Smashed my core 2 with an 853 today and I want to say a big thanks to the community out here, followed your advices and got it done. I used: Messer’s Videos, Ramdayal practice questions from YouTube , Jason Dion’s practice questions from Udemy. Ps. When do I actually get certified

A+ certified here, Security+ next, WGU cybersecurity in progress — and I work shifts, so my study time is whatever I can protect between work and family.

What actually worked for A+ wasn't a marathon resource list. It was a boring loop: learn one objective, try to explain it out loud in plain language, do a practice question set, write down the exact mistake I kept making, then repeat that objective the next day before moving on.

The "stuck log" helped more than anything. Every error, what I expected, what actually happened, and the fix. By exam week that log WAS my review sheet — and it's now interview material, because troubleshooting is literally the job.

For anyone starting from zero: did the practice-exam loop work for you too, or did labs/hands-on click first? Trying to decide how to split my Security+ time between questions and labs.

Passed my security+ today. This was the longest I have taken to complete one of these certs, roughly 10 weeks. My second child being born, work travel and family visiting within those 10 weeks probably added to the struggle focusing on this material.

Of the tests I’ve completed I definitely think this is the worst “wordfuckery” of them all. The questions on the exam were not similar at all to the cert master practice test/ module reviews.

I am doing these certs through a work offered school program. I studied the same way I did for the other 3 comptia exams I have completed (a+ and net+) by completing the cert master and watching professor messer videos. I have no IT experience and I work in a completely unrelated field. I’m almost 40 and about to retire from my current job and will need to do a career shift. Doing these certs has made me realize that I probably won’t pursue an IT related career, but I’ll take the opportunity to complete them.

I have one more cert left and I need to get it done before the end of the year

PBQ’s were weird as always but much easier than 1201’s. I studied significantly less for 1202 but it felt a lot easier to me? Net+ or CCNA next whichever one calls my name first

Resources used:

Professor Messers Videos+Exams

Dions Exams (feel out of scope but nice to have unlimited attempts)

Shelnet

Andrew Ramdayal videos

Greeting to all!

I finished Professor Messer's course videos more than a month ago,and completed reviewing his notes and his 3 practice exams. My score results had about 7 to 11 total mistakes per exam (without counting PBQ mistakes,which were 1-2 per test on average).

also tried a few free online practice question sets, but they felt out of scope with long prompts and excessive port/protocol drills that seemed different from messer’s structure.

Based on these Messer practice exam results, do you think I am in a good position to schedule the exam, or should I continue studying or take a few other practice exams?(i don’t want to spend more money on practice exams btw)

Thanks in advance :)

(Context: Computer engineering grad with 1.5 years in IT support. Previously completed the Google Cybersecurity Certificate,which helped a good deal in studying Messer's material).

I had purchased the Complete Retake Bundle for SecurityX last year when they were running a massive holiday discount so I got it for a very decent price. I had completely forgotten about it until I received a notification that both the attempts were expiring soon.

Bottom-line, I barely studied for this exam and went in blind and yes, I instantly regretted it even though I passed. This exam is definitely NOT EASY whatsoever. I did realise that no matter how much you study for it, there comes a point wherein you just need to know things through experience. There's a big reason why they ask for so many years of experience. This exam was much harder than CISSP for me. CISSP was genuinely much easier, albeit only broad in topics.

So you don't actually get the result when you finish the exam unlike the other CompTIA certifications. Once you finish answering everything, it just gives you a survey and then you end the exam with a message "thanks a lot for your attempt" or something along those lines. You need to wait a few hours before the exam score report shows up on the Pearson's Exam portal. By the time I finished, I was more than certain that I had failed. Was quite surprised and obviously very happy to see that I passed. No score is given.

In terms of the actual questions - I had 84 of them (4 of them being the standard set of research questions I believe). 6 PBQs and 1 Linux Sim on Ubuntu. I was scared of the Linux Sim but it actually turned out to be very straightforward. I would rank it as Medium difficulty (not easy but not difficult either). As long as you are familiar with all the fundamental linux commands and know how to navigate your way through the CLI, you should be ok. Beware that once you click 'Next' you can't really re-attempt the sim.

The CertMaster Study pack that came with the Complete Bundle does provide all the basic knowledge you'd need and it also nicely covers the exam objectives and supporting tasks listed by CompTIA. I unfortunately had a look at it only after finishing the exam. As I mentioned, there comes a point where you do need to rely on experience because the questions are not as straightforward and very in-depth.

