Hey everyone, welcome back to my infosec blog! I am so very happy (and kinda relieved) to announce that I have finally passed the CompTIA Security+ SYO-501 exam with a score of 817/900 on my first try. Now, it may not be a big deal to most people, but I had some severe test anxiety before sitting for the Sec+ simply because I had read the experiences of several people on Reddit and other sites that had years of IT experience and still failed (some even a couple of times!)
In the end though, when I first saw that “CONGRATULATIONS!” screen, I almost lost it. I was so proud, relieved, and giddy with excitement because I saw the fruits of several months (3.5) of studying and prep before me. It’s quite embarrassing to admit but I (a 20-year-old college freshman), was skipping out of that testing building like a kindergartener.
If you’re new here and wondering why I dropped $250 (student pricing) on this cert in the first place, there are basically 3 main reason.
Now, onto why I’m writing this post. In addition to venting my excitement and showboating just a little (hehe), I wanted to share some broad, high-level studying tips and tricks that I picked up from around the internet to help anyone who might be getting ready to take this cert before it expires on July 31st, 2021 which is right around the corner. Along with those, I’ll be including my test-taking strategies and the study plans I used to help me beat the time crunch (which is definitely real) and have the necessary knowledge to confidently answer the confusingly-worded questions on the test with ease.
I hope you find these helpful because I absolutely appreciated the wonderful people in the infosec community who posted very long reviews, experiences, study guides, plans, and strategies on their blogs and Reddit threads. I found them incredibly valuable and truly indispensable resources to prepare me for what was one of the most challenging exams I have taken to date. So, this is my way of giving a little back and sharing what helped me the most. Enjoy!
Now I am a full-time college student with a job and although I’m still a freshman, classes, work, and coursework can get a bit heavy at times. I needed a small window of opportunity to cover a large amount of the subject matter and familiarize myself with most of the vocabulary and concepts. Thankfully, the winter break of Fall 2020 was the perfect opportunity as apparently in college, it lasts a whole month.
I used the winter break to study Darrell Gibson’s study guide book which I bought discounted on eBay for $20. I read a chapter every day and did the coinciding quizzes on the back of each chapter getting consistent 80s & 90s. Once I finished the book in 11 days and aced the readiness assessment at the end of the book, I felt like I was ready for the exam. That’s right about the time when Reddit shattered my confidence and I ended up rescheduling my exam.
The majority of warnings/ red flags I gathered from peoples failures consisted of the following
Suffice it to say, I was worried and had to go back to the drawing board because I felt like I was taking it too easy. I started by dividing my studying into 3 phases. Phase 1 was familiarity and high-level understanding. Phase 2 was a detailed study and key concept reviews to fill in knowledge gaps. Phase 3 was practice tests, flashcards, and PBQ prep. Here’s how I implemented each phase.
I started this phase by rereading and reviewing Darrel Gibson’s entire study guide all over again. I also redid the quizzes which I mostly scored perfectly on the second time around. Once I had grasped mostly all his material, I went ahead and moved to the next phase.
This phase was mostly to address the diversity of learning resources which was a major factor in my exam score. I only figured out how much I didn’t know once I started dabbling in other people’s video courses and prep material.
The shocking thing for me was that each of these resources covered a lot of overlapping material but every so often, I would come across something that was not in the other materials which really made me grateful that I postponed my exam and looked for other things to study from. Once I was confident that I knew all the concepts that I would need for the test, I moved on to the next phase to apply what I had learned and test the breadth of my understanding.
The best and most accurate practice test and prep platform I used was the GCGA SYO-501 Full Study Package which is by Darrel Gibson (who wrote the study guide I read). It costs a cool $65 but I got it discounted for Christmas at $50. It came with hundreds of practice test questions which were actually challenging, 4 sets of accurate PBQs, several other mini-quizzes, and flashcards for acronyms and important tidbits to help reinforce your understanding and gauge your readiness. Here is where I really understood how much more I needed to practice before sitting for the actual test. I bombed most of them in the beginning but slowly began to improve my scores after re-studying the concepts I missed.
Unfortunately, though, my membership expired before I felt ready enough so I found another website with THOUSANDS of practice test questions and 12 PBQ sets. This one is really difficult to explain because most of the question sets are fantastic, but some sets have bogus answers with no explanations so I wouldn’t recommend it as a primary resource. It’s still nice to have but only if you’ve aced Darrel Gibson’s practice questions.
The final resource I used to practice was Quizlet. I never thought I’d use that for this but it was surprisingly helpful. Although there were flashcards in the GCGA package, these were still a great refresher for what I had forgotten or what slipped my memory.
After all my prep, I truly felt ready and was confident that I could certainly pass the exam if it came down to it. I pushed up my test and left a couple of days for rest and to read up on some awesome test-taking strategies. Some of the ones that I found most useful were the following.
If you can manage to do some or most of those things, you’ll be absolutely fine on the exam. Another critical last-minute prep that I did was to review the CompTIA objectives sheet and research or lookup any concept, tool, or technology that I wasn’t 100% sure of. There is also a list of acronyms in the objectives which have some weird additions that I didn’t find in the flashcard, so taking a look at that would be a huge plus.
But that’s about it. In summary, the exam is tough but it’s not impossible. If you study the objectives, diversify your resources, and keep a cool head during the test, I’m certain you’ll be able to get a great score and a solid cert under your belt.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on my LinkedIn!