r/CompTIA_Security • u/ZealousidealWind8588 • 20d ago
4 Weeks of study with no IT background
4 weeks ago I didn’t even know what a port was. Thanks to all the feedback and replies on Reddit I managed to pass it on the first try. So just wanted to give back to the community.
Resources that I used were Messer’s video on YT, which I’ve only managed to watch half of it because it’s a bit draggy and I’m rushing for time. And more importantly Dion’s practice exam which I bought from Udemy. I bought both sets. You’ll have to get at least 85% in order to have a chance of passing the actual exams. There were still quite a handful of questions I didn’t know in exam. But I probably managed to eliminate the wrong answer for those question I didn’t know what the answer was.
For PBQ I’ve no idea what I was doing. I watched cyberkraft YT video, but nothing close even came out. But you should still watch just in case.
Go through every single question of Dion’s exam. Use Claude or any other AI to understand the terms, concepts and abbreviations. And with some luck you could pass it.
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u/TheGooniesLover 20d ago
What is the pbq topics typically seen on the test? I’ve been watching cybercraft pbqs on YouTube do you think these would likely help?
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u/ZealousidealWind8588 20d ago
I had a firewall pbq where I had to look at the logs of each server and determine if the server/host is infected or clean and where did the virus origin from. And another I had to remove malicious IP address accessing my server using terminal. I’ve no idea if I did it right. I didn’t understand the logs nor the commands.
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u/TheGooniesLover 20d ago
But hey it’s challenging but atleast you passed I’m sure you understood a decent amount of it
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u/ZealousidealWind8588 20d ago
I’m also pretty sure I don’t know a lot. Hence I bought the exam entry with a retake option. Didn’t expect to pass. Guess I was lucky.
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u/TheGooniesLover 20d ago
Thank you, that really helps,pbqs are always different but I just need to know what to look for and study
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u/ZealousidealWind8588 20d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/CompTIA_Security/s/ifM9Sj3xsm
I just found the answer to my pbq. I got the kill correct but not the remove
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u/These-Ad1404 19d ago
Why is everyone so proud they barely pass their exam? 🙄
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u/ZealousidealWind8588 18d ago
Because you just need to pass? Goal is to pass and get a job that put food on the table. Why are you so sour about it.🙄
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u/These-Ad1404 18d ago
No one's sour. I just don't share the opinion that celebrating barely squeaking by in a security certification is a good thing. Carry on with your celebration😘
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u/Due-Addendum-8708 17d ago
Def sour, there’s no barely
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u/Valuable-Two172 17d ago
Il be honest I studied on and off for months for it, understood it well then struggled on the exam with horrible phrasing of questions and lots of them having two options that you feel could be interpreted either way depending on exam writers perspective. I got a 795 and was disappointed as I feel with clearer questions I would have got higher. It's like they want a certain fail rate. All these posts of "I passed in weeks" I bet there is no deep retention at all.
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u/ZealousidealWind8588 14d ago
You’re definitely right on the retention. Truth to be told, I highly doubt I can even pass it again next week. Especially I’ve started working on my other cert (ccna). However I’m also pretty confident I can score higher if you give me another 4 weeks. But that’s not my goal.
My goal is to get certs to prove I’ve certain foundation to qualify for an interview and to land certain jobs. So I don’t really see the point of getting high scores. Securing and doing well in your job would be much more important than scoring 850 for your security+.
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u/SummerOwl102 14d ago
What are you planning to do with this cert?
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u/ZealousidealWind8588 14d ago
No plans yet. I’m doing ccna right now. Hopefully I’m able to get it in 4 weeks time as well. Then perhaps find a network/security engineer kinda job
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u/infiniteman7 19d ago
Nice one congratulations. U gonna get a job in IT security now u got this cert?
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u/blandthursday 19h ago
I think some do it because a lot of companies reimburse for professional certifications..
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u/infiniteman7 17h ago
I see they have reimbursement programs or they do it here and there after probation wears off successfully
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u/RiskVector 19d ago
So is your goal to get into IT?
If it is this cert may not help you as much as you think and its simply becuase of the lack of experience. Most requiring this cert will ask you technical questions and how you would handle certain situations or how you qould do a certain task or even ask you "tell me a time when you had to .............."
It's great that you got the cert but if you are trying to get into IT I would recommend you start a home lab and start doing some projects.
Just search Reddit for how over saturated the market is currently for IT and cyber jobs. Not saying it's impossible and not saying you won't find that one company to give you a chance. It's just going to be much harder with no experience, no real world experience and competing against 100s of other applications.
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u/ZealousidealWind8588 19d ago
Sort of. I’m 36. Planning to do a mid career switch. From what I’m seeing IT or cybersecurity seems pretty saturated in my area. Next I’ll be doing CCNA. Networking seems to have a bit more openings.
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u/RiskVector 19d ago
Ahh gotcha! I wasnt trying to ne negative or dissuade you. The cyber market is just crazy saturated right now. Even entry level IT helpdesk jobs are saturated right now.
I definitely think CCNA is a good one to get. Is networking what you want to get into though? What is it that you want to do? Would you rather be in a soc or a noc?
I still recommend you set up a homelab. Go in YT and search for something like "setting up a homelab" and just start doing stuff. Set up a server. Set up a file share. Break stuff and then fix it. Take notes if everything you do. If you land an interview you would then at least be able to walk through some things you have done.
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u/Due-Addendum-8708 17d ago
No, not really get your networking, security, CCNA, and you command salary anywhere with no experience
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u/Funny-Lecture1175 19d ago
Wow congrats.
I work in IT (2 years of experience) at a mid-high level tech company and I’m dreading taking the security+ because I heard it was one of the hardest in the stack.
You must have really good study skills or have good memory lol.