Just passed Security+ and I’m still feeling that post-exam adrenaline. Thought I was gonna fail the whole time, no joke — but I made it through and wanted to share how I prepped in case it helps someone else out here grinding.

My Study Setup:

• Jason Dion’s course (Udemy) — solid structure, great coverage of core topics. His practice exams are 🔥 and definitely harder than the real MCQs.

• Professor Messer’s videos — watched them when I needed a visual walkthrough or refreshers.

• Jason Dion’s Practice Exams (Udemy) — these were clutch for getting used to tricky wording. If you can handle those, you’ll be okay on test day.

• Cyberkraft for PBQs — this helps me understand the concepts but the test was nothing like anything that his videos. Way harder.

• ChatGPT — I used it to reason through concepts, break down tough questions, and make custom cheat sheets.

Exam Experience:

• MCQs: Honestly not too bad. I’d say easier than Dion’s practice exams. Still had a few gotchas, but if you practiced, you’ll recognize the patterns. My test had 75 questions with 3 PBQs.

• PBQs: These hit hard. Took time, and they weren’t the kind of thing you can guess your way through. They had me configuring 3 freaking firewalls and analyzed logs. I didn't know wth I did.

Book I Used (with ChatGPT prompts):

I uploaded the official CompTIA Security+ Study Guide (SY0-701) and used prompts like:

“Break this chapter down by topic. Make bullet notes and quiz me.”

“Explain zero trust like I’m 12.”

“Give me PBQ practice based on this section.”

I used ChatGPT as my personal tutor, flashcard generator, and brain-dump creator. It’s wild how much it helped with focus and clarity when stuff got dense.

Final Thoughts:

I went in thinking I’d fail, especially after the PBQs. But here’s the thing — if you’ve been practicing and you know your why, just ride the wave. Stick to your method, don’t freak out, and trust your prep. And if you need someone to break concepts down or simulate scenarios — use ChatGPT. Real talk, it pulled me through this.

Glad to have this cert under my belt and move on to the next.

I’m currently preparing for the CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) certification and I’m on the lookout for legitimate, good, and trusted sites that offer free practice tests.

I’m aware of Exam Compass, but I've noticed that some of the questions seem to cover topics that are outside the official study guide. Has anyone else experienced this?

If you have any recommendations for other resources that are free and closely aligned with the exam content, I would really appreciate it. I’m not looking for something extremely sophisticated, just effective practice tests that can help me solidify my understanding without having to pay for them.

Thank you in advance everybody 🙏

exam prep courses to help you prepare for the Security+ 701 certification. I found this link on LinkedIn.

Hope this helps.

https://certpreps.com/secplus/20

I passed the Security+ (SY0-701): 770/900 (75 MCQ, 2 PBQ), 90 min

This is my first CompTIA certification exam, and I am thrilled to have cleared the exam in the first go. Since there is a scarcity of resources specifically targeted to the new version, I will list the resources that I used to clear the exam.

1. CompTIA Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-701 on Amazon

2. Examcompass.com has some questions, I think they are still adding more questions and practice tests

3. David Staples Udemy

4. Dion Practice Test Set 1 Udemy

I am sure more resources will become available as time progresses, however, I wanted to challenge myself to pass this exam and test my skills with whatever limited resources I had. In total, I studied for the exam for ~15 days giving around 3-4 hours per day.

Big big thanks to the users in the Reddit community for insights about the exam, inspiration, and study tips. You guys are the best. Feel free to ask any questions, I would love to help the community.

I'm planning to take the Security+ SY0-701 exam soon, but I’m on a tight budget.
Do you think it’s possible to fully prepare using just free materials — mainly Professor Messer’s YouTube videos, free practice tests, and maybe some Reddit advice?

Has anyone passed without paying for Udemy courses or the official study guide?
Any tips on what to focus on or which free PBQ-style practice tools to use?

Thanks in advance!

The CompTIA Security+ SY0–701 is arguably the most difficult I’ve taken so far. I scored 763 points in my first attempt and this is how I prepared myself towards this exam. Note that the quality of preparation questions you encounter are very important.

My Background

It was somehow easier for because I’ve been working as an IT Security analyst one (01) year prior to taking my exam. Additionally, I am a holder of the ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (ISC2 CC), a MSc and BSc in Computer Science and a Graduate Certificate holder in Cybersecurity Analysis. This helped to solidify my foundation moving into the exam.

