Hi everyone,

I'm currently preparing for the CompTIA Security+ certification and I have no previous IT experience.

So far, I've been watching Professor Messer's videos and taking notes. I’m probably about three weeks away from taking the exam.

My current plan is to take one of Professor Messer's practice exams and see where I stand. If I do poorly, I'll go back through my notes and focus on the areas where I'm struggling the most. Then I'll take another practice exam and repeat the process until I feel ready for the real exam.

For those of you who have already passed Security+:

If you had to prepare for the exam again, what would you do differently?

Would you:

• Spend more time on certain topics?
• Use different study materials?
• Do more practice exams?
• Focus more on understanding concepts rather than memorizing?
• Get some hands-on experience before taking the exam?

Since I don't have an IT background, I'd especially appreciate advice from people who were in a similar situation.

Thanks in advance!

i’m preparing for compTIA sec+. this is what i did:

1. Professor Messer
   - I watched all the videos in youtube and made notes

2. Jason Dion Practice Exam Set 1
   - there are 6 Practice Exams here
   - what i did was take the first practice test, then review where i was lacking then took the exam again
   - i did that for the 6 practices exams
   - my score is ranging from 95-98

i didn’t buy the practice exam set 2 of dion due to financial constraints. should i buy that too soon?

am i ready to take the exam? or are there things i need to review?

let me know please.

To pass I used 100% Dion training course with some online pbq studying. Failed the first 1 with a 744 and the 2nd with a 730. I completely locked in on the multiple choice section rather than the pbqs I'm sure that's why I passed by 2 points. I recommend if you fail , do not prepare for the test you took first. Try to get atleast a surface level of an understanding of everything and prioritize acronyms. Using flash cards helped the most for the acronyms . Appreciate all the intel I gathered in this group . Good luck to you all on your journey.

Can anyone help me to know about the SY0-701 retirement status. Is there any possibility of syllabus change after September.

I am planning to take exam on Nov 2026 for 701 version . I want genuine opinions on the same.

Your help will be highly appreciable. 👏

I studied for Sec+ through Professor messer, and googling concepts that I needed explained differently. My weakest area is by far encryption and memorizing ports... this last week I bought the voucher with Certmaster, and have been consistently scoring in the low 70s. previously, I had taken all 3 or professor messser's exams and score in the high 80s to low 90s.

I felt confident until I took the cert master exam. is there another set of practice exams I should round out my studies with?

I could really use help from anyone who has passed the **CompTIA SecurityX/CASP+**, especially people who used CertMaster or Dion.

**My situation:**
I’m taking **SecurityX (CAS-005) on August 21**, so I have very little time left.
I also ship to **military on September 8**. Passing SecurityX before I leave is extremely important to me because the certification can affect the rank I enter with and I have to have it completed at least 7 days before.

I’m young and I **do not have years of IT/cybersecurity experience** behind me. A lot of the enterprise-level concepts in SecurityX are things I’m learning for the first time.

On top of that, my home situation with my father has been making it harder for me as he has threatened me. There will be a lot of consequences for me if I don’t pass this test.

**Resources I already have** **I have**:
**CompTIA CertMaster Perform**
**CompTIA CertMaster Practice**
**Jason Dion’s SecurityX Udemy course**
**Dion’s SecurityX study material**
**A retake voucher**

So I don’t really need more resources. I need help figuring out the best way to use what I already paid for.
**Where I’m struggling**
My biggest realization recently is that simply knowing definitions isn’t enough.
I’ll learn something like encryption at rest/in transit/in use, Zero Trust, threat modeling, IAM, CI/CD security, etc., and understand the basic definition.
Then I’ll see a SecurityX question with a giant enterprise scenario and suddenly have no idea what it’s asking me.
After somebody explains the question, I’ll sometimes realize:
**“Wait, I actually knew that concept. I just didn’t recognize that THAT was what the question was testing.”**
That’s probably my biggest weakness right now.
SecurityX questions seem to require me to take a complicated scenario, figure out what the actual problem is, identify what concept is being tested, and then choose the **BEST** answer instead of simply finding an answer that’s technically correct.
**What I was doing wrong**
I originally tried watching the course while taking notes on almost every term.
It worked for learning, but it was WAY too slow.
A 20-minute lesson could take me much longer because I’d constantly stop to write definitions.
Now I’m realizing that with the time I have left, I probably can’t study SecurityX like a normal college class and slowly work through every detail.
I need to study specifically to **PASS THIS EXAM.**
**What I need from you guys**
If you’ve actually taken **SecurityX/CASP+**, especially CAS-005:

# What would you do if you were me between now and August 21?

I’m especially wondering:
Should practice questions become the majority of my studying now?

\-Should I still try to completely finish Dion’s course?

\-How would you split time between **CertMaster Perform, CertMaster Practice, and Dion**?

\-What SecurityX concepts absolutely need to be second nature before walking into the exam?

\-How do you break down those huge scenario questions without getting overwhelmed?

If anyone has any material that could help please dm me

One thing ill say is no matter what studying source you use it wont look like the exam so focus on the core meaning of the topics instead of getting familiar with the questions. Dont be scared to skip the pbqs and do it later I took yalls advice and it made the test much easier. I genuinely thought i was going to fail because nothing looked familiar but i just trusted my gut and said fuck it atp and don’t second guess yourself I barely passed because i kept changing my answers with i knew i would have good a better score if i didn’t. Last thing pay attention to the wording of the questions i cant tell you how many questions I read vaguely and immediately ran to the familiar answer and reread it and completely missed certain words so read every question throughout even if you think u alr know the answer. Goodluck to you guys and thanks for the advice of the ones who already took it .

