Security+ Certified

It's been a good week.  I am CompTIA Security+ Certified as of March 21.  Just 14 points short of the full 900.  It didn't seem as bad as I thought it was going to be.  But I did have the help of others taking the exam with me at about the same time.  We did get a chance to bounce questions off of each other and we did all pass.  It's pretty cool.

Tips for passing: 

1: Read the material test specific materials once.  Reread the things your unsure of.  I think I may of missed stuff on port numbers and TACACS+.

2: Practice Tests.  Probably the best thing you can do.  It was probably the thing that solidified the test material the best for me.  I highly recommend Exam Collection.  The have lots of practice exams that are almost word for word.  So going into the test you should have a pretty good idea of the questions you will see.  If you haven't seen some of the questions, you should of seen some variation of the questions.  

3:  Repeat but focus on the stuff you are missing consistently.

If you are concerned about passing the test, I would highly recommend doing practice tests.  It'll give you a feel for how the test is structured as well as provide a decent study guide.

As for the simulations:  I didn't really have much practice for those.  From what I've seen from other blogs they were started for the 301 series of Security+. Fisrt simulation was a matching portion where I had to identify things a person would know, have, or are.  For example a password is something I know,  a CAC card is something I have, and a finger print is something I "are".  I've heard that another matching set of questions was a port to protocol matching simulation.

The second simulation that I got was a firewall writing question.  I was given a scenario where two departments and a set of admins could only hit a certain set of servers.   Then you had to select the source and destination IP addresses, the port used for a protocol between them, and whether or not it was TCP or UDP.  Four pieces of information over Four lines.

For the second simulation, I've also heard that there could be a question where you have to assign servers to locations where they would be on a network diagram.  You'd be given 16 kinds of servers and you have to place them on the network for a certain configuration.

Supposedly there were 3 simulations but my third simulation didn't seem like a simulation since it counted as my first question.  My question ended up being about doing forensics on a system.  It wanted to know the order in which you would capture images of a breeched system.

That was my experience with the test.  I hope that it helps.  Remember to read up and do practice exams.  If you do that much, you will do fine.  Good Luck.  

If there is something else that helped you out, post it down in the comments to help others taking the test.

Brief Volunteer Commentary

Just realizing that with all the volunteering that I do, I need to find a way to scout out other opportunities that happen to a rise on a yearly basis.  For instance, I just found out about the St. Louis Comic Con today.  If I would of known about it a month ago I would of signed up forever ago.  I've signed up but with a few days to the event, who knows if I'll get tagged up for it.   Not much to do except roll with it and be prepared next year.  Sometimes volunteering you hear about stuff way to late.  It's the hearing about it that matters the most.  

It's the hearing about stuff way to late that I need to fix.  I shouldn't be missing interesting stuff like Comic Con.  I blame myself for it.  I have been assuming that things like it only happen in California or something.  It's okay, I'll survive.  I'm gonna have to dig around a whole lot harder for some of these events.

If your interested in the event sign up for it.  May have to search around a bit on your own to find out where to sign up but it'll be worth it.   If you happen to know of anything interesting that happens to need volunteers, especially in the St. Louis area,  let me know down in the comments.  Otherwise Volunteer on and keep rocking.

I've also gotten a chance to cruse around St. Louis on a golf cart this past weekend for St. Patrick's Day parade festivities.  Pretty sweet event with one of the few events with a 5 MILE run prior to the parade.

April is shaping up to involve a KDHX phone drive (please show your support at KDHX.org), St. Louis  Earth Day, and FIRST Robotics World Championships.  Their is also the St. Louis MicroFest at the beginning of May.  Check them all out.  They are all interesting events in the St. Louis Area.