Preparation

Before booking my exam, I started by browsing the Internet and gathering materials that will be needed for this exam from recommended books, instructors, websites, PBQ sites etc. I spent over 4 days gathering materials and drafting out a study and preparation plan. The first steps was downloading the official exam objectives from CompTIA’s website — https://www.comptia.org/training/resources/exam-objectives.

Every morning, I would wake up at 5a.m and study for 2 hours (1Hour on Hack The Box and 1 Hour reading books), and after my work, I would study for 3 hours (1hr on HTB and 2hrs on Security+ notes).

Preparation Resources

1. CompTIA Security+ Study Guide with Practice Tests from Mike Chapple (2 books — $90 CAD) — On Amazon

2. CompTIA Security+ (SY0–701) 30 hours course on CBTNuggets https://learn.adept.at/cbtnuggets/comptia-security-sy0-701

3. Professor Messer’s Free Security+ Study Materials -https://www.professormesser.com/get-comptia-security-plus-certified/

4. Hack the Box Academy — Linux Fundamentals — https://academy.hackthebox.com/dashboard

5. ChatGPT — I used the premium version of ChatGPT (20 USD/m), created projects for my training and leveraged it when I needed more elaboration on a concept. This was one of the best resources as the quality of responses and recommendations from the paid version were far above that of the free version. — https://chatgpt.com/

Exam Questions and Problem-Based Questions (PBQs)

1. Wileys Test Bank aka Sybex (over 360 questions) — https://study.learning.wiley.com/

2. Professor Messer’s question Bank with PBQs(270 questions — Set A, Set B, Set C) — https://www.professormesser.com/get-comptia-security-plus-certified/

3. LabsDigest — 50PBQs — https://labsdigest.com/courses/comptia-security-sy0-701-performance-based-questions-pbqs/

4. ExamsDigest — Over 50 Simulations Exams with PBQs — https://examsdigest.com/courses/comptia-security-plus/

5. Passmall Exam Collections (The most difficult, I barely scored 70% in these exams) — https://passemall.com/free-comptia-security-practice-test

6. CertPreps — Over 90x20 question sets, good quality — https://certpreps.com/secplus/

Home Cybersecurity Lab — Side-learn

In addition to all of these, I built a home cybersecurity lab and got a Fortinet FortiGate with an annual subscription. Got a mini PC with 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD NVMe, 20 CPUs 2.5GHZ, 4gb NVIDIA. I installed and configured over 14 different VMs, practices network segmentation, isolation, air-gapping, access controls, firewall configurations, malware analysis amongst others.

This home lab help me a lot with hands-on as I was able to translate theory to practice.

Exam Revision

During the revision, i set out different sets of questions, all grouped together. I would time myself for 90 minutes and make sure that I stop immediately the countdown reaches zero and evaluated myself. This made me to be very time conscious and as did several sets, i was able to manage my time effectively. Find below my practice sheets.

How I Scored Myself During The Revision

The first exam sets were so difficult that I almost gave up, I was scoring between 60% to 71% and It kept on getting worst as my main issue was time management. I would hardly finish 90 questions in 90 minutes and to be strict with myself, I would stop when the countdown rings and count my marks.

As time went on, i started mastering everything, i was able to finish in 1h20 minutes and I consistently scored between 85% to 98% in the most difficult of the exams. At this point, as Professor Messer would say… “You know you’re ready for the exam”.

Exam Day Proper

On the eve, I made sure I had gone through everything, I slept as early as 9p.m and my exam was the next day at 1:30p.m. In the morning, I revised my notes, did a quiz with ChatGPT and the confidence was high. I drove to the exam centre, It is in a very big shopping mall, i lost my way and was so tensed as my exam was in 45 minutes. Finally after several minutes of doing rounds, I found the centre, got myself registered. I was so tensed, my heartbeat increased, I started sweating.

I started hearing voices in my head telling me how unready I am. I coulnd’t focus. I can assure you, i even forgot my phone number (^_^). The receptionist asked me to calm down, she gave me a bottle of water and ask me to use the bathroom if i wish to. I used the bathroom, washed my face, got inside the exam room and that was it.

The first 10 questions were so difficult, I though I knew them, but the way they were structured was as if it was a reading comprehension exam and not an IT Security exam. It looked like something written in Japanese with a blend of Vietnamese and a small touch of English.

I lost hope and at some point, I was just answering for answering sake. I knew I was done and dusted. The PBQs were just so so so so long and as recommended, I skipped them and took them after the MCQs. I finished the PBQs with 7 minutes to go, went back and reviewed the flagged questions and submitted my exam with 30 seconds to go.

