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!

Nearly ruined it for myself! I was convinced my exam was at 2pm today, so I showed up at 1:15, had a drink and review my notes. Went to the proctor at 1:45 and she immediately gave me an annoyed “be on time next time”. Not knowing at the time that I was late, I have to admit I let it get to me, I’m pretty sensitive. I spent the entire exam being annoyed and wanting to get out of there. It was only after I was in the bathroom an hour later that I realized that I was lucky to be allowed to take the exam at all. I was even thinking of going to apologize to her, but I wasn’t rude to her or anything.

With that out of the way, I passed with a 761/900. No, I don’t like my score, but I went into this exam with a terrible attitude (which honestly started way before exam day because I’m feeling burned out from studying). I raced through all the questions in 25 minutes and had to force myself to review for another 20.

It felt easier than Net+, there are more questions that are straight to the point. Still, quite a few tripped me up. Can’t quite figure out when compTIA wants me to consider FDE or remote wipe. I’m thinking, remote wipe is only good as long as the device remains online. But I digress, I passed, I’m happy, I wanna move on.

Here are my study methods:

• CompTIA Security+ Study Guide with over 500 practice test questions These practice questions are good! Sometimes their website doesn’t work so I’ve done the chapter practice questions and the two full practice exams on my phone. My scores for the full practice exams were: 98% and 84%.

• Professor Messer’s Security+ 701 course and study sessions Can never go wrong with the Professor. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford his practice questions this time around.

• Jason Dion’s practice questions set one. I didn’t like these questions. There were a lot of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors which resulted in making the questions harder than they were, because what are you even saying? My scores were: 76%, 77%, 82%, 76%, 81% and 72%. I didn’t make these questions the focus of my study.

• Also didn’t really focus on examcompass much this time around, I took tests on exam day and scored 76% for test 3 and 60% on test 19. Please note that I didn’t take the percentage based on points, but the (lower) percentage based on questions that I answered correctly.

Just wanted to do another quick shoutout to Andrew Ramdayal, his “50 practice questions” video gave me the confidence I had enough knowledge to pass.

Shoutout number two goes out to Pete Zerger, his Security+ exam cram videos are absolutely fantastic. I learned some new things a day before the exam. His videos are not fully uploaded yet, but if you need a quick review, you can check out the completed modules. If you need to review a short topic, the completed modules are also available in smaller videos.

Okay, that’s the trifecta over and done with. From start to finish that took me a little less than five months. Though, I’m not done with compTIA just yet, I like this structured way of learning. I have to do Linux+ sometime this year and I’m definitely interested in moving forward with what I’ve learned so far.

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 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 just passed a few minutes ago, so obviously the first thing I thought to do was tell the internet.

I almost psyched myself out of taking this test. My big tip is to organize your studying materials, figure out how much time you have a day to study, and schedule the test. You can always reschedule if something comes up but I found that setting a date really organized my studying. I was just aimlessly reading materials before I scheduled.

The test is about half vocabulary test so flashcards helped me a lot. I made flash cards from the CompTia study guide book, which you can find here: https://quizlet.com/quizlette1077795/folders/security?x=1xqU&i=41kvrg

I had studied using the 601 guide and ended up taking the 701 test but I didn't notice anything totally foreign to the 601 materials on the test.

The PBQ questions were interesting. I had three out of 77 questions total.

Also, of you are a student or still have access to student email you can get a discount on price of the exam. It's significant. https://academic-store.comptia.org/certification-vouchers/c/11332

Study materials: Flashcards from 601 CompTia guide Professor Messer videos Professor Messer practice exams (these are the most like the real exam style) Jason Dion Udemy course Jason Dion Udemy practice exams (harder than the real thing in my opinion)

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.

Score 788. Had a total of 75 questions (3 PBQ, 72 MCQ). Finished in about 75mins. The 4 PBQ had questions on setting up VPN, security logs reading to determine origin, infected, clean hosts, Cloud deployment with instances WAF and load balancer. The MCQ questions are mostly one to two sentences. The key to answering them correctly is to differentiate between similar answers. Example: business email compromise vs phishing vs pretexting. Sometimes the questions are harder to answer with little information given. Example: what are the example treatment for continuous risk? Email filtering for phishing attempts.

