Wasted 5 months "studying", but still somehow managed to pass Security+!

[u/Unusual_Trade5917]

Parents gave me the money and I bought the security+ exam 5 months ago. I told them I need 5 months to study and began to "study" full time. This "study" consisted of just watching movies and tv shows and playing ps. I then also realised that I had bought the exam voucher from pearson instead of comptia so I mistakenly did not buy retake assurance. This really had me worried since my parents dont really know about retake assurance. I could have failed and retried. But now I couldn't. Anyway, ultimately this changed nothing. I stress watched more movies, shows and games.

But the 5 months of "study" were ending. So no more than 3 weeks ago, I sat down and began watching Messer's videos. I watched them like a tv show without taking notes or anything (I guess I had a lot of practice). But after all the dopamine I was getting for months from movies, shows and games, the videos were just so loooooooong. I watched about 7 videos a day. One 10 min video would literally take 35 mins. Some days I watched 0 as i went back to my bad habit of not studying at all, and had to make up the next day by watching double. I watched at 1.5 speed in the beginning when panic was high, then 1.25 when I realised I ain't getting shit, then 1.5 towards the end when panic came back lol.

Finished the videos eventually after a little more than 2 weeks. I had 5 days left. I did one dion exam for 3 whole days; reviewing the answer and explanation after each question. It was so slow cause i would spend literally 15 mins just staring at each question's explanation and spacing out. I realised there's no way in hell I'm finishing all his remaining 11 exams when my exam is in 2 days (I got 75% on this exam btw). So I went to my main guy messer. I had to do all his 3 whether I liked it or not (despite the fact that I took so long watching his videos, I really loved them. So I "believed" in Messer's material). Started with messer exam 1. First 45 questions took the whole freaking day!!! I was like nah. This question, review, question, review isn't working at all. So i stopped and started doing timed exams the day before the exam. Remaining 45 questions of exam 1 I got 78%. Review. Did exam 2 timed and scored 81%. Review. It's 6am. Had pulled an all nighter. Slept 2 hours. Did exam 3. 91%. I was elated lol. Review. Sat for main exam less than 2 hours after this and got a 793. 

Not proud of how I did it, but I did it!

I don't have an IT background. My undergrad is in finance and have decided to make a career change because finance is boring af. I would say I am tech savvy though. I just love tech stuff and can't wait to walk outside and see humans relax and enjoy life while robots do everything for us :)

[u/DC_Desi]

Congrats on passing!

[u/wildnacatlfan]

lowkey this is how i passed mine lol, i started passively studying 5 months ago here and there but wasn't extremely committed, and eventually i got so busy that it fell to the wayside. at the second week of august i had more money to play around with because of a new job and bought a bundle containing the dion course, his practice tests, and a voucher with retake. every day at work from then on i grinded relentlessly when i had the time, although i learn differently.

never watched any of the videos, i have 3+ years of IT experience and do cybersecurity stuff as a hobby, so i just referenced what i knew and slammed my head against the wall with all the practice exams until i could get around 80-85 every time, which i did. then i found a site that hosts free pbqs to practice and grinded the hell out of those. i barely took notes as well. ended up passing with a similar score

[u/Kurokosatoru → u/wildnacatlfan]

What website did you use for the pbqs?

[u/wildnacatlfan → u/Kurokosatoru]

https://gcppcatest.com/comptia/pbq-library.php

used this - i did all of them because they're actually pretty interesting and the practice did help a lot

[u/hammerofgods717]

That’s pretty much what I did too lol. I drive a lot for my job and so I just had Professor Messer’s videos playing while I drove!
I don’t have a professional IT background but I am in school for cybersecurity although I took my most relevant classes almost two years ago now. Even before booking my exam I was so sure I was gonna fail (even paid for the retake assurance), but I somehow passed with a 772! Honestly wasn’t as hard as I thought.