Result Declaration

After submitting, I was asked demographic questions and all i just wanted to do was get to the end as soon as possible and leave that place. I was crying already. My hours of studying, hands-on labs, revision, sacrifices, everything had boiled down to that moment and nothing mattered again.

Once I submitted the review, I was asked to click on a button to see my result and behold, I PASSED WITH 763.

This was it, the rest was celebration++. Now, I am currently preparing for the CompTIA CySA+ exam and I now see how important my homelab is.

KEY NOTES

• Do as many revision questions as possible

• Avoid “FREE QUESTIONS” as their qualities are not the best

• Professor Messer, Sybex and Passmall were the closest to the exam. I highly recommend those.

• NOTE: You cannot reverse-engineer the exam. I revised over 2000 questions, but I can’t remember seeing anything I knew.

• Master the concepts and avoid cramming. If you cram, YOU WILL FAIL, that’s the sad truth.

Thank you for your patience in reading my CompTIA Security+ story and I hope this acts as a motivation for you to achieve yours.

Goodluck in your exams.

Hey Everybody,

I wanted to reach out and see if anybody could recommend practice exams for Sec+ 701. I watched Andrew Ramdayals SEC+ 701 course which is excellent. Upon looking into the reviews of his practice exams though, the reviews are very poor. I also noticed this with some of the end of section quizzes with wrong answers being the right answers, grammatical issues and other stuff. I also looked into Jason Dions practice sets and saw people have brought up there is a lot of grammatical errors, ambiguous answer choices, lack of clarification regarding the answers and stuff that are on his exams that are irrelevant to the exam objectives. Dion is usually my go to guy with Comptia stuff so I was a little disappointed to see his reviews with Sec+ aren't as good as his previous courses.

Has anybody used David Staples, Nasser Alaeddine or Professor Messer practice exams? If so, how are they in comparison with the actual exam? Appreciate any feedback or insight!

Passed SY0-701 | AMA / What I did

Hello all!

After weeks of procrastination in the false sense of “I’ll book my exam when I’m 100% ready” I took my exam last week and passed with a score of 771

This is my first Reddit post and a way of giving back.

Firstly, my background (since most people mention it) : B.E. Electronics. I’ve taken a few electives like “Intellectual Property Rights and Cyber Law” Internship at big 4 and converted to full time in cloud security domain. Close to 2 years of experience in third party risk management etc (PS: This is just for your info, with proper guidance and hard work, anybody can ace the exam irrespective of their background)

How did I study + tips:

1. Comptia Security+ 701 objectives : this will be your best friend. Use it as pre assessment check, revisions and post assessment check.

2. Professor messer free YouTube videos : watch it at 2x. 121 videos in total. Finish it in a week. Keep taking notes.

3. After your first run (step 1 and 2), use the objective as a knowledge check. Revisit videos. Shouldn’t take more than a week. (Considering 3hr of focus time/day)

4. Use Andrew Ramdayls 50 Question video. I could do 46/50. It’s important to know the acronyms and try to explain each option and a justification for choosing(or not choosing) an answer.

5. CyberKraft for PBQ

6. Cyber James practice question series. Will teach you on how to best approach a question.

Practice Exams: Professor Messer’s Paid practice exam. Totally worth it. Time your exams. Don’t panic.

Here are my scores:

• Messer exams: 73/90, 75/90, 78/90

• Out of the ~15 wrong questions, usually got 7-8 wrong as I rushed in reading the question.

The exam: 77 total questions, 2 PBQs.

I wouldn’t say it was easy but all you can do is trust in your preparation and maintain your calm.

Go through all the questions in order. Keep answering the obvious ones on the way and flag the rest. Repeat process until you’ve answered all the MCQs. Attempt the PBQs. Be mindful of the clock.

When did I book: I wasn’t sure if i was ready. I think professor messer’s advice is to book the exam when you average 80/90 in his practice tests.

How long it took: It took just over a month with lots of procrastination. However, keep in mind that I did have some background knowledge on most concepts. I did ISC2 CC a couple of months ago. I covered the content in 3-4 weeks (with a full time job) For practice exams, I did 1 test and 2 days of analysis and revisiting videos. Repeat for 2 more tests.

I did it, you can do it too! That's it from my side. Feel free to ask me anything, and I will try my best to get back to you.

Hello everyone! During my studies I created around 250 flashcards for Security+ (SY0-701) and as a way to give back to this awesome community I made them avaliable for free via quizlet

https://quizlet.com/931359441/comptia-security-sy0-701-flashcards-created-by-jeff-chaplin-flash-cards/?i=1rev54&x=1jqt

Enjoy!