CompTIA Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-501 Study Guide 4th Edition

I bought Daril Gibson's book kindle edition which was the best thing I did - it's easily searchable on PC and on my Kindle. Here's how my preparation went and I hope this helps some of you who're looking to take their exam soon. BTW, I passed my exam this week , although not with flying colors, but I PASSED!1. about 40 days of studying - on average 2-3 hours daily, but about 5-6 hours during last week before test.2. Used professor messer videos to understand the concepts plus occasionally other few videos on youtube. For example Kerberos, TACACS, 802.1x etc. topics3. Practice tests from Daril's book are somewhat easy in my opinion - the actual test questions are a lot harder.4. Also used Mike Chapple's practice test questions , those I found some what harder than Daril's book5. Jason Dion's short videos on concepts were also helpful.6. Took my own notes and used them in the last 48 hours heavily.Now about the actual exam:1. Got 5 performance based question , those were super hard so I skipped them after wasting about 10 mins of my time, completed only 1-2 in the beginning. Use the strategies given by Daril on his blog site.2. Some multiple choice questions are too lengthy in my opinion and you need time to read and comprehend and then pick the best answer. They are not straightforward , some of them were super tricky , you have to think hard so 1 min for a question sometimes is not good enough.3. I wish i had little extra time may be another 5 mins so I could complete and review all questions (remember the PBQs will consume your time, I wish I had skipped them entirely in the beginning to save time )4. Had to weed out a lot of unrelated choices given in the answers - your fast reading and comprehension skills will come handy here.All in all, this book is a great foundation for your study experience but you must use other resources to take and pass this exam. It's not an easy one! good luck!

I was looking for the best structured book to do further studying after I received traditional classroom training. This book is probably the best book for Security+ on the market. I also purchased Darril's test question access which also has performance based questions that closely mirror the ones on the actual CompTIA Security+ exam. The other best thing is that Darril's website has audio files which you can listen to while your in the car to maximize you study time more effectively.Structure - the book was structured from simple to complex methodologies and each chapter builds on the next .Digestible content - This exam was not my first rodeo and this book simplified the process of public key exchange which can confuse most students because of their functionality in certain contexts. Darril does an amazing job for breaking down the key concepts and puts them into a real world scenario so you can understand how they are applied.Overall, anyone looking to pass the Security+ exam the first time should use this book, I passed it the first time using his book and test question. I also used another book as a secondary means of studying also which was the Exam Cram book for Security+. Most times I found myself going right back to this book because it was fun and confidence building to read it.Note to future Security+ test takers: Youtube videos will not give you the foundational prowess you need to pass the exam. Without violating the CompTIA NDA, this test is no joke compared to the previous SY0-400 exam, I took approximately four weeks of hitting this book and the website before I scheduled my first take of the Security+ exam.

The Security+ certification was one that I needed to get for career development, and I was underwhelmed by the online training courses offered to prepare for it. This book, however, gave me all of the information I needed to solidly pass the exam! The initial assessment questions were useful to identify areas of particular weakness, and I used the results to focus my studying. The practice questions both in the book and in the supplemental materials provided online were essential, ESPECIALLY the ones that demonstrated how the "exercise" category of questions would work. Taking the time to complete every offered question after reading the chapters was a great way to drive home the lessons.I appreciated the summarizations at the end of each chapter, which focused on especially important bits of information to know before taking the exam. I also appreciated the extensive list of acronyms at the end of the book. As is often the case, knowing the meaning of the acronyms allowed for eliminating one or two candidate answers on more than a few of the exam questions.The 10% discount voucher provided with the book makes purchasing the book a cost saver in addition to an excellent study guide. Buying both the book and the exam cost less than buying the exam alone would have cost, which I appreciated.Thank you for providing a well-written, focused study guide. I was happy to pass the exam the first time I sat it, and that success was largely due to the information I gleaned from reading through this book!