off hand...such as OVAL. There were also some "basic" questions on Virtualization and ones that seemed to pertain to features only available on Vista.

To study for the Security+ exam, I used Sybex, CBTNuggets, Transcender, and read just about every article/forum post on exam experience that I could find.

Hope this helps. I think you'll be fine having completed the CORE. Many of the topics will not be new. By far, the most difficult topics revolved around encryption and hashing algorithms and understanding the strenghts. You also need to know a fair amount about PKI, when is a public key/private key used, etc.

Hope this helps!

Slowhand

natestreet wrote:

At the time that the old exam was released, the strongest wireless encryption was WEP which is "a joke".

Aside from this, great review. When I took the exam back in 2005, I saw plenty of questions regarding wireless security, including ones on WPA and RADIUS. Again, probably just the case for you was that you only saw WEP questions or that the old exam guidelines are poorly-worded, but WEP was on its way out even then.

And dynamik, that's a great book, isn't it? I picked it up for a class I took, and I've read it at least twice since then, (and had to fight to get it back each time I loaned it out). For a second though, you scared me. I couldn't remember if I had left a review for this one, or another book I read about the same time.

royal

dynamik wrote:

ULWiz wrote:

Dynamik i was just wondering what certs you currently had since your not releasing it on your info?

Nothing new recently. MCSE:S is still the big one. I haven't done anything for a couple of months because I've been busy with a college class, and I've been doing some security reading for fun. I'll probably wrap up this tonight. You can get a copy used for $6, and its an amazing book. You might even spot a review by a familiar name (not me).

jacev1: I've actually only done the Security+ and Linux+. A+ for creativity though

See what I did there!?

Looks like a good book. Will have to get it. Thanks for the link.

natestreet

Hi,
I actually DID see WPA, WPA2, RADIUS, TACACS+, etc on my exam. However, the exam resources that I used which were written for SY0-101 had WEP listed as the most advanced encryption. No practice exams that I took mentioned WPA or later encryption either.

Luckily, I configure this stuff all the time, so that wasn't really a problem. Now TACACS on the other hand...no idea.

Then, in many of the resources that I used, it was 802.11b that was the most recent wireless LAN, and it was 802.11g (not 802.11n) that was in the drafting stages.

Nate

Slowhand

natestreet wrote:

Hi,
I actually DID see WPA, WPA2, RADIUS, TACACS+, etc on my exam. However, the exam resources that I used which were written for SY0-101 had WEP listed as the most advanced encryption. No practice exams that I took mentioned WPA or later encryption either.

Luckily, I configure this stuff all the time, so that wasn't really a problem. Now TACACS on the other hand...no idea.

Then, in many of the resources that I used, it was 802.11b that was the most recent wireless LAN, and it was 802.11g (not 802.11n) that was in the drafting stages.

Nate

Ah, okay. I thought you meant that the strongest encryption that existed at the time was WEP, and I had to scratch my head.