9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book, but you will need complementary materials to get certified, March 4, 2009
This review is from: CompTIA Security+Study Guide: Exam SY0-201 (Paperback)
The book is built on a clean language, the ideas are well organized inside each chapter, but you could perceive that chapters themselves are not in the optimal order...Sometimes you have to jump from one chapter to another to cover completely an idea exposed in this book.
On the other hand, you will have to buy additional simulations and practice questions to complete your preparation, because this book does not offer you practice questions with the appropiate level of complexity compared to the real exam.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Book no where near enough to pass the current exam, August 3, 2009
This review is from: CompTIA Security+Study Guide: Exam SY0-201 (Paperback)
This book needs an update badly! I took the most current version of the exam and this book by itself was no where near thorough enough to pass it. I was able to pass ONLY because I have been in the industry and have hands on knowledge of the topics covered. This book itself was no help at all honestly because most of the questions on the exam were VERY detail oriented and this book is more of a high level overview for beginners. I would honestly recommend reading the exam topics in the CISSP exam guide to understand each topic (for instance cryptography and virtualization which by the way is barely mentioned in this book and I had at least 10 detailed questions on it) in detail in order to pass the exam. I give the book 2 stars only because it is great for beginners looking to get into the security field, just no where near enough to pass the exam - at least not the one I took.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Decent book, but there are better ones, December 14, 2010
This review is from: CompTIA Security+Study Guide: Exam SY0-201 (Paperback)
This is a review for the CompTIA Security+ Study Guide 4th edition.
I am a trainer/course developer for a technical school and am in charge of developing our new Security+ course to begin in 2011. I reviewed this and several other books (along with other study materials) to use in the course.
This is a decent book, professionally written, and reads fairly well. There are questions on the disc, and more can be purchased if the reader wishes to do so. I like the structure of the book for the most part. Also, the book is in PDF format on the disc. Plus, the disc has flashcards, which many students like to use. The book has a good glossary and index. There are also some basic labs which is one of the things I want for the course I am designing.
Here are some of the things that caused me to give this book 4 stars instead of 5:
1. The first chapter is an introductory chapter of sorts, but it is so long and covers so many concepts that it could leave the reader a little bewildered.
2. The book could do with more complete practice exams (especially in the print portion of the book where there are none)
3. I found what I believe to be several factual errors that could cause the reader to get a question incorrect on the real exam.
4. The questions are pretty good, but not the best I have seen from the various study guides I reviewed.
5. The book isn't too sturdy. It's a soft cover book, and the binding on mine hasn't held up very well. Also, the paper on my book leaves little bits of itself all over the place. could just be how this particular book's paper was cut. This is a minor point, and doesn't really play into the 4 star rating nearly as much as points 1-4.
Because of these things I decided to use two other books for the course.
I always recommend a second (and perhaps even a third) test preparation source. If you use this book, I would also recommend purchasing the additional optional practice exams, or better yet, go with another test provider such as Transcender or Pass4sure. A second study guide couldn't hurt. It's always good to get two viewpoints when studying for an exam.
All in all, not a bad book. A decent study guide, but I would supplement it with secondary material.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
