Customer Reviews

Security+ Practice Questions Exam Cram 2 (Exam SYO-101)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In preparing for the Security+ exam, I looked at a lot of practice exams before finally picking up this book. I didn't actually read through the book, but rather used the test engine on the included CD-ROM. It's a great value, with over 700 questions, and the test engine lets you configure your practice exams the way you want. They cover all the sections of the exam very well with multiple questions for the more important sections. My only complaint is that the test engine will sometimes mark you incorrect when it shouldn't. This is obviously a program bug, but it can be confusing as to whether the explanation for the correct answer is accurate or not. Aside from this minor annoyance (maybe 5 of the questions total), it was an excellent study aid.

I would use this book as a starting point but would use other sources for a complete review. Lots of question included in this book. I passed the test on my first try but used several sources to study from including this book. Beware of the test. It is very hard and has lots of tricky questions.

Most of the question on the exam were either verbatim or very similar to the questions in this book. I recommend using this as a supplement to a study guide (I didn't really use my Exam Cram2 study guide; I used Microsoft's, instead) and testing your knowledge. Once you score near 100% on these questions, then you're ready to take the exam. And you WILL pass!

I always like to have three sources of reference when preparing for a certification exam. I already had the Syngress book and then I pick up this book as part of the Exam Cram2 bundle.

This was my 39th certification exam, so normally; I would never have considered taking such a basic (beginners) exam at this point in my career. I took this exam, since it allowed me to get two certifications with only one exam; the CompTIA Security+ certification and at the same time, it completed the requirements for my Microsoft MCSE Plus Security specialization.

The actual CompTIA exam is a fair test, not too easy, but definitely nowhere near as difficult as Microsoft's more recent exams. Although, I must say, there were many questions on the Security+ exam that were worded quite strangely. I'm sure that they were all 100% grammatically correct, but since I was an instructor and wrote curriculum for over 15 years, I'm very particular when it comes to the wording of test questions. If a typical member of the target audience has to ask, what is the question really asking, then it's a poorly written question. The challenge should be in knowing the answer, not in deciphering the question.

Speaking of poorly written questions. There were many that fall under that category in this Practice Questions book. And some objectives had an abundance of questions while others had only one question. Plus, there were many worthless questions. Since the questions were grouped by objective, it's useless to so many questions whose answerer is simply the name of the objective. If the questions were presented in a random order, that would be a different story.

I found the question to be nothing like the real exam (which in itself isn't a bad thing, its actually a good thing). But the real exam is all multiple choice with only one correct answer per question, many of this book's questions were "select all that's true", without saying how many to select (which in itself isn't a bad thing either). But I felt that many of the answers to these "select all that's true" questions were really stretching the point to be included.

Bottom line, will this book help you prepare. Of course it will. But its not as good as some of the other reviews indicate.

I've always liked the Exam Cram Series, and usually get the Practice Questions books as well. I've found them great for short study sessions in addition to the regular in-depth studying. Plus you get a testing engine with a large bank of questions. BUT... this one has problems! Especially on the testing software. If you're going to use it at all, DON'T use it in exam mode! Use it in practice mode and read each and every answer's reasoning. I've found too many that it would claim I'm wrong when the explaination would then say I'm right. For example, there's a question about decentralized anti-virus software and who is responsible for updating it. Choices include a central server, s/w vendor, manager or user. I chose user. It said I was wrong and that it was the vendor. Then it explains... the manager is wrong, central server is wrong... "the user is responsible in a decentralized..." and that the vendor is "NEVER responsible" for updating the client. Yep, the grading says vendor, but the explaination says user. There are numerous of these in there like that. Since I have the exam coming up tomorrow, I'm heading to one of the reputable online testing simulation vendors and switching to that. I don't trust this product anymore.

I would not suggest using this book to anyone. Several of the questions have incorrect answers. I don't mean they can be interpreted the wrong way, I mean they are WRONG. I went to other sources to verify my suspicions.
For example, something like "which backup method will give the fastest restore time?" The answer is full, but this test says differential is the correct answer, even though full is listed as one of the options. There were a few others, and that is just on the things that I know. What about topics I didn't already know? Who knows how many of those were wrong.
Luckily, I used several other sources and I was able to pass the exam. I would suggest the Syngress book, Preplogic's sample exams and the Sybex book (Syngress is better, but the Sybex is a good suplement). They complement each other pretty well, but even with those three, there were several questions on the test that none of them covered, so make sure you understand the technologies very well.
Bottom line, DO NOT trust this book for accurate information. Normally, I would pass this book on to a friend or donate it, but this one is going right into the trash.

The CD-ROM that comes with this book is amazing. It has over 700 questions and several ways to take sample tests. If you get a passing score on these you will pass the real exam. If you don't, go back to your other study guides and come back to the CD-ROM and try again.

The book layout was disappointing, I was looking for sample tests and the book is arranged by subject matter. Many of the questions were too easy when you knew the category (many times the category was the answer). I threw it aside and went to the CD-ROM after about 20 minutes.

One of the reviewers has said "The book in itself is Ok, but the CD has practice questions from MeasureUp and they want $89 for their practice exam... So for less that $20 for the book, you get $89 worth of practice exam... Good deal".

I bought the book based on this advice. Unfortunately the CD contains only the questions from the book, and the book clearly states this. The test engine is from MeasureUp, NOT the questions.

The questions in the book are arranged by the objectives, and that helps me memorize the facts. (Yes, you do need to memorize a few things).

This book is good for quizzing yourself but is it really that great if some of the answers are totally wrong

For example under objective 4.2.3 Authentication question #3 is
Which of the following provides for Authentication, Key Distribution Services, and Single Sign-On(SS0)?

A.PKI, B. CA, C.VPN or D. Honeypot

The answer according to the book is Krypto-Knight...WTF?????? Its not even one of the choices!

I'll just use the actual Exam Cram book instead of the practice questions as there are too many errors to name.

Only buy this if you are looking for questions, and do not want an explanation as to why you get the answers wrong. When you get the answers wrong, the explanation will simply tell you what the correct response was, with absolutely no insight whatsoever.