Wow, that feels good to say! Hadn't taken a formal test like this in a long time. There were definitely some parts of the test I wish I could go back and redo now that I've had extra time to think about them, but a pass is a pass. I've been scrolling through this subreddit using all the passing scores as motivation to keep my energy up while studying and to try and keep myself from getting too intimidated or second-guessing myself....but I still got nervous during the exam and needed most of the time allotted. So I guess I'd just like to say: 1.) Thanks everybody who's been posting their success stories on here, as someone whose nerves get the better of them often it actually was very encouraging. 2.) If you've got an exam coming up, you've got this! Just keep going, keep studying, and keep calm and you'll get there. Sorry for being corny, but it is what it is. Also, as per usual, shoutout to Professor Messer for all the free study material (and the Stargate references) and Dion Training for course videos/practice tests. Definitely a good combo for learning the material and prepping.

As for the test itself: I think I had 70 or 75 questions including the PBQ's (my nerves were a little fried so I can't remember the exact number, sorry). A lot gets made of the PBQ's, as I'm sure everyone knows. That was the aspect I was most unsure about going in. All I can say from my perspective is, yes, some of them are hard. Some are also easy. Some look complicated at first but then you find a piece of information that makes everything click into place and you realize it's actually simple. Don't let them scare you. Also don't let them distract you- there were a couple of times where I was introduced to things I didn't know/felt like I hadn't heard of in all my studying...but then I broke the problem down and the parts I didn't know felt mostly irrelevant to solving the questions at hand. Just keep your focus on troubleshooting and solving the actual problem the question is asking and you should do fine. My only small gripe would be that it did feel a little heavily biased toward printers. I've seen that echoed here a lot and would have to cosign.

Anyway that's my spiel. Hope to be making another post about passing Core 2 around a couple of months from now when I'm done studying/find time to get to a testing center!

I've seen a lot of these threads but was curious to hear recent experiences. I'm planning on taking A+ core 2 soon, but the testing center I took core 1 at (was great) is closed for the summer. The next closest is over an hour away so debating on doing online.

Felt bad after skipping one of the 4 PBQs luckily had 20 minutes to spare at the end to figure it out. Guess I was worried for nothing.

So, where the hell is the study material for this certificate? Is this one just kind of under the books certs? I have A+, Net+, Sec+, and a few other certs from other vendors, all of which have plenty of study material. CLOUD + HAS LIKE NONE. No YouTube course, no practice tests, no nothing really.

I just need to take it for school and heard the Certmaster is really bad, and I dislike Certmaster from my A+ and Net+ experience, so I watched a random course on Udemy and do not feel prepared at all!

Even on Reddit, there's like no info about this cert. I saw like 3 Reddit posts from people making the same complaints a few years ago and getting the same random responses. One of them just gave them tips to remember acronyms.

Any practice tests or courses you guys used to get the cert?

I’m really anxious about taking my SEC+ exam. I’ve been basically studying on/off since January but the past 2 months I’ve locked in and really given myself the time to study. Ive used dion training Udemy course and professor messer as my resources. I’ve taken 3 practice exams (the one given with the dion training Udemy course) and scored 72-86%. I think I over studied but when I took my A+ exams I couldn’t help but be so anxious and that led to me getting stuff I shouldn’t have gotten wrong to be wrong.

Hi guys!
I’m preparing for the CompTIA Security+ exam and I’ve been watching Professor Messer’s videos, but honestly, I find them pretty dry and boring 😅. I’ve watched about half of them, but I’m having a really hard time sitting in front of my laptop and watching videos for that long.
Is there any other way you recommend preparing for and passing the exam? I’m hoping to finish and take the exam within 3 weeks.
I’d really appreciate any advice! 🙏

Not gonna lie, the test was hard.
I had 5 PBQs and 70 mcq
Some question wording was really confusing; at one point, I thought I was gonna fail.
I studied for 6 weeks on and off.
Professor Messer and Dion's practice test.

I did 3 out of the 5 PBQs; it was difficult too.
One piece of advice: practice router and switch troubleshooting.

Anyway, I'm glad that I was able to pass.

Sec + next.

Any advice for the Net+?

I used Messer and Dion, plus flash cards. My fiance got me to start Vyvanse for my ADHD and boy did it pay off...

I was super nervous because I did a proctored OnVue test, but shout out to Josiah! Real chill proctor, I kept stroking my beard in thought (never covering mouth) and he didn't seem to mind. It's a habit...

But, anyway, the PBQs were really interesting actually, I had fun doing those! I feel like I missed a ton but somehow it still came out fine... I'm not entirely sure about the scoring system... I think I nailed the PBQs though (at least I think I did they were pretty easy.)

I only had 70 multiple choice questions and I think 5 PBQs... (I had seen people say 90 but I guess it's random?) I had ONE single question about ports (not even memorization or matching, just a troubleshooting question...) and like one or two about the various Wifi types or the twisted pair standards... And I studied those hard as hell! I did have a bunch of printer and hardware troubleshooting questions, I'm pretty sure that was the majority of my test. The cloud virtualization ones I know I missed a few and nailed a few too.

I'm going to jump on Core 2 now and knock that out as well!

Hello, on the CompTIA website it says that you can renew multiple certifications if you retake the exam for your highest certification. However, which certifications are 'higher" than others doesn't seem to be stated anywhere on the website. For instance, I know that Security+ is higher than A+, but this isn't explicitly stated, to my knowledge.

