Passed with an 876!

So glad to have this cert so I can relax for a few days then move onto the next one. 1st off I was very worried about the wording of the exam and I must say the wording was as straight-forward as I could have hoped. There were a couple "pick the best answer" questions with 2 or more correct answers but this was very straight forward and the questions were not tricky at all. I did not have one question where I could select multiple answers it was all pick the ONE answer from the 4 listed and that really made easier. By the time I got to questions #15 I was almost giggling to myself that the questions were not too tough. Please don't misunderstand me as I put a ton of time into preparation (no braindumps either *barf*) and this was by no means an 'easy' exam. Just that if you prepare yourself and make sure you understand all the exam objectives it really was not that difficult. I will say (and to protect this websites best interests I won't list any actual or even close to it exam questions) that one thing I was unclear of before I took the exam is if IPsec is truly a tunneling protocol or just an encryption protocol. I did't think it was but one book I read said it is NOT while another book had it listed as a tunneling protocol along w/ L2TP, PPTP, etc. Well all I can say is that you better know. I think I got it right but make sure and know if its a true tunneling protocol or just used in conjunction w/ tunneling protocols for added security. Ports that came up were very basic, memorize the list on this site and you will not get any surprises. Know which key is used to encrypt if you want to acheive non-repudation or confidentiality, etc. Other than that just understand all the required objectives and read quality study materials and you will do fine.

My preperation:

Books read:
tcat pdf..as good as advertised...highly recommended)

Syngress..very helpful and does go beyond what is necessary to know for the exam. Especially the chapters on wireless and operational/organization security but that is certainly not a negative. To me that book really shined in the crypto chapters as some of the concepts of crytopgraphy can be confusing (digits sig's, cert's and etc) and they did well to explain crypto concepts to where they are easy to understand.

Sybex...did not like this book at all..I found out I had the 1st edition so that is mainly why. Just a very basic books w/ several errors. Really did not feel it was helpful reading it other than re-hashing stuff I already knew

As far as practice tests this was the 1st time I did not buy any practice tests from any reputable vendors like Boson or Transcenders. I just used the practice test on this and other exam help sites and any 'demo' exams from those 2 vendors and a few more.

And last but not least: google. Any concepts I needed more info/help on just searched it and usually found tons of helpful articles.

Next up is Linux+ or a checkpoint cert. Haven't decided yet but for now I am just gonna light up the victory cigar and relax for a few days. If anyone has any questions about the exam (other than specific questions that I remembered) please let me know.

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Comments

garv221

Congrats on the Pass! Nice review, I agree - any test seems easy when you study & know the answers. Good luck on L+.

Webmaster

Congrats! and thanks for the useful feedback

Enjoy that sigar!

Sulblk27

Thanks for the review and congrats...good luck on Linux....

mobri09

Congrats!

RussS

Hearty congrats

princess4peace

congratz, u actual help others with ur comprehensive analysis of how it went

benday

I am reading the Exam Cram 2 and I plan on buying the Prep Logic Practice Exam. Does anyone else think that a good way of going about studying is to take practice exams over and over until you pas them frequently studying your weak areas in the book?

Thanks for everyones help.

garv221

benday wrote:

I am reading the Exam Cram 2 and I plan on buying the Prep Logic Practice Exam. Does anyone else think that a good way of going about studying is to take practice exams over and over until you pas them frequently studying your weak areas in the book?

Thanks for everyones help.

Thats how I do it. Read the book, take the tests & work on areas you need it.

Forensick

How much do the preplogic tests help out when it comes to the Comptia material?

Webmaster

I used the PrepLogic exam also and found them to be quite on topic. I also like the many different online resources they refer to in the explanations.

Forensick

Johan, youre the man. I cant even express how helpful this site has been.

wsnell

Which key is used to encrypt if you want to acheive non-repudation or confidentiality?

wsnell

I know the answer to my own question:

The private key because a digital signature is a way to provide non-repudation and a digital signature is encrypted with a prviate key.

Correct?

/usr

You're right. Only the sender has his private key, thus anything done with it "should" be attributed to him.

To provide confidentiality, you would encrypt the message with the receiver's public key.

bananaman

I want to share with you my study method. I have yet to fail an exam so something is working. First, read the book. You can, but don't have to, take notes on every page. I do. Then, take a crap load of practice tests. Once you are in the 90%-100% range on practice tests, make flashcards of the questions you missed. Then go through the flashcards until you learn it. It has brought my test scores up to 100% every time. I even got a 900 on the A+ hardware and Network+. Good luck!

jpkennedy79

/usr wrote:

You're right. Only the sender has his private key, thus anything done with it "should" be attributed to him.

To provide confidentiality, you would encrypt the message with the receiver's public key.

Here is were I get confused. I was under the impression that you do not give out your private key - at all. It should be kept securely and only you access it. Is this correct? Then if so, why does ta digital signature use a private key? I thought it used a public key? Thanks.