CompTIA Sec+ Certified!
I passed the CompTIA Security Plus Exam today! I was pretty worried about it due to the scores I got on the practice exam. That’s a whole story. Luckily though, I took what I learned from the practice test and polished up the areas i was weak in, then landed an 84.3% as my final score (759/900). I could go into detail about the day I’ve had and the testing experience, but none of those details matter anymore because i passed! Now for as long as that certification doesn’t expire, I can say I’m a Certified Cyber Security Expert, with credentials to prove it. I dare you to try and hack me (lol, plz don’t waste either of our times). As of right now, the CompTIA website hasn’t updated with my certificate. Hopefully in up to 5 business days, I’ll have it linked on my homepage for you to see.
It’s crazy to me how different the testing experience is outside of school. This is my first “exam” outside of a traditional academic curriculum. It reminds me of taking those big tests like the SATs and stuff, but it’s also different because the subject matter is more “focused”. Which that leads me to my next point that it feels a little broad. I know that’s contradictory to what I just said, but hear me out. There are so many different career paths within “Cyber Security”, and the CompTIA touches on almost all of them. It doesn’t really care what your future or current job title is, It just asks if you know what things are. It’s also very unforgiving by using the insider lingo rather than the official names of things. If you don’t know the difference between DHCP and HDCP, you better start praying. On the practice material I was using, it would at least type out what the acronym meant right after. If you didn’t study, you might as well take the test in another language. It will make the same amount of sense. The other thing that makes it really hard for me is that almost every question has to establish a new scenario. So every question you have to read a short story to know what the context is, and finally answer the question. Combined with the fact that there are so many topics to get through, this issue is almost doubled. Your brain has to switch so many gears around for a question, and then reset for the next one, again and again.
I did it though. I had enough time to go through every question, and even review the ones I wasn’t confident on to double check if I was satisfied with what I answered. Now I can finally stop cramming and explore the world of emerging technologies instead of focusing so hard on the history they came from. I definitely have a decent understanding of where it all came from, so for everything new, I have a pretty good sense of how it works. Can’t wait for what comes next!