Passed Security + but...
Just wanted to say thanks to you all for all your posts. I passed today, though my experience was awful. Here it goes! I showed up at the test center 30 mins early. Checked in as usual, signed my life away blah blah blah. I had to wait a good 10 minutes as there was another person using the room. I wasn't bothered, I just wanted to get it over with. So, it was time to go in and I did. About half way through the exam, approximately 52 minutes in, the freaking fire alarm goes off in the building. Exam butterflies are one thing but the sudden amplified noise of a loud fire alarm is another beast. I thought...this can't be happening. Not now right! Needeless to say, the alarm was right up in the ceiling above where I was sitting in that tiny room.
After a couple of minutes or so, the receptionist lady storms into the room telling me not to panic and just continue with the exam. "Continue?" Am looking at the time and 5 minutes into this fire alarm noise, am only on the fifty something question. By now, my heart is literally beating out of my chest, my concentration is out of synch, my mind is on some...JUST WHAT THE H.E.L.L is going on out there. Serious FREAK-out-mode (had flashes of Sinefield's Kramer) for some odd reason. Looking through the window by the entrance to the exam room, I could see the receptionist and another lady grabbing their coats and purses hauling out. At this point, the recording through the speakers is asking everyone to evacuate the building. What was I to do? Under any circumstance, I'd be the first one out, quick fast and in a hurry. My dilemna was, if I walk out, what will happen to my exam. Am thinking, this is a definite fail here. You can't pause it! I was insane temporarily. Forget my life, I know from experience that, there's no refund policy on these exams and my concern was, what will happen if I quit because the buidling is on fire. Infact, now that am thinking about it, what's CompTIA's policy in these types of circumstances? Anyone care to enlighten me?
I kid you not, the siren went on till I had about 15 or so minutes left to the end of the exam. All the while, I was answering the questions as best as I could with the siren blarring in my ears. When the alarm was finally turned off an the all clear was given, the lady came back to check if I was ok. Of course NOT! With under 10 minutes left, there was no time to go back and review all of my flagged questions. You talk about being p.i.s.s.e.d, I was ready to blow a gasket. I felt rushed and I think I had about 15- 20 flagged questions. Turns out, somebody had tempered with one of the fire alarms on the 8 floor...GREAT! All in all, it was a horrible experience and walking out of there with a PASS (789) was all I was praying for. Am not quite sure how I would have handled it if it were a FAIL. I just feel like I could've scored better...all things considered. Writting compTIA and voice my opinion won't change a thing. And oh, the dagnam argony of waiting for that hour glass after the CompTIA survey before you can see your score, is just a nuisance. Really!
Digressing. About the exam, there were many familiar questions. Ports, ACL questions (lots), protocols, Network devices...you know, the usual! Very little crypto, kinda disappointed as I spent weeks trying to master and it. I swear, I'd wake up in the middle of the night thinking about algorithms (God bless my wife) lol. To study, I used Exam Cram 3rd edition, there's a review here under 'Blogs'. It's an ok book, quite lengthy and detailed. Thats's pretty much the only book I used to study. I was all over the place with practice exams. Can't tell you specifically what I used apart from the ones in the book itself. I was uneasy about the fact that, I didn't get Darril Gibson's Security+ book with all the great reviews I've seen here. Wished I did. Shout outs to professor Messer and his videos...they helped a great deal too.
In any event, reagrdless of what book you use, just make sure you understand the CONCEPTS. That can never be over emphasized. In the exam, as you tackle each question, the asnwers will come and you'll be knocking them out. Like Darril always says in addition to knowing why the right answers is correct also, KNOW WHY THE WRONG ANSWERS ARE WRONG. Trust me, you won't go wrong. The process of elimination because so much easier, you'll be eager to see the next question compTIA throws at you. It's true that, if you've studied enough and put in the time and effort, you're destined to pass, period! It's not an "easy" exam but it sure is easy for to fail it. Study with a book in one hand and the exam objectives in the other hand. This has always worked for me and it may work for you too. Can't say more about the exam than I already have. Sorry for the lengthy post, just thought I'd share. And so it is
> A+,network+, Security+ = mission accomplished. Am thinking of my next cert while job hunting now. Amazing people here. Thanks and good luck to you all taking the security+ exam. You can do it. 1.
