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Few General Questions About Security+ Exam

n3tw0rk3rn3tw0rk3r Member Posts: 17 ■□□□□□□□□□
in Security+
I think I had posted this before, but I believe there might have been some issue with my post since it had an external hyperlink in it?

Regardless, I am set to take the exam in a few days and just had some general questions I was hoping you guys could answer for me.

1. Since the exam is out of 100 questions, I had logically assumed it would be worth 1000 points total, with each question being worth 10 points. However, I have come to find out that the exam is scaled between 100-900 points. So my question is, how does this scoring system work? Is everyone given 100 points to start out with? And how much is each question worth? Also, I have heard a passing score is 750, which I assume is out of 900 (so ~83%), is this correct?

2. In addition to my primary course of study, I have been taking a bunch of practice exams, primarily from the ProProfs website. However, these exams seem to be poorly worded and for a lot of the questions do not tell you how many answers are required. I am just wondering if the actual exam is much the same way?

3. I also heard in addition to multiple choice, there are sections on the exam composed of fill in the blank and exhibit-based questions. I was just wondering if someone could give me an idea of how much (percentage wise) of the exam is made up of these types of questions? Also could anyone point me in the direction of some examples of these types of questions as I have yet to come across any practice exams that feature them.
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    Carl_S_901Carl_S_901 Member Posts: 105
    All multiple choice.

    I swear I am not shilling for Darril's book but you should check it out as that answer is in the intro:
    CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-301 Study Guide wrote:
    A score of 750 is required to pass. This is on a scale of 100 to 900. If the exam is paid for and you don’t get a single question correct, you still get a score of 100. If you get every testable question correct, you get a score of 900. If all questions are equal, then you need to get eighty-four questions correct— a passing score of 750 divided by 900 equals .8333 or 83.33 percent. However, CompTIA doesn’t say if all questions are scored equally or whether harder questions are weighted and worth more. A score of 83 percent is higher than many other certification exams, so you shouldn’t underestimate the difficulty of this exam. However, many people regularly pass it and you can pass it, too. With this book, you will be well prepared.


    Gibson, Darril (2011-11-10). CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-301 Study Guide . . Kindle Edition.

    And at $9.99 for the e-book it is way to good of a value not to have in your study arsenal.
    Carl S.
    Check out my personal certification journey blog
    http://carlscertjourney.wordpress.com/
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    n3tw0rk3rn3tw0rk3r Member Posts: 17 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Oh, wow. Thank you very much for that. Yeah I'm hearing a lot of good things about the book, so I may just have to check it out.

    Any answers for question 2 or 3?
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    Carl_S_901Carl_S_901 Member Posts: 105
    n3tw0rk3r wrote: »
    Oh, wow. Thank you very much for that. Yeah I'm hearing a lot of good things about the book, so I may just have to check it out.

    Any answers for question 2 or 3?

    Check my post above for #3 :)

    All multiple choice

    I haven't taken the exam yet but this is what I have read in numerous places

    Regarding #2, I just use the practices questions from the books I use. For my iPhone I have some free flash cards that were published by Sybex and the companion app to Darril's book.

    You can also find sample questions on CompTIA's web site.

    Others will have to comment on other sources such as Boson, Transcender, etc. as I have not used them.
    Carl S.
    Check out my personal certification journey blog
    http://carlscertjourney.wordpress.com/
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    n3tw0rk3rn3tw0rk3r Member Posts: 17 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Just wanted to provide a heads up that I ended up taking the exam this past Friday and passed with a score of 855/900!

    It definitely helped knowing the exam would be all multiple choice (essentially), and taking the practice test on the CompTIA website.

    Thanks for all the great feedback Carl, and good luck for when you take it!
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    Carl_S_901Carl_S_901 Member Posts: 105
    n3tw0rk3r wrote: »
    Just wanted to provide a heads up that I ended up taking the exam this past Friday and passed with a score of 855/900!

    It definitely helped knowing the exam would be all multiple choice (essentially), and taking the practice test on the CompTIA website.

    Thanks for all the great feedback Carl, and good luck for when you take it!


    Congrats !!!

    Did you find the actual test easier than the sample test on the CompTIA website?
    Carl S.
    Check out my personal certification journey blog
    http://carlscertjourney.wordpress.com/
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    n3tw0rk3rn3tw0rk3r Member Posts: 17 ■□□□□□□□□□
    In my opinion, the sample test was definitely harder, but not by much.

    Also, the one thing that I don't think the sample test takes into account is that of the 100 questions on the real exam, some don't count towards your overall score as they are based on topics no study materials would cover - these are used for CompTIA's research purposes.
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    zrockstarzrockstar Member Posts: 378
    n3tw0rk3r wrote: »
    In my opinion, the sample test was definitely harder, but not by much.

    Also, the one thing that I don't think the sample test takes into account is that of the 100 questions on the real exam, some don't count towards your overall score as they are based on topics no study materials would cover - these are used for CompTIA's research purposes.

    Great job! Going back to you original question, how did you feel the quality of wording was on the Sec+? I just took my Net+ and felt the quality of wording on some of the questions was pretty poor, and was wondering if I should expect the same for Sec+?
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    n3tw0rk3rn3tw0rk3r Member Posts: 17 ■□□□□□□□□□
    zrockstar wrote: »
    Great job! Going back to you original question, how did you feel the quality of wording was on the Sec+? I just took my Net+ and felt the quality of wording on some of the questions was pretty poor, and was wondering if I should expect the same for Sec+?

    Well the wording was definitely much improved over a lot of the practice tests I had been looking over, but I will say there were still some questions that I thought could be phrased better. Overall though, I think as long as you take your time on each question and carefully review what it is asking, you shouldn't have too much difficulty interpreting and answering the questions.
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    DarrilDarril Member Posts: 1,588
    n3tw0rk3r wrote: »
    Just wanted to provide a heads up that I ended up taking the exam this past Friday and passed with a score of 855/900!

    Congratulations on the pass. Good luck on your next adventure.
    Darril Gibson
    CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+ Blogs
    Daily Network+ and Security+ Test Taking Tips on Twitter
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