I started my self study from comptia’s book. Only managed a 50% rate from the end-of-chapters test questions. I’m not sure if prepping at ExamCompass helped as the exam did not test on acronyms at all. But having a good pass (75%) on ExamCompass made me feel more confident. My background is a system administrator for security product for about 2years. Degree in cybersecurity. Had AWS architect cert. Having this background helped me with basic knowledge at some of the domains tested in Security+.

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.

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 am pleased to share that I passed the Security+ SY0-701 exam yesterday and would like to express my gratitude to this group for the support.
Balancing my preparation with a full-time job, I dedicated approximately one month to study. However, with consistent focus, it's possible to achieve this certification within 2-3 weeks if you can commit around five hours of study each day. The SY0-701 exam covers fewer objectives compared to the SY0-601, making it more manageable for focused preparation.

Preparation:

For my main study materials, I relied primarily on Professor Messer’s YouTube videos. The content is concise, well-structured, and easy to comprehend, allowing me to grasp each topic efficiently. His teaching approach is direct and stays on track, which I found highly effective.

I also purchased Professor Messer’s practice exams, which include three sets of questions. These were instrumental in identifying my weak areas and improving upon them quickly. Additionally, I supplemented my preparation with Dion’s practice exam set 1 on Udemy, though I found the quality lacking due to poorly worded questions and grammatical errors, making it a less valuable resource. I wouldn't recommend it. There are also good practice exams available on YouTube from Cyber James and Andrew Ramdayal.

For performance-based questions (PBQs), I found Cyberkraft’s YouTube videos particularly helpful, as they cover a broad range of PBQs in depth.

Exam Experience:

The exam consisted of 77 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and 2 PBQs. Roughly 30% of the questions were quite tricky, while the remainder were more straightforward and similar to the format of Professor Messer’s practice questions. If you have a strong grasp of all exam objectives, you should be well-prepared to pass.

Tips:

• Thoroughly review and understand all exam objectives.

• Make use of as many practice exams as possible to identify and address any weak points.

• Focus on understanding the purpose and implementation of key concepts, rather than memorizing acronyms. You will not be asked to simply provide full forms (e.g., DMARC), but rather how and when such concepts are applied.

• Don’t stress too much about memorizing port numbers.

Well, folks, I passed the CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 exam with an 800 in just one month!

Here’s how I survived this rollercoaster—grab a drink or maybe two.

What I Used:

ChatGPT voice model: Big shoutout to Ember; she helped me understand things like a tutor.

Jason Dion’s Course on Udemy and his 6 extra practice exams : Dude’s a great teacher, and I have nothing but respect. Unfortunately, his course is a bit dry. Still, it gets the job done and helps you understand the material. Just be prepared to question your life choices and your sanity when you tackle those practice exams!

Pocket Prep question bank and mock exams: Quick 10-question quizzes you can do anywhere, including the bathroom. Once you are through most of them, I would start the mock exams—just be prepared; they are rough.

CyberCraft YouTube Videos for PBQ practice: Full of insights that stick. Pro tip: Write down your answers first and then follow along with the video.

Quizlet: Great way to study the acronyms, ports, and protocols. You will be studying this every day.

Step 1: Set Your Exam Date Book your exam and commit to that date, or you’ll end up doing anything instead of studying. (My professor in college said your brain retains information better if you do an exam within 30 to 60 days, and it has always worked for me.)

Step 2: The Magical Whiteboard If you’re taking the exam online (like I did), there’s a whiteboard feature! Use it like it’s your own personal dump station—just put everything you can remember on there before the exam. Think of it as a lifeboat for your sinking ship of knowledge. (at the end of the exam, I could barely remember my name.)

Step 3: Daily Dose of Dion I watched and listened to Dion’s course while commuting, at the gym, and even during dinner. Every chance I had. Then I’d read the study guide following what I had learned that day from the videos, jotting down notes and discussing them with the ChatGPT voice model. (It really helped me out.)

