Gibson's First Security+ Assessment Exam: Get Certified Get Ahead

itsgonnahappen

I'm just getting started in my studies towards Secruity+ certification and recently purchased Gibson's Get Certified Get Ahead Security+ Study guide.

I just finished the first Assessment Exam in the book to gauge where I'm at and I was pleasantly surprised when I scored much higher than I anticipated. If each question is valued at 1 point, I scored a solid C - 76/100.

My question is: Is this test in lines with the actual test in terms of the difficulty of questions?

Or was this initial assessment test just brushing the basics of the types of questions on the actual test and not a way to measure how well you can perform on the actual test?

I hope that makes sense.

Those that have used Darril's book and have passed the Security+ please chime in! You're feedback would be much appreciated!

Darril

Good that you had a good score with the assessment exam. It is a good sign that you're close.

The biggest thing I like to stress with all of the questions is getting them all right isn't the most important gauge. Ideally, you should be able to look at any question and know why the correct answer is correct, and why the incorrect answers are incorrect. This way, CompTIA can word a question in just about any way, and you'll still be able to get it correct as long as you know the content.

Good luck.

Carl_S_901

itsgonnahappen wrote: »

I'm just getting started in my studies towards Secruity+ certification and recently purchased Gibson's Get Certified Ahead Security+ Study guide.

I just finished the first Assessment Exam in the book to see where I'm at. I was pleasantly surprised when I scored much higher than I thought I would. If each question is valued at 1 point, I scored a solid C - 76/100.

My question is: Is this test in lines with the actual test in terms of the difficulty of questions?

Or was this initial assessment test just brushing the basics of the types of questions on the actual test and not as a way to measure how well you can perform on the actual test?

I hope that makes sense.

Those that have used Darril's book and have passed the Security+ please chime in! You're feedback would be much appreciated!

I missed 23 out of 100 when I took the Pre-Assessment. (Score of 77 which is pretty much what you got)

After reading the book/studying I did the following tests:


End of Chapter Review Questions as Final Practice Test


268 Questions


Missed 6/268


Grade 97.8%

---

100 Question Practice Test at end of book


Missed 4/100


Grade 96%


So my advice would be that you are in a good place. You know enough to be at a good starting point but still need to do the reading and studying to get to the finish line. Just be patient and set your goal test date 45 days from when you started the book and get to work.

itsgonnahappen

Darril - Thanks for chiming in. It's exciting to know that I'm starting off from a good starting point. Time to really dig in and strengthen my weaknesses (encryption, application attacks, and cryptography). Appreciate the feedback!

Carl - Thanks. I'm looking to take down this beast in 30 days. I'll be using Darril's book and Professor Messer's videos to refine my knowledge. With the Security+ in the books, what's next on your agenda?

Kragster

itsgonnahappen: I took the Sec+ test last week after using Darril's study guide. I'd say the questions are very good gauge of difficulty of questions you will see on the test. And I will +1 for Darril's comment of making sure you understand why. When a questions says "choose best answer" and multiple are correct, if you have a good understanding of material you'll be able to see what exactly the test is wanting for a given question.

And if you are comfortable with Darril's book when you're done studying, exam should be no problem, he did an excellent job with this study guide in my opinion.

steelodon

I used Darill's book as well and I saw such an improvement from the pre-assessment to the actual exam. I was surprised at how prepared I was to take the exam after studying with his book.....and I passed! I have recommended his book to several co-workers. Thanks!!

Carl_S_901

itsgonnahappen wrote: »

Carl - Thanks. I'm looking to take down this beast in 30 days. I'll be using Darril's book and Professor Messer's videos to refine my knowledge. With the Security+ in the books, what's next on your agenda?

I had planned to pick up the A+ certification but am now putting that on indefinite hold and have started my prep for Cisco ICND1 (CCENT) and will go immediately into ICND2 to complete the CCNA after passing the 1st test.

sratakhin

I found the assessment test and chapter tests to be too easy in Darril's book. I mean, there are some answers that are really irrelevant to the topic and just using some common sense allows answering them without having to read the book. This is not the case on the actual exam. I spent a lot of time reading the book, doing practice exams and watching free professor Messer's videos and it helped me to pass the test with 867.