It says that this certification will "Opens the Door to Your Cybersecurity Career!" Honestly I don't know about that, my inbox has not been blowing up with requests for my 1337 haxor skills yet. Haha, please tell me you smiled at that statement. 🙂
Anyways, I got it done on my first try, and you might be asking yourself, what's the magic formula? How long did you study? I think I studied for about three weeks on and off. For some people, you will need a lot more time than three weeks, and for others, they need less time. I have been working in the field for 19 years now so all the core knowledge was there. What was new were all the different standards, frameworks, governance, risk and compliance, all that jazz. Doesn't sound very exciting does it? Well unless you are into that stuff I guess.
My Material
I have a paid subscription to O'Reilly which I highly recommend if you are studying for almost any certification. (No I don't get paid to say that, I wish I did). https://www.oreilly.com/
- Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate. https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/google-cybersecurity
I took this course first and got the certificate. There is a lot of spillover between the two, so I would recommend it, and you get a 30% discount on the CompTIA Security+ exam, not too shabby. 😉 - CompTIA Security+ Certification SY0-601: The Total Course by Mike Meyers, Daniel Lachance.
I really like it. I would recommend it as the first thing you do. - I bought the Boson practice exam. https://www.boson.com/certification/security+
The practice exams were actually harder than the actual exam. It's a bit more technical than the actual exam and it doesn't give you all the theory needed to pass the exam. - CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Exam Cram, 6th Edition by Diane Barrett, Martin M. Weiss.
The best book I read on the subject. I tried a couple of other ones and I liked this one the best. - A great free video course by Pete Zerger on YouTube. https://youtu.be/9Hd8QJmZQUc
- I attented the CompTIA Security + SY0-601 Crash Course on Oreilly by Sari Greene.
It gave me a few things I had missed. https://learning.oreilly.com/live-events/comptia-security-sy0-601-crash-course/0636920055925/0636920087049/
I didn't use Professor Messer's stuff. A lot of people have used it, but I didn't check it out because I really liked Pete Zerger's video. https://www.professormesser.com/get-security-plus-certified/
Taking the Security+ exam
The check-in was fast and easy. If you have never taken an exam at home, here are a few tips. I have taken seven exams at home over the last year. Some proctors are super strict and others, well not so much. I have had to take all photos off the walls, remove my mouse pad, remove speakers (even though you are supposed to have speakers), fetch my mobile phone in order to prove I did not have it on me, it was in another room, etc. Make sure to run the system checker at least one day before the exam. I recommend killing all NVIDIA processes on your computer. Send me a direct message if you have any specific questions about the process, I will gladly help you out. 🙂
You will get the results right after the exam is done which is super nice. BUT, you have to answer a questionnaire first. I think it was about twenty questions. I answered them all honestly and took the time to read them, but man was it hard, haha.
The exam voucher is $349, so it's not a cheap exam and there is no free retake so I highly recommend over preparing instead of under preparing. The point of exams is to gain more understanding instead of just passing an exam. If you learn too much, well it's only a win-win in my book.
Happy studying friends! If I can do it, you can. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope you found this article helpful.