How do the practice questions in Darril's book

headshot

stack up against the real exam in terms of difficulty/wording?

For those that have passed.

erpadmin

headshot wrote: »

stack up against the real exam in terms of difficulty/wording?

For those that have passed.

on!!

If you can do well in Darril's book, you'll do well on the exam. On Darril's final exam, I got 90% right. On Security+ itself: 97%.

TheSuperRuski

erpadmin wrote: »

on!!

If you can do well in Darril's book, you'll do well on the exam. On Darril's final exam, I got 90% right. On Security+ itself: 97%.

I second that. I got 82% on the final in the book and 92% on the actual test. The book is dead on, No doubts about that.

Paperlantern

TheSuperRuski wrote: »

I second that. I got 82% on the final in the book and 92% on the actual test. The book is dead on, No doubts about that.

Ditto. No joke, same numbers for me.

drainey

Agree as well. Scored 92% on the questions in Darril's book and 95% on the exam.

khagan1

headshot wrote: »

stack up against the real exam in terms of difficulty/wording?

For those that have passed.

I just passed Sec+ today with 833, and I used Darril's book as my main study source. In my opinion the questions in his book are well-written and straightforward - NOT like numerous questions on the exam. The wording on some of the questions just had my head going sideways, like talking to tech support in India (no offense to Indians, just focusing on problems with technical translation here). I had one question that was very well worded so that the answer was obvious, only the right answer was not any of the choices offered! I can imagine many test-takers take the full 90 minutes just from rereading some questions 8 - 10 times like I did.

As well (in my opinion), Darril's book is definitely NOT adequate as the sole source for studying. There were a significant number of questions (let's say 20%) that dealt with things not covered in any way in his book. The problem is, I don't have any suggestions as to other study sources that would help. I also used Sybex, Syngress, the techexams study notes & tests, as well as various online practice tests, and I still encountered around 10 questions whose contents was absolutely new/uncovered. I'll have to assume I received a large number of "eval/future test" questions. I always thought you'd get maybe 1 or 2 of those on a real exam.

Anyways, good luck to all those prepping to take Sec+ before the end of the year. A word of warning - when I arrived at my test center there had been a screw up with the test scheduling and I was told my start time may be up to 30 minutes late. You may want to call your test center the day before your exam and just make sure everything is still in order.

headshot

khagan1 wrote: »

I just passed Sec+ today with 833, and I used Darril's book as my main study source. In my opinion the questions in his book are well-written and straightforward - NOT like numerous questions on the exam. The wording on some of the questions just had my head going sideways, like talking to tech support in India (no offense to Indians, just focusing on problems with technical translation here). I had one question that was very well worded so that the answer was obvious, only the right answer was not any of the choices offered! I can imagine many test-takers take the full 90 minutes just from rereading some questions 8 - 10 times like I did.

As well (in my opinion), Darril's book is definitely NOT adequate as the sole source for studying. There were a significant number of questions (let's say 20%) that dealt with things not covered in any way in his book. The problem is, I don't have any suggestions as to other study sources that would help. I also used Sybex, Syngress, the techexams study notes & tests, as well as various online practice tests, and I still encountered around 10 questions whose contents was absolutely new/uncovered. I'll have to assume I received a large number of "eval/future test" questions. I always thought you'd get maybe 1 or 2 of those on a real exam.

Anyways, good luck to all those prepping to take Sec+ before the end of the year. A word of warning - when I arrived at my test center there had been a screw up with the test scheduling and I was told my start time may be up to 30 minutes late. You may want to call your test center the day before your exam and just make sure everything is still in order.

I'm from Canada as well, hopefully I don't wind up with the same exam.. lol.

Can you give your input as to what subjects these uncovered questions dealt with? This will be my first tech exam with no experience and I don't want to get blindsided. Also did you take the J or S version?

erpadmin

headshot wrote: »

Also did you take the J or S version?

Just to let you know, as per CompTIA, there is no difference between the "J or S" version. All it is that those with the "J" version get a very discounted voucher.


The tests themselves are identical.

headshot

Thanks guys for the input.

Just read most of the book once again and took the final test and got 96/100 right. For some reason though I still don't feel overly confident going in. Oh well gonna book for tuesday (testing center closed for holidays after that) and let the cards fall wherever they shall. Hopefully I get the voucher in time.

headshot

Question 9 asks about physical security control for a room that contains important servers.

I chose what appeared to be the best answer A, which is a cipher lock and key lock, because we are dealing with physical security. But the book has the right answer as C, biometric reader and smart card. :

Travler

headshot wrote: »

Question 9 asks about physical security control for a room that contains important servers.

I chose what appeared to be the best answer A, which is a cipher lock and key lock, because we are dealing with physical security. But the book has the right answer as C, biometric reader and smart card. :

Don't forget that the 3 factors are ranked from least secure to most secure as:
1) Something you know
2) Something you have
3) Something you are

Answer A combines factors 1 and 2, while answer C combines factors 2 and 3.

Sounds Good

khagan1 wrote: »

As well (in my opinion), Darril's book is definitely NOT adequate as the sole source for studying. There were a significant number of questions (let's say 20%) that dealt with things not covered in any way in his book. The problem is, I don't have any suggestions as to other study sources that would help. I also used Sybex, Syngress, the techexams study notes & tests, as well as various online practice tests, and I still encountered around 10 questions whose contents was absolutely new/uncovered. I'll have to assume I received a large number of "eval/future test" questions. I always thought you'd get maybe 1 or 2 of those on a real exam.

what subjects were NOT covered in DG's book that you saw on the test? i'd like to go over them