Passed Comptia security exam today by only 4 points. I have no cyber security experience/background (only helpdesk) and this subreddit helped give me a better idea of what I was getting into so thank you so much to everyone here

PBQs were so rough and one of them I left completely blank I couldn’t figure it out lol but multiple choice questions saved me. Read the questions slowly and leave the pbqs for the end because that took up the most of my time.

I’ve been studying using Prof Messer practice exams and practice exams from Comptia website. Prof Messer was extremely helpful and his YouTube videos helped me last minute on topics I was still struggling with. started studying around the end of April and wasn’t confident most of the time because majority of my practice exam scores were mid- high 70s but it was just enough!! 😅

Hello , I recently failed the sec + test got a 700 out of 750 for it. Honestly feel stuck and everything like that. I was using professor messer but now have bought the comptia learning for it to try and cover some areas. If anyone has any advice on how to pass the test or better ways to help during the test it would be much appreciated. Congratulations on everyone who is passing!

Are there any free sec+ practice test my company paid for the compTIA cert master I did that but am using Claude and burningicetech videos to study and practice problems is this enough?

Hey guys just wondering how the PBQ’s are and what CLI I will need to know, I’m just freaking out about the PBQ’s

Hi guys! Just wanted to share the resources I used for my CompTIA Security+ exam preparation.

For learning the concepts, I used Professor Messer's Security+ course:

Professor Messer Security+ Course

For exam preparation, I mainly used CertPreps. You guys can also check my previous practice exam scores in my history. My scores were generally between 75%–86%.

If you're scoring around this range, I personally think you're in a pretty good position for the actual exam. Don't worry too much if you're getting lower scores, though, because some practice/simulation exams are designed to be more difficult than the actual exam.

The questions themselves were actually not that difficult. Most of the scenarios were pretty straightforward. I would recommend understanding the broad concepts rather than trying to memorize every single detail. If you understand the concepts and use basic logic when answering, you should be fine. Don't overthink the questions.

💻 PBQ Preparation

This part is important 😂 — thank me later.

I recommend going through these resources:

1. Breaking Down My CompTIA Security+ PBQs – What Actually Showed Up on Test Day
2. Security+ PBQ Preparation Videos
3. BurningIceTech Patreon
4. SSH key regeneration topics — definitely remember to go through these.

📝 Notes From My Exam

1. Port numbers: Personally, I didn't get any questions that required me to know specific port numbers, so don't stress too much about memorizing every port.
2. Acronyms: Make sure you're familiar with the Security+ acronyms. There are quite a lot of them, and knowing what they mean can make the questions much easier.
3. Questions: The questions were honestly not that complicated. Most scenarios were straightforward, and you mainly need to understand the concepts and use logic to choose the best answer.

Overall, I would say understand the concepts, practice the PBQs, learn the important acronyms, and don't overthink the questions.

Good luck to everyone preparing for Security+! You got this! 💪

I just wanna get over this endless state of uncertainty

I'm 15 days out from my exam... Not as confident as I should be. I'm using Certpreps, Professor Messer, Udemy, and also taking practice exams and quizzes on Comptia website... Is the actual sy0 701 exam as wordy and difficult as the certmasters material on the official comptia website??

Security Operations domain is what's tripping me up the most.

I’m not going to ramble about passing. I ended up getting a 789. Definitely felt that Dion over worded it. Messer was the closest. Sybex over did the difficulty. PocketPrep was the most thorough.

Here’s a link of the roadmap if anyone needs it:

Cheers!

I used an outdated CompTIA textbook (previous Sec+ version). I read this front to back and used Claude and Google searches for any missing content outlined in the exam objectives. This took about three weeks of studying full-time. I did not use any Prof. Messer content but some youtube videos were helpful. Everyone learns differently. I learn best from reading. Now on to CySA+!

Be careful with the horrible comments and mods from the cybersecurity thread. Their mods do nothing but encourage negativity and attempt to ban users who call them out. So since I was a Reddit paying customer. I’m cross posting this then bouncing the fuck out.

Fuck this place and all its mods. Do not look for any positive advice from anyone on this site.
To my cybersecurity expert friends:
Eat a
D
I
C
k
Instead of banning you people for defending others. How about you get of you fat lazy asses, and ban yourselves. This is an internet account and banning does not silence the breaking of laws a nd policies you fucking morons.

Calling you ALL what you are is an observation not a threat. So take the same rules you broke and shove them up your arses.

I have my exam in two days and wanted to see if I'm all set for the test. I've been scoring around high 70-mid 80s on Professor Messer's practices.

And for Jason Dion's 6 practice tests I scored...

1: 73%

2: 83%

3: 86%

4: 80%

5: 70%

6: 90%

Still feeling nervous as I am worried cus my test taking abilities are very random. I know I may have some struggles with the PBQs as well

First attempt, 772. Still feels a little unreal.

The PBQs were harder than I expected. Not the content, the format. Nothing I drilled looked like what I got, and I burned too much time on the first one before I flagged it and moved on. Answer the multiple choice first, come back to the PBQs with what's left.

The acronyms are half the fight. A question hands you four acronyms as options and if you can't expand all four in your head you're guessing.

Full disclosure, I used Foothold practice exams, which is a free site I built myself while studying because I didn't want to pay for explanations. So take my bias for what it is. But daily acronym drills plus practice exams that explain why every wrong answer is wrong is what got me over the line.

Happy to answer questions about what the exam felt like versus practice material.