I took the Security+ exam back in 2020 when covid hit. It had always been a goal of mine to pass as I heard from many people that it would be a good entry level cert into Security.

The Testing Experience

I took the test via OnVue and was super nervous about potential issues from all the horror stories of online proctors. Luckily, I didn’t experience any issues when taking my exam and everything ran smoothly.

Like lots of others I thought I had failed for sure during the test. I flagged all PBQs and dedicated about 30 minutes after finishing the multiple choice to go over them. I ran out of time in the end to double-check all of my answers but made sure to submit something on all of the questions regardless of whether I was sure or not.

Resources

  • Darril Gibson’s GCGA
  • Professor Messer’s Practice Exams and Videos
  • Jason Dion’s Udemy Practice Exams
  • Mike Chapple’s Cert Prep (Linkedin Learning)

I mainly watched Prof. Messer’s and Mike Chapple’s videos at 1.75x speed to help clarify things I didn’t understand.

I spent about a month of serious studying and dedicated about 4-5 hours of study after work. I ended up passing with an 825.

What was helpful for me

Practice Exams! The practice exams really gave me an idea of what I needed to focus on. I wasn’t scoring very high on Dion’s practice exams (low to mid 70s) but on Prof. Messer’s exams I was getting mid to high 80s. I would definitely recommend purchasing Prof. Messer’s exams as they were super helpful.

A year and half later, I have found that while the cert did help me with gaining basic security knowledge, it wasn’t very helpful for helping me land a job. I don’t think that companies value the cert as much as people say they do. I would still recommed getting the cert as it definitely teaches good foundations that are important during interviews.