I'm pleased to say I passed the exam (scored in the 830s). The exam was more challenging than I expected. I felt well prepared, but some of the questions were ambiguous. This was frustrating because I know the material they were asking about, but had some trouble interpreting the angle of the question. Here's what I did to prepare:
In hindsight, I believe the best preparation was the two books, the flash cards, and the Boson practice exams. The Boson exam explanations are the most thorough I've seen. They explain thoroughly why each correct answer is correct and each incorrect answer is incorrect. Also, the incorrect answers were mostly legitimate Sec+ concepts, so by reading these explanations, the concepts were drilled into my brain. I will use Boson again for CISSP preparation. Both books were very good and took different approaches to the topics. Here is a bullet point summary of the pros and cons of each book:Pros - Get Certified Ahead by Gibson
- Very well written and easy to read
- Explains difficult concepts in easy to understand terms
- Sticks to only those topics covered by the exam
- Very good coverage of injection attacks
Cons - Get Certified Ahead by Gibson
- Complex topics were sometimes cut short and I often had unanswered questions after reading a topic, especially IPSec, cryptography, and the difference between all-in-one security appliances and web security gateways.
- Makes the exam seem easier than it really is.
Pros - All-In-One Exam Guide by Conklin/White
- Deeper technical coverage of complex topics. The following topic were covered exceptionally well and in far greater depth than Gibson's book:
- IPSec
- Legal, privacy, and ethics issues
- PKI
- Cryptography
- DNS zone transfers
- Web components
Cons - All-In-One Exam Guide by Conklin/White
- More difficult to read than Gibson's book. Although often eloquent, the sentences were often long and complex. I often found myself rereading sentences to understand them.
- Coverage is broader than what is required for the Security+ exam. Now that I'm studying for the CISSP, this book seems to extend somewhat into CISSP material.
- Not organized as well as Gibson's book and often key items were not bulleted.
Overall, I'm glad I read both and in the following order: 1) Gibson, then 2) Conklin/White. If you can only read one book, I'd pick Gibson's book. However, if I had it to do over again, I'd still read both. I found the greater technical depth of the Conklin/White book very satisfying.
