My Security+ Experience

Hi All,

This forum has been a big help to me even though I only posted a few times. I figured I'd share my experience and what worked for me and see if it potentially helps anyone.

I started studying for Security+ about two months ago and passed yesterday with an 835. I had absolutely zero experience, really zero, with security, networking and most things in general when I first began to study. So here's what I used to help me get a passing score my first try:

Darril Gibson's book - This was awesome, I read it, wrote down every exam tip, studied the hell out of port numbers and did the chapter reviews more than once, and the practice test a whole lot.

Professor Messer vids - I watched every single video on Security+ and took notes on almost every video on points I didn't understand. I had pages upon pages filled with notes after I completed all his videos. Ridiculously helpful in explaining concepts I couldn't grasp in plain text. Also good for refresher on areas of weakness before the test. I kept watching videos on PKIs and encryption right until the end.

CompTia CertMaster - I got this free with the retake bundle. I went through every module, after doing all the Professor Messer videos and finishing the Gibson book. Any areas of weakness I wrote down and focused on them. This kind of made me nervous about the test because there were certain definitions and aspects I never even heard of before tackling this. Honestly, unless you're grabbing that retake bundle like I had, I wouldn't bother with this. I think Gibson and Messer are more than enough to get you to pass. Even so though, I can't ignore it because hey I passed the test and this contributed in it's own way.

This is definitely a lot to study and I really spent a good amount of time doing so, but honestly, I'd rather be over prepared than under and it served me very well when I finally had to sit down. So if you're starting from zero like I did, I highly recommend following this path and using these resources.

Good luck to you all and thanks again for all the help.

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Comments

Porteño

Thank you for share your Experience. I'm new in the forum and studying right now with the same materials you described, 60 % of the Gibson's completed and just starting with the certmaster, even if i have some experience and a few certs on the field it's gonna be my first time preparing for an exam on my own(well besides my driving test XD). We'll se how it goes.

twodogs62

Gibson book is what I used. Very good book.
i have physical book.
i also bought the kindle version and a kindle fire for text to speech.
at the time the kindle version was only $10.

H3||scr3am

Congratulations on passing your Sec+!

Rock.Steady

Porteño wrote: »

Thank you for share your Experience. I'm new in the forum and studying right now with the same materials you described, 60 % of the Gibson's completed and just starting with the certmaster, even if i have some experience and a few certs on the field it's gonna be my first time preparing for an exam on my own(well besides my driving test XD). We'll se how it goes.

Honestly, if you just stick to learning the material and really do the practice tests you should do well. Gibson does a great job preparing you *with* his simulations. Good luck on the upcoming exam!

Rock.Steady

H3||scr3am wrote: »

Congratulations on passing your Sec+!

Thanks! It's always nice to see your hard work pay off. On to A+ now, and yes I am aware I did all of this quite backwards, but I just find Security the most interesting.

PeterHands

Well done buddy. Im currently going through Gibsons book now and have a paid subscrition to CBT Nuggets.