Does anyone have a diagram or something that can be referred to? Thank you

I went in and it was like the college courses and study material I took were useless. There was nothing that could have prepared me for what the test was actually like. So I have no idea what my next steps are. Or what to do

Hii, for context I've been thinking on going for a cybersecurity path in my studies/career, I am 23 y/o and its been a long time since i've studied... So i looked a bit into it and saw that I have to take the comptia security+ to start, then the eJPT and idk what follows, guess I'll look into it once I take those two, one step at a time hahahah.

I wanted to ask if I need some studies prior to the comptia security+, if so where can I look for them? I don't have much experience with IT besides having a pc(?)

Also if you got some tips or want to comment something that might be good info or interesting I really appreciate it too🤟🏻

Also, is it very hard? Not only this examn but others that i might take if I follow the cybersecurity lane

Thank you!

I got done with Sec+ a few weeks ago, took a break and now I want to start studying for CySa+.

I was wondering how long it took people to go for the exam after Security+? How much of the content from Sec+ was in CySA+? What resources did you use? How challenging are the PBQs? What resources did you use?

Any advice or suggestions would be highly appreciated :)

Thanks!

Finally got Network+, Security+, and A+ in that order. It was a struggle but gladly ended up getting them, CySA+ en route.

I received a job offer today that's contingent on me getting a Security+ certification before I start. The company wants me to have it done in the next two weeks. I have a computer science degree and 5-6 years of experience as a software engineer, but I don't have any experience as a security professional specifically. How realistic is it to do this, and what is the best way to study in such a short amount of time?

I'm currently trying to take a test but to do that we need an ID. We're trying to get me a state ID, but by the time it gets mailed to us my school might not be able to reimburse us anymore. We do have a temp ID though, and although it is literally just a piece of paper it has all the ID things. Photo, signature, everything. Would it work, or do I need to wait?

It felt pretty similar to Security+ and I have all other certs up to this point so maybe that’s why it wasn’t so bad. I used pocket prep every night the week leading up to my test. I was concerned about the labs and I used AI to simulate potential labs I could run into, and it actually helped because I ran into some questions that i otherwise wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for the AI labs. Happy to answer any questions as well

Just took NET+. Tons of studying went into it and late nights. Just really glad to have passed! Thinking of Sec+ or A+ next. What do yall think?

After a couple years of on and off studying I finally got my trifecta done and over with.

Ps I’m most likely going to go for my CYSA+ next and I heard talk that they recently updated that so what would yall recommend as good study material for that cert?

Hey everyone!

Passed me Sec+ and CySA+ within the last month. Currently working in a NOC and studying for my AZ104. Long term goal is to get in to cloud security.

Plans for projects are to get a Sentinel instance spun up and maybe use Microsoft's free allotment of cloud compute to build my own "company" and harden it.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated and if anyone has any study questions I'd be happy to answer if I can!

Hey everyone, I'm ready to get my focus on again and conquer another CompTia badge!

For context - I work as a IGA Administrator and my interest for development is to go into IGA Engineering.

Everywhere says A+ would be unnecessary and to go straight into Net+ as it will benefit this career path but I wondered your opinions?

I'm also very basic on networking so know this one will be a mountain but wonder whether I'm OK to go straight in with v limited knowledge?

Thanks all :-)

So I passed the security + with a 780 but during the test it seemed much more difficult than the score I got and a lot of the questions seemed very bad and not very straightforward. Does anyone else have the same experience ?

Honestly I'm really pissed that I failed the exam. I felt like I understood the material very well but I guess not???? Material used was professor messor and Dion. I used Dion practice exam and the latest score I got was 93% and I would get a consistent 70-80. Idk if the PBQs were what messed me up the most but those bothered me a lot. Any help is appreciated.

I have about a year left to renew not sure how I can rack up the 50 ceu quickly?

This will be my first time ever taking CompTIA and diving into IT. I've studied for a year and feel like I'm just about ready just need to brush up on a few topics here and there. One thing I'm mainly worried about are the pbq's has anyone else taken A+ I'm curious to know what it's like overall. I'm taking core 1 first before core 2

After studying for a month, I finally passed my CySA+ certification!

Short Background: I already have a lot of experience in backend development, not so much in regards to Cyber Sec. Just enough to recognize and understand the best practices when it comes to security. Now I've been recently asked by my employers to take this certification, which was nice and all since they covered the fees as well as the review materials. I took the version 4 because I was already half-way through my review material when I realized that it was for the new version and not version 3. I didn't want to start again and just powered through.

What I Studied: Now, what I used was the CySA+ Complete Learning Bundle which had the CySA+ CertMaster Learn + Labs and the CySA+ CertMaster Practice V3. I was able to study version 4 for the Learn + Labs, but only version 3 for CertMaster Practice. I tried exchanging it for version 4, but they wouldn't let me since it was already redeemed.

How I Studied: I went through all the materials, then spent a lot of time doing the practice test included along with the module quizzes. I also did the CertMaster practice which was just helpful but I felt that it was different from the v4. I'm not sure, but I could say that it was still helpful for the exam. ChatGPT was also helpful for reviewing PBQs and asking for sample logs that I could practice reviewing. I also practice with how you'd use tools but they did not come up.

The Exam: I would say that I got lucky. I only had 3 PBQs, they were mostly focused on deduction work. The actual exam was harder than I anticipated. There were questions that were not covered by the materials that I had but my work experience was able to make up for it. I was positive that I would fail which is why I was so thankful that I passed.