Step 4: Acronyms and Ports Acronyms are like that one friend who shows up uninvited but you can’t quite get rid of. Get to know them; they’ll be everywhere. Just remember, spaced repetition is your best friend here. Some acronyms will feel like a walk in the park, while others will have you questioning your life choices. I’m pretty sure my test was created by a team of sadistic crossword puzzle enthusiasts—“TMI” might as well have been on there!

Step 5: Pocket Prep for the Win I decided to invest in Pocket Prep, and boy, was that worth it! The interface is smoother than a buttered slip ‘n slide, and the motivational emails made me feel better about myself. I went from a shaky 50% to a comfortable 85%. Do most of the premium questions before the mock exam. (I did all 1000 questions.)

Step 6: Mock Exam Madness Once I wrapped up Dion’s course, it was time to tackle the 6 mock exams . These felt tougher than a steak you get from those TV dinners. Between Dion’s mock exams and Pocket Prep, I was sweating bullets (Definitely no tears; it was totally sweat). But here’s the trick: don’t just memorize the questions; actually understand the material! Scoring 80% on both Dion’s and Pocket Prep’s mock exams felt like finding a twenty in your old jeans—a total surprise and a reason to drink! Just a side note I feel like these test are harder then the actual test but they really make you think which helps on the exam.

Step 7: Last-Minute Panic Session With just four days left, I dove headfirst into PBQs and polished everything up like it was a classic car. (I would recommend to look at the exam objectives and circle the ones you don’t know so you can review it)

Exam Day: The FUBAR Chronicles Now, let’s talk about the chaos that was exam day. I have a special place in my heart for Pearson VUE, and by “special,” I mean I loathe it with every fiber of my being. Everything from booking the exam to taking it was like pulling teeth. Pro tip: do a system check a day before, or prepare for a mini meltdown! My MacBook Pro M1 worked fine and passed the checks the day prior, and then on exam day, the software decided that it wouldn't work with my Mac, so I was forced to run and borrow my brother’s Asus Zenbook, which has more than enough processing power and a dedicated GPU. ( login to the test an hour prior if your taking it online to work out the kinks)

Make sure your testing area is cleaner than an operating room floor. I was dinged by the proctor over staplers and a paperclip. (Once I moved them, we no longer had a problem, but seriously, one paperclip?)

Then, three questions in, my mouse started lagging like it was trying to escape my grasp. I thought, “Is this a new PBQ where my Bluetooth is being sabotaged?” I was thinking CompTIA really outdid themselves. So I switched to the trackpad, and it still did not work. I begged the proctors for help, and they told me they could not do anything and that since the exam started, there is no refund.

I discovered I could navigate with the Tab key and the arrow keys. So if you have an issue like this, use this method. The PBQ took me a good 20 minutes thanks to the mouse fiasco.

In the end, I powered through like a pro. So, here’s my advice: embrace the chaos, take good notes, and when in doubt, lean on the community for help.

Good luck, future test-takers—may your acronyms be clear, your proctors be lenient, and may your exam day be less chaotic than mine (because let’s be real, I think I deserve a medal for surviving that).

You’ve got this!

Hello,

CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) has 5 domains
domain 1
domain 2
domain 3
domain 4
domain 5

Q1. How much percent (%) is required to pass the CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) exam? Is there any place on CompTIA website where it is mentioned clearly because I didn't find this information in the objectives?

Q2. I want to know, in the exam, do the questions come in a sequential manner like first, they cover
a couple of questions from Domain 1
Then, a couple of questions from domain 2
and so on...

or do they come on random bases from all the 5 domains for ex:
The first question can be from domain 5
and the second question can be from domain 2
and so on...

I’ve been studying back and fourth for this cert almost 3 months, I did 1 practice test last night from udemy and I got a 46%

Everytime I take practice tests I get extremely discouraged.

And everytime I study I can’t seem to understand if the term means one thing or a completely different thing (I’m saying this because the practice exam made me think about selecting an answer that I THOUGHT was right, but no it was the answer next to it).

What exactly do you guys do to study for the sec+? There are a lot of terms, and Im not a fan of professormesser because idk I feel like I need a deeper understanding of the terms and he just doesn’t do it for me.

Dion idk he seems alright but the way he says things I can’t understand him alot.

