If you're someone who's planning to take the CompTIA SY0-501
Security Plus exam, then you probably
already know that CompTIA is one of the best known names in IT
certification.
The Security Plus exam itself is a great place to start.
It builds a nice foundation that you
can use in almost every aspect of information technology.
Many employers consider the Security Plus certification
to be a good prerequisite for many of their open positions.
And if you're looking to get your foot in the door,
this might be a good option for you.
The Security Plus exam is also one
that covers a very large number of topics
dealing with information technology and security.
So if you're someone who perhaps might not be looking for a job,
but you'd like to expand your knowledge of information
security, this is a great place to start.
CompTIA has many different kinds of members,
including manufacturers, vendors, end users of computing
technologies, and they all take advantage
of the ability to have vendor neutral certification.
We used to have certifications that
were very focused on specific manufactures products
and with CompTIA certifications, you now
have a very broad vendor, neutral certification
to rely on.
CompTIA is an organization that is recognized around the world.
And many of their certification exams
are offered in many different languages.
You'll need to check the CompTIA website to determine
if your language is offered in your geographical area.
If you're watching this video, then you're
probably already interested in my Security Plus training
course.
This is one that I've created to cover
every topic from the CompTIA Security Plus exam objectives.
My name is James Messer, I have over 25 years
of experience in information technology,
ranging from supercomputer operations
through systems engineering and finally into IT security.
If you're someone who is looking for certifications,
then this might be a great place to start to get trained
on everything you need to know for the Security Plus exam.
I've created this Security Plus course,
to provide you with exactly what you need
to pass the Security Plus exam.
Each video is a series of topics that are self-contained.
So you can watch as little or as much
as you'd like in one sitting.
You have a lot of choices for a video training,
and I wanted to create a series of high quality videos
that anyone could use to get their certifications.
Our goal is to have a very strong foundation
of technical professionals that can use this content to get
a job or get a better job.
This entire Security Plus course is available for you
to watch online for free.
Every minute of every video is available,
and you can watch any of them at your convenience
by simply hopping online.
There's no registration.
And I'm not hiding any videos behind a paywall.
If you need an offline version of my courses,
you can purchase one online, and I also
have a series of course notes available.
That's something that you might need
to go along with your studies.
Everything that you need to find is
available on my website at ProfessorMesser.com.
To earn your Security Plus certification,
you need to take a single exam, it's 90 minutes in length,
and you could get up to 90 questions during the exam.
You're graded on a scale between 100 and 900 and of that scale,
you need to get a 750 to pass your exam.
There are six different domains in the Security Plus
certification.
The first domain is threats, attacks, and vulnerabilities,
and that consists of 21% of the exam materials.
Domain number 2 is technologies and tools,
that's 22% of your exam.
Domain 3 is architecture and design, that's 15% of the exam.
Domain four is identity and access management,
that's 16% of the exam.
Domain 5.0 is risk management, that's 14% of the exam.
And the last domain is cryptography and PKI,
and that is 12% of the exam materials.
If you're prepping for the Security Plus exam,
this is the bare minimum of what you'll need.
First, you want to get the Security Plus exam objectives
from the CompTIA website.
They will tell you every topic that you
need to know to be able to pass the exam.
You might want to consider watching those videos.
The entire course is available for you to watch online.
Consider getting a good book, GTS Learning has a good book,
but there are many out there for you to choose from.
You might want to discuss some of the topics
from the exam with other IT professionals.
And I have a chat on my website that's
at the bottom of every page, you can jump into a chat room
and ask questions of the people that are there.
And I always recommend that you get as much hands
on as possible.
You want to be able to use some of these skills
to be able to implement them in the real world.
And those are the things that you'll
be tested on during the exam.
Before you schedule your exam, I have some tips for you.
The first is to use those objectives that you downloaded
from CompTIA as your checklist.
That way you'll know exactly which topics you've mastered
and perhaps which ones you need to work on
before scheduling your exam.
You might also want to stop by your local exam center
and see their testing location.
See if it matches the type of testing environment
that would work best for you.
And don't forget about taking care of yourself,
the day before the exam, make sure you get plenty of sleep,
that you're eating properly, that way
you can walk into the exam and focus on the exam topics.
I also recommend that you plan to arrive a little bit early.
They might be able to start the exam early,
or you can spend that time sitting in the lobby
and going through some last minute
notes before walking into the exam room.
During the exam, you'd like to have the entire experience
to be as positive as possible.
So if you're in an exam center where something is bothering
you, there's a lot of noise, perhaps
the environment itself is not one
that is conducive to taking an exam,
make sure that you stop immediately and let the exam
center know so that they can address the problem right away.
You also want to think about the time management
during your exam.
The first few questions that you get on the Security Plus exam
are what CompTIA calls performance-based questions.
These are not multiple choice questions,
they're a little more involved.
So I recommend jumping over those questions,
finishing all of the multiple choice,
and then coming back to address the performance-based questions
at the end.
Another strategy that you might want to consider
is checkmarking the box at the top that says, mark,
so that you can mark that question to review it
later on during the exam.
With the CompTIA exams, you're able to jump to any question
during the exam at any time.
So one of the things I recommend is
to get through all of the questions
as quickly as possible and then go back to the beginning
and begin reviewing all of the answers
before submitting the exam.
Once you hit the Submit button, you'll
know immediately whether you passed
or whether you didn't pass.
And in either case, make sure that you get the print out
from the exam center.
It will tell you what sections you might need to work on
for next time, or it will tell you
what the score was that you ended up getting
on the final exam to pass.
In either case, you have that piece of paper
as a documentation that you were able to pass the exam,
or it's going to give you some tips on what
you can work on when you come back to take the exam.
So now you've got a number of resources
you can use to start working towards your Security Plus
certification.
You've got this entire training course
that you can use to step through every topic from the exam
objectives.
You've got a real-time chat on every page of the Professor
Messer website.
I provide live monthly study groups for Security Plus
questions and answers.
You can join us live, or you can watch any of the replays
on my website.
And my Security Plus course notes
are also available on my website at ProfessorMesser.com.
I wish you the best of luck with your studies
and good luck with your Security Plus certification.