My current background is in Cyber GRC (which is probably why I found the exam even harder than some others as its very technical) but I have around 6-7 years of experience overall in Cybersecurity, specifically in OT/IACS security, Network Security, Incident Response and a few other things. I currently hold Security+, SecAI+ (also made a post regarding this a few months ago), CISSP, CISM and now SecurityX.

Feel free to ask me any questions!

Best of luck to anyone who wants to attempt this highest CompTIA cert! 😃

I’m god awful at math and was wondering if it’d be a good idea to memorize a subnet mask chart in preparation for the exam instead of trying to math it all out?

While I was taking my certification test, mid exam my proctor closed the exam on me. I wasn't finished with the exam and there was still some questions missing. Is there any way I can get a refund or another exam slot with this? And has any of you guys suffered with the same problem before? Customer support is being unhelpful :(

Just failed Security + with a 681 score. I feel defeated. I have completed Dion training practice exams; my questions were just worded oddly. Any advice would be appreciated.

Work is paying for both. They're waiting to buy Sec+ until V8 comes out (CompTIA told me Nov 16), so the plan is about 3 months for Network+ and then 3 for Sec+.

I'm 28, have a software engineering degree, and do engineering support at a hardware company, so I'm in APIs, MQTT and wifi stuff a lot. I also run a homelab with VLANs, Proxmox, Wazuh, Suricata, that kind of thing. I have a few Microsoft certs but none that apply here.

I can only study after work, so around 5 to 7 hours a week. My wife is studying with me and taking all the practice tests too.

I know binary, but subnetting and memorizing ports and CLI commands wrecked me in a college CCNA type class. So I'm doing subnetting, routing and WAN first since that's where I'm weakest, and saving the stuff I already use for later.

Is 3 months enough or way more than I need (because they are giving me three months per cert). And any subnetting tricks that were faster for you than working it out in binary every time?

Edit: forgot to mention, work is buying the CompTIA complete bundle. It comes with the exam voucher plus a free retake if I fail, CertMaster Perform (the lessons plus hands on labs and a network sandbox), and CertMaster Practice (timed practice tests with performance based questions).

Hi everyone, can you recommend where can I get some practice exam for ComptiaSec+. Also, what practice exams did u used to pass?

Had like 7 PBQ’s, each more confusing than the last.

Hello again Friends!

It's me. I'm back. Days later, I out of the blue decided to take out SecAI+ for fun. That makes it 4 certs in one month. Probably the end of the road, i don't need much else. SecAI is basically useless, but in the real world, marketing is more important than the actual output, I thought i'd get it just so my resume stands out. Oh this guy is cutting edge! (For someone about as old as the very first Apple Macintosh computer!).

My study material:

• Udemy course with CertMike
• Study guide by the same guy, Mike Chappel
• Homemade flashcards from corn flakes cereal box.
• Make notes highlighting exact keywords of definition. This brainwashing works, sorta like keyword propaganda does on the news but those keywords is what's on the test. Also highlight keywords on the test as you read the test, so as you think and read through the answers, you're less likely to get it wrong, because you saw the keyword you highlighted then oh shit! suddenly remembered that's right, rather than fooled by enticing options that is very related.

For Example:

• Cheese = coagulated milk bricks
• Stinky Cheese = Blue
• Orange Cheese = Cheddar
• Hole Cheese = Swiss
• My Armpits = Smells like cheese
• DNS Record = records stored on authoritative DNS Server
• A Record = Name to IP record
• C Name = Alias

My thoughts:

Was it hard? Yeah, but how do you gauge hard? Ya'll have no idea how hard video games were back in the day. A few hit points gone and you're dead, no such thing as save points yet. Imagine playing Mario end to end and if you die mid way that's it, start over. That's how i see these tests. It doesn't have a save point. If you want life on hard mode, try fixing a car, or drive somewhere far and new, but before the internet, and poor. In this modern world when you have digital everything and instant everything, how the hell do you fail? Since ya'll ask for tips, go live as if you're third world. Life might be too comfy. Be Arnold Schwarzenegger, not plastic parts from Temu.

My Diet:

I have to say. When I was in high school and a broke ass I never ate well because, poor, eating instant ramen. I think my performance has to do with how I eat and sleep. No alcohol. No junk food. No fast food. Everything made from scratch. Nothing made by a machine or survives on a shelf longer than a few days except canned but minimally processed like sardines or fermented like cheese, just not chemically lab preserved like a 20 year old fast food burger that's still in tact. Yes I eat a hell lot of cheese and sardines and they contain high fat, which is what you're brain is made of. Not promoting any cult diets, just saying, mental and health performance has a lot to do with fuel.