Maybe I’m just slow?

How should I approach practice tests, and how should I approach learning all these terms? I’ve used ChatGPT for alot of my studying and that got me absolutely nowhere.

Maybe it’s not for me and I wanna throw in the towel but I don’t want to give up without atleast trying the full real exam and weather I pass it or not, I just wanna see if I could even attempt it.

Hey everyone!

I’m currently studying for my security+ exam and I’m looking for some extra practice questions. I’m currently doing Messer’s practice tests and I’m scoring around 70-80%, but I want a few more sets of questions (free preferably). Anyone have any good suggestions for some quality free questions? Many of the free tests I’ve tried have been pretty bad

I just passed my Sec+ exam a few days ago with a score of 795, and wanted to document my process on here, so those that haven't taken the exam yet can hopefully learn a few things. I only studied for about 1 week, with minimal prior experience in Cybersecurity/IT but I think that a month of studying using the right materials, resources , and techniques will easily get most people 750+.

So just a disclaimer: this is just how I personally passed the exam. I'm not claiming that this is the best method out there, but I do think that it is certainly better than spending $200+ on textbooks and potentially more for bootcamps/courses etc. I also want to say that a fairly big part of the learning process uses the assistance of AI (chat GPT), but ONLY FOR LEARNING purposes. I do NOT condone cheating, nor do I think it's a good idea to try on a test as strictly proctored as this one.

Firstly, lets go over the materials. I spent around $35 total on studying for this test (exam voucher not included). here's the breakdown:

-Chat GPT+ ($20 monthly subscription, not required but HIGHLY recommended)
-Jason Dion's Practice Exams ($15 on Udemy)
-Professor Messer’s CompTIA SY0-701 Security+ Training Course (Free)

Now here's the learning structure:

First, you need to watch all of Professor Messer's videos on his website. They are great videos that break down the basics and covers absolutely every topic of the exam. The downside is that they don't go into extreme depth about each topic. The videos are also sorted by domains already. If you didn't already know, there's 5 domains covered by the test:

• Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

  • Focuses on recognizing various threats, attacks, and vulnerabilities, including malware, social engineering, and advanced persistent threats.

• Architecture and Design

  • Covers secure system design principles, cloud security, and the implementation of security controls for both on-premises and cloud environments.

• Implementation

  • Emphasizes the deployment and implementation of secure networks, cryptographic solutions, and identity and access management controls.

• Operations and Incident Response

  • Focuses on monitoring, detecting, and responding to security incidents, as well as performing digital forensics and using incident response procedures.

• Governance, Risk, and Compliance

  • Covers risk management practices, compliance with regulations and standards, and security policies to ensure organizational governance.

Now that you've watched all the videos, you should have a very basic understanding over everything. It's okay if you don't remember everything, because the next step is to dig deep and gain a true understanding of what everything is and how they work. You never want to just sit there and try to memorize acronyms; that is the biggest waste of time in the world. Instead, try to actually gain an understanding of how these processes work and function together. This is where chat GPT comes in. You will take the practice exams with the assistance of GPT. There are 6 tests in Dion's practice exams, which totals to 540 questions overall. You will take the first test with the help of GPT, asking it to answer any questions you don't know, and prompting it to simplify the idea and explain it to you as if "you were 5 years old." Then, you want to take the next practice test alone, without the help of GPT. Keep alternating until you finish all 6 exams. Any questions that you missed while taking the exams, you need to thoroughly go over using GPT.

Good luck

Hey guys! It's me again! After some thought and consideration, I'd love to share my notes/study guide that I used to pass the Security+ exam! I've had a friend who used my study guide as a resource say it really helped me pass the exam as well! So might as well give it to the community and help future exam takers as well, or may I say the future Security+ certified!

For everyone who asked from the last post, here you go!

Ultimate CompTIA SY0-701 Security+ Study Guide

It's all organized per lesson! Each lesson has a heading where under each lesson has a topic, and under each topic has the chapters!

I enabled bookmarks for easier navigation as well! There's also a Table of Content where if you click on the page numbers, it takes you directly there!

Enjoy everyone and happy studying! I hope it helps!