How pass the Security+ on your first attempt
Like most others professional certification tests, regardless of the field of application , the CompTIA Security+ exam is not easy to pass on the first attempt. Based on my personal experience, I have gathered some good tips (but not exhaustive) and tricks about what to pay extra attention during studying and how to be effective during the exam so you can earn the certification on your first attempt. CompTIA Security+ is the good baseline as a security professional you should earn. It establishes the core knowledge required of any cybersecurity role and provides a springboard to intermediate-level cybersecurity jobs. Security+ incorporates best practices in hands-on troubleshooting, ensuring candidates have practical security problem-solving skills required to:
- Assess the security posture of an enterprise environment and recommend and implement appropriate security solutions;
- Monitor and secure hybrid environments, including cloud, mobile, and IoT;
- Operate with an awareness of applicable laws and policies, including principles of governance, risk, and compliance;
- Identify, analyze, and respond to security events and incidents.
1. Prioritize your study
The best way to study for Security+ is to have a study plan at hand. A great place to start studying for Security+ (SY0–501 /601) exam is the CompTIA Security+ Certification Exam Objectives. It can serve as a roadmap to check your progress through the material as you prepare for the test and explains the objectives of the certification. It’s very important cause It can be used as a checklist (printed version is preferable) before scheduling your exam.
2. Get a good study guide
The overall rule you should keep in mind is to “study smart not hard”. As like most popular certifications, there is a plethora of study guides via the internet and elsewhere but but be very careful as not all of them are useful and accurate for this exam. Remember this, you should consider using the official CompTIA study resources and textbooks. At the top of the list is the Official CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, which is also available in eBook format. And additional study guide and the most relevant for those one who have not practice experience in security field, is Security + (SY0–501) study guide (Get Certified Get Ahead) from author Darril Gibson available on Amazon marketplace. This last one take the candidate from scratch and go deep dive inside the security concepts relevant for the exam. In addition, at the end of each chapter, there we have a “digest” assessment to test your understanding about the concepts explained in the chapter.
3. Get a Security+ online videos (free of charge or paying)
In addition of this study guides listed below, we can add the online videos. At the top of this list is the videos of one the most popular IT trainer available on his Youtube Channel . Don’t worry, it’s free of charge and very complete. I highly recommend. Here he propose the videos and online classes with pop up questions and perfomance-based questions covering all exam objectives and stay focus on that. Another good videos resources for LinkedIn addict, is the videos from Mike CHAPPLE available on LinkedIn Learning platform. This is consider as a companion for the Darril Gibson book. The the two certainly form a solid foundation for those who really have no experience as a security professional.
4. Tips for the exam day
During the test, use the right strategies. Here are useful tips on the approach to answering the test questions:
- Skip the performance-based, Drag & Drop questions on simulated environment and take that at the end after the multiples choice questions;
- If you are not confident about some questions guess an answer and click the “Flag for review” option and come back to it later;
- Pay extra attention to the capitalized words like “BEST”, “MOST” and “LEAST”. Sometime several answers might seem correct, you should choose one accordingly to the capitalized word.
Conclusion
Depending on your experience, it can take several weeks or even several months to get ready for the exam. Give yourself time to prepare and put extra effort into the areas that are less familiar to you. I hope these tips will help you on your way to getting the cert on the first attempt, good luck!
