Edit/addendum: I forgot to mention flashcards - I used the Brainscape app/website to make flashcards on concepts that I just could not get to casually stick. There are a lot of things here that will take brute force memorization.

Also, I did not use any Sec+ specific videos due to my previous info-sec studies helping out so much. However I've heard really good things about the Jason Dion videos. If his videos are as good as his practice exams - then they'll be gold as a starting point.
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Hey all!

I'm excited to share that I passed the SY0-601 Security+ exam this morning with a 789 out of 900. I believe this equates to roughly 88% - but nobody truly knows how CompTIA scoring works on this exam.

I found this subreddit invaluable to determining which study materials to use, so I thought I would share my materials and rank based off of what I found most useful.

PRACTICE EXAMS:

Here are the practice Exams I took. I’ve ranked these in order of usefulness to passing the real exam.

To me, Usefulness = accuracy + following the official study guide material very closely + responsiveness of test writer to any questions I had.

1. Passemall Security+ Practice Exams. 10/10. Conclusion: Excellent resource. USE THIS.

Biggest pro to using this source: large bank of test questions, accuracy of questions/answers.

I didn’t ever ask them clarifying questions, so I can’t evaluate test writer responsiveness.

Details:I took the first 4 exams. I only ‘passed’ the first one, with 83%. Tests 2, 3, and 4 I was getting high 70s, low 80s.

These were the best exams. https://passemall.com/free-comptia-security-practice-test. They were the hardest practice exams and most closely followed the source material. I’d say they’re 5-10% HARDER than the real exam, and 5-10% harder than the Dion practice exams.

They offer 8 practice exams of 90 questions each. You need to achieve 83% to pass (same as the real thing).

They also offer a ‘learning’ mode which lets you drill down into each topic you feel you need to, in blocks of 8 questions at at time. These tests are harder than Dion Udemy practice tests, and super closely follow the Official CompTIA Security+ Study guide.

2. Jason Dion Udemy SY0-601 practice test. 10/10 Conclusion: Excellent resource. USE THIS. I only ranked this as number 2 because Passemall has a larger test bank and is a bit harder.

Strongest Pro to using this: Accuracy, size of test bank, test writer responsiveness to questions I had.

Details:I’m not sure what to say about the Dion exams that hasn’t already been said 100 times on this subreddit. You need to get 90% on each test to ensure that you'll probably pass the real thing. I think Dion only says 90% because chances are you'll accidentally memorize a few questions rather than truely knowing the material. These tests are super close to the difficulty of the ‘real’ exam. It might be a 1% or 2% difference in difficulty one way or the other from the real thing, but I couldn’t really tell.

The Dion Practice Exams super closely follow the official book material, and are super accurate. There were a few questions that I thought “gotcha! That’s not the correct answer.” When I asked a question, I would only later find out they were correct, and I was thinking about the problem in a wrong way.

3. Total Seminars CompTIA Security+ Cert (Sy0-601) practice tests. 3/10. Mediocre resource at best. My recommendation: Don't use this.

Pros: Not really anyLargest Cons: Smaller test bank then the other two resources I used (4 exams). Content that goes really far off-book/doesn’t follow the official study plan. Inaccurate questions/answers, and poor test writer responsiveness.

I hate to slag off on an otherwise reputable company, but these practice tests were bad. I get the distinct feeling that they attempted to write these exams for the 601, before the official exam objectives were revised last summer. I was finding far too many questions that simply didn’t apply to the curriculum. Then I’d waste a TON of time double, triple, and quadruple checking that the concept/question item wasn’t in the official study guide.

Books:

Quick tips - if you have a multi-monitor computer set up, I recommend going the e-book route. This way you can easily ctrl+f to search any terms you need to, in order to quickly find them. Trust me, this will save you so much time. Even if you don’t have multiple monitors, this advice probably stands.

Also, it’s good to have more than one reputable book as source material. Different books generally explain things differently. I often found myself scratching my head when reading from one book – but the same item was more clearly explained in another book.

1. The Official CompTIA Security+ Student Guide (ebook). 10/10 USE THIS.

I accidentally bought the student guide instead of the study guide. The only difference is that the student guide is tailored for in-classroom studies. All of the information is in both books though, so if you accidently make the same mistake I did – don’t stress 😊

This is the OG book. It has everything in there that you need to pass.

2. CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Exam Cram, 6th edition (ebook) 9/10 USE THIS

This book comes with additional practice tests if you need them, although I didn’t use them. This contains probably 95% of the information you need. I found the information was typically more easily digestible here than in the Official study guide.

I want to wrap up that I didn’t get into studying ro the Sec+ in the normal way. I was (and shortly will resume) studying for the ISC2 CISSP exam. The source material has a lot of overlap with the Security+ (there’s a lot MORE to cover in the CISSP, however, probably 90% of the Sec+ material is also in the CISSP.). I found myself getting discouraged with the CISSP studies, so on a whim took a Sec+ practice exam and got score in the 730s. Since I was so close to passing without having studied for the Sec+, I decided to pivot to the Sec+ and crammed for a couple weeks to pass.

This is definitely not the standard way of reaching a Sec+ I realize. Since I was so close to passing already, I didn’t bother with reading any Sec+ books start to finish. Instead, I focused on practice exams to identify and drill into my weak points, then used the books as reference material.

On the note of the CISSP - there's so much overlap between the Sec+ and CISSP, I think it is a REALY GOOD IDEA to go for the CISSP after the Sec+. The CISSP is a magnitude of difficulty harder, but if you ever think you might want to take this exam in the future - then do yourself a favor and go for it after passing the Sec+. You don't want all that valuable Sec+ information leaking out of your brain before you start on the CISSP :)

If you’ve read the whole post, thank you!

Also, good luck to anyone going for the Sec+!!