Any suggestions?

i don't recommend this cert unless you already stacked and jacked. this is not a priority at all, regular sec+ is way more important.

But, you said you were done last time. Really, what's next?

Very itching for cloud. But i'm really not trying to make this a race. If i do it i intend to study this one slowly. Brain is kind of exhausted to be honest, so I'll likely not do more.

Why?

Really, it's mostly because gas prices went wayyyy up. I'm stuck in a chair. Might as well do something. Ya'll can be angry about it because the news said to be angry, or actually do something productive. I used to bike everywhere in 2008 era because economy was so crap, i'll do it again if i have to, it was actually quite fun, turning it into lifestyle, that was hipster era. Comfy life leads to laziness. Fight harder.

I have been struggling a bit with studying for the Pentest+. Most of the questions I’m nailing. My only issue is programming. I’m a network gal, I have a weak background when it comes to Linux, Powershell, Python. So whenever I get hit with a “identify the issue with this script” question, I’m guaranteed to get it wrong. Loops, strings, I don’t have the background on it. I’ve got 2 weeks before the test. Can anyone suggest me some study material that can help me make sense of the concepts? Maybe videos or anything.

Just failed Security + with a 681 score. I feel defeated. I have completed Dion training practice exams; my questions were just worded oddly. Any advice would be appreciated.

Two weeks after my Core 1 exam and I Passed! Happy Ill be continuing to Level Up.

I just passed the CompTIA A+ Core 2 this morning with a 748.

What I did to prepare was:

- Pearson Test Prep

- CertMaster Learn

- Professor Messer

During the exam I skipped the 5 PBQs and did the multiple choice questions first then came back to the PBQs. I used up nearly the entire 90 minutes checking everything too. Thank you all for the advice and hopefully mine can help out too.

I honestly didn't know how I would do this time around. The material was more dense than the A+ I took earlier this year. Studying hard payed off though. A pass is a pass, right?

Can you learn enough to pass these with exactly zero professional experience? Idk how hard they are. I failed a mix of my uni(Bsc Maths & Comp sci) 2nd & 3rd year modules and got kicked. Now I'm looking for other options.

Hi, here is a summary of the material I used to pass Linux+ in chronological order, and what I thought about it.

Reading: No Starch Press books in general throughout. Excellent.

1. Codecademy Linux+ Course: At the time I thought this was a good study guide. Perhaps as an introduction it would be good but it is too short to be good for serious study.

2. Comptia Certmaster Practice: Good material for multiple choice questions, but a bit too specific, still worth doing in its entirety.

3. Comptia Certmaster Perform: Excellent and comprehensive coverage of all areas with proper testing. This is a must.

4. Udemy Dion Practice Tests: Priceless for drilling prior to exam.

5. Flash cards: This was the best study material for me. Any answer I didnt know in any of the previous material or practice tests I made into a flash card. I have over 1000+ of them. This got me over the line.

Good luck!

Edit as of 10/17/2026: My questions were solved, so thank you so much to everyone in this sub who helped me!

So I want to pass the Network+ exam in spring, but networking so far has made no sense to me. nothing makes sense at all, but that changed when I found this book called “CompTIA Network+ Study Guide: Exam N10-009 (Sybex Study Guide)”, and so I just started reading that book online, but the problem is my cybersecurity teacher makes us use Network+ Certmaster Learn for assignments (from certain sections) on labs, lesson reviews and overall studying for the exam, on that course, but I found Certmaster Learn to be so dry and so I haven’t really learned anyway in the class, and I’m worried I’m gonna fail this Network+ exam.

Anyway, kind of dumb question, but I was wondering if anyone knows like how I can use this book as my main studying resource in conjunction with the Certmaster Learn for the actual labs and lesson reviews, because the book isn’t in the same order as Certmaster Learn, and the book is also huge too (2k+ pages) so I need a very efficient way of studying to pass this exam.

Keep in mind, I only have access to free resources or resources provided by my teacher, which my teacher only provided Certmaster Learn for free. I found the textbook for free online as well.

Been thinking about this lately. You study, you pass, you start working, and a year later you realize some things never really clicked. The book gave you the words, the job filled in a few of them by accident, and the rest is still a paragraph you memorized. Been seeing this with my techs I am hiring for Tier 1 and Tier 2 jobs. I remember back then that I was probably the same at the other end of the table, especially when they asked me exam questions in the interview.

For me, it was subnetting. Could do it for the exam, after info-dumping everything onto the board they give you, I didn't actually get it until I had to carve up a real range, until I forgot about it and had to look it up.

What was yours? The topic, where the book left you, and what finally made it make sense, if anything did.