My confidence was pretty high these past few days. Today, I went in the test room feeling good about taking this exam. Just as others have mentioned, I was quickly knocked off my 'high', due to the complexity of a lot of these questions. I had not gone through 10 questions before already assuming I was going to fail. I needed about 15 more minutes, at least, to complete this exam comfortably. I spent a lot of time analyzing the questions. I had skipped the sims so I could do those last, but had to rush through them and had about 3 seconds before finally making my last 'tic'. I went through 7 sims in less than 10 minutes. My heart was beating incredibly fast. I just knew I had failed.
I zoomed through the survey simply clicking on anything just to get done with this hell. I'll be damned...it showed 'pass'. I got a 781. I placed my hands on my head in disbelief.
Although I was feeling good about this exam earlier in the week, I still had a lot of anxiety leading up to today. My last cert was for Network+ in 2007 and I don't remember feeling half this nervous. AND I had a free retake as backup for the SY0-401. Very glad it's done with. I'm definitely going to maintain CEUs to prevent taking this again.
- 4 months of studying - I realized my study habits were very unorganized for the 1st 3 months and I would not retain knowledge for more than a few days. At the beginning of August, I went through Darril's book one page at a time, using One Note for note-keeping, which was a great help. I used a little bit of Messer's stuff and come CBT Nuggets as well.
- I don't have any Sec experience. I've been in Desktop Support for 12 years with only A+ and Network+ (2006-2007)
- LONG questions with lots to analyze to ensure you find the key words to answer the question precisely.
- Several BIA scenarios and Risk-related questions. Just a few on PKI I feel it touched a bit on everything, overall.
No idea what I'm going for next. My company is moving out of the area next spring, so I'm building up my resume. I feel like I can go in any direction at this point. I know I'm done with Desktop though. I do get paid well for my title, which is why I stayed for so long. I will probably have to take a pay cut for my next role and start from the bottom. I have no sever experience.
But thanks for reading. Study your butts off! I salute the folks that breeze through this exam!
