Customer Reviews

CompTIA Security+ Review Guide, Includes CD: Exam SY0-301

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Update 9/12/2011: I passed the exam today; 833/900. Not stellar but OK. There were questions on the exam that were not found in any of the three books I used. Many questions were poorly worded or didn't contain enough information to properly answer the question. I found that to be true with both A+ and Net+. Aside from that, I still found this book to be excellent. Use it along with the Mike Meyers Passport book and use it for cross referencing. Unlike A+ or Net+, the Sec+ exam is pure memorization with little problem solving. Skip the monstrous Sybex book. It has way too much information not pertinent to the exam. This book is right on target but contains some errors that you will want to cross-reference with the Passport book.
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I haven't taken the test yet but I thought I might review this book before and after the test. As best that I can tell, there are only three SY0-301 books available right now and I think I have all three: The Sybex book by Emmett Dulaney which I don't like, the Mike Meyers Passport book (really written by T. J. Samuell), which I like, and this one. What I really like about this book is that it follows the Security+ objectives exactly. The other books you would literally have to cut apart and rearrange them to get them in the order of the objectives. However, I guess the reasoning behind that is that if you follow the objectives exactly, there are topics (SQL injection for example) that aren't fully defined until later in the objectives. Before you start studying, go to CompTIA website and print out the objectives. You will find a lot of repetition in the objectives, which probably is why the other two books are so out of order. However, this book ignores that, and does repeat itself, which is good. I would not use this book alone to study. I decided to take a two book approach (as I have always done for A+ and Network+) using the Passport book as a first read and now this book to type up my note sheet, following the objectives in order. That way if you see a topic that hasn't been defined yet in this book, you will know what it is already from the Passport book. I haven't looked at the chapter review questions yet or the CD so I can't comment on those. The CD's are usually a disappointment anyway and nothing like the real exam. I like to do those after I have completed and studied my note sheet.

Pros: Follow objectives exactly. "Understand" sections give a concise one or two sentence definition review that is useful for note sheets. Most topics are clear and concise without extraneous information. Excellent diagrams.

Cons: Some topics are a bit confusing or not developed enough. Use a two-book approach.

Definitely worth your money.

I used this book and Wikipedia for the majority of my preparation for the Security+ exam, and felt I was adequately prepared for the exam. I have a background in computer security, but feel that this approach would be good enough for someone who lacks any training or experience in this field.

One thing I would have liked to see more of is practice questions. There are maybe 60 questions in the book itself and a 100 or so on the CD; however, the way the questions on the actual test are written made me wish I had more practice answering questions where I had to choose the BEST response.

Great resource, used it as my main - studied for about 5 weeks and got a 825/900. Combine it with ProProfs free study guides and cram sheets and you will be good to go!