Security+ is an excellent first certification to get under your belt if you are trying to get into computer security. I got certified for Security+ right during the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic and was able to pass the first time I took the test. I will provide how I was able to pass and what helped me. I will wrap up what it was like for me on the exam day so you can get an idea of what to expect.
A big part of the Security+ exam is knowing the vocabulary. I have always found flashcards to be the quickest way to memorize. Someone on the website Quizlet made a great list of 265 flashcards for Security+. Either use the site to study the flashcards or do what I did and write physical flashcards and carry them with you or keep them by your computer so you can practice. I usually did this to the point I could fly through the stack without hesitation. The excellent part about Quizlet is that they have different games and study strategies, such as matching and a practice test of terms. You may have to create an account to get all the features. Don't worry; it's free.
Professor Messer is one of the best resources to study for the Security+ exam. Messer has a FREE video course for Security+ and sells course notes and practice exams. The combined price is $40, which I purchased when I took the exam. The video course is almost 24 hours long, so be sure to find time and watch all of it. If you buy the course notes, highlight the areas you are still confused about and review that content. Once you feel good about the course, go over the practice exam. I try to save the practice exams until the very end of my studying so I can get an idea of how ready I am to take the test. Keep taking the exams until you pass at 90% or higher, giving you room for the unknown when you take the real thing.
An alternative video course can be helpful if you want to be sure that you're covering everything that could be on the exam. Pluralsight has a lot of good content for certifications, so it may be worth getting the $45 dollars a month subscription. I say the $45 subscription instead of the $30 one because the more expensive subscription has practice exams provided. I only mention Pluralsight because you may want a topic explained differently. Pluralsight is another course that is 24 hours long, so find time during your week to set aside to watch this course.
Day of the Exam:
You have two options to take the test. The first is in-person, which requires you to go to a testing center like Pearson, which are all around the country. The other option is online, which is what I ended up doing because, during COVID, the testing centers were closed.
If you go the online route, CompTIA sends you an email with instructions for the exam a few days before. Be sure to have a clean workstation the day before, so you have one less thing to focus on. When the exam starts, you must take pictures all around the room to ensure you aren't cheating, another reason to keep things clean. There are a few more steps, such as taking pictures of your ID to verify. Be sure to know where that is as well. When the exam starts, you will go through the multiple-choice questions as you did in your practice exams. There will be 90 questions or fewer, and you have 90 minutes to complete the exam. Set some checkpoints for yourself to have enough time and know when you have extra time. Every question should take roughly 1 minute. I believe I finished with almost a half hour left, and I'm a pretty slow reader.
As soon as the exam finishes, it will tell you if you passed. I preferred this as the anxiety doesn't last for very long. If you didn't pass, go back and check out the resources I showed above and go through some more practice questions. If you passed, congratulations, you have your (most likely) first security certification. The nice thing about the Security+ certification is that it meets the requirements for many government jobs requiring some security certifications.
Now that you have this certification, you can move on to the next. I will cover in a future article the path to more advanced certifications, so stay tuned and good luck on your computer security journey.
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