I Passed the CompTIA Security+ Certification in 9 Days

Summary

In this informative video, the creator shares their experience of passing the CompTIA Security Plus exam after a nine-day study sprint using chat GPT. They provide a detailed breakdown of the study materials and techniques that helped them succeed on their first attempt, including practice tests from Exam Compass, Professor Messer and Udemy, and the use of Notion for note-taking. The video also covers how to effectively learn and understand cybersecurity terms and concepts, especially for those with limited time due to work or other commitments. The creator emphasizes the importance of understanding one's learning style and tailoring study methods accordingly, offering practical advice for others aspiring to achieve CompTIA certification.

Takeaways

• 🎓 The speaker recently graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Management Information Systems and has an entry-level background in cybersecurity from coursework and internships.
• 📚 The speaker studied for the CompTIA Security Plus exam for nine days, using a combination of resources and techniques tailored to their learning style.
• 🕒 The speaker had the luxury of dedicating 3-5 hours per day to studying due to not being currently employed, acknowledging that this may not be feasible for everyone.
• 📝 The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding one's learning style and using resources that align with it, such as interactive learning over passive video watching or reading textbooks.
• 📖 The speaker used four main resources for studying: free practice tests from Exam Compass, practice exams from Professor Messer and Udemy, and the note-taking platform Notion.
• 🔍 The speaker utilized chat GPT as a study aid, particularly for getting explanations of unfamiliar terms and concepts, and customizing responses to relate specifically to the Security Plus exam.
• 📝 Notion was used for note-taking to track and rephrase terms and concepts that were unfamiliar, aiding in active learning and retention.
• 📊 The speaker took multiple practice tests and exams, focusing on understanding why questions were answered incorrectly and using explanations provided to correct misunderstandings.
• 🎥 For more complex topics or when chat GPT's explanations were not sufficient, the speaker turned to YouTube for additional clarification and examples.
• 💻 The speaker studied for the multiple-choice and performance-based question sections of the exam differently, using resources like CyberCraft for the latter.
• 🎯 The overall study strategy was to cover all CompTIA objectives thoroughly, ensuring a foundational understanding of terms and concepts rather than deep specialization.

Q & A

What certification did the speaker recently pass?

The speaker recently passed the CompTIA Security Plus exam.

How many days did the speaker study for the CompTIA Security Plus exam before passing it?

The speaker studied for nine days before passing the CompTIA Security Plus exam.

What is the speaker's educational background?

The speaker graduated from George Mason University with a bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems.

What is the speaker's experience with cybersecurity prior to taking the Security Plus exam?

The speaker has an entry-level background in cybersecurity due to some coursework during their degree and two summer internships in the field.

How many hours per day did the speaker dedicate to studying for the exam?

The speaker dedicated three to five hours per day to studying for the exam.

What learning style does the speaker identify with?

The speaker identifies with a hands-on approach to learning, being active and involved in the learning process.

What are the four main resources the speaker used to study for the Security Plus exam?

The four main resources used were practice tests from Exam Compass, Professor Messer videos, Udemy practice exams, and Notion for note-taking.

How did the speaker use chat GPT in conjunction with study materials?

The speaker used chat GPT to get easy-to-digest definitions and explanations of terms and concepts they were unfamiliar with while studying.

What is the purpose of Notion in the speaker's study routine?

Notion was used as a note-taking platform to keep track of unfamiliar terms and concepts related to the Security Plus exam.

How many practice tests did the speaker take from Exam Compass?

The speaker took 25 practice tests from Exam Compass.

What was the speaker's strategy for dealing with questions they got wrong on practice exams?

The speaker made sure to understand all the acronyms and terms in the questions they got wrong and utilized explanations provided in the practice exams to learn from their mistakes.

How did the speaker prepare for the Performance-Based questions on the Security Plus exam?

The speaker used the Cybercraft YouTube channel to understand and practice Performance-Based questions.

What was the speaker's final recommendation for those with limited time to study?

The speaker recommended understanding one's own learning style and adapting the study techniques presented to fit individual needs and time constraints.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Study Techniques for CompTIA Security Plus Certification

The speaker shares their experience of passing the CompTIA Security Plus exam after a nine-day study period using chat GPT. They provide a background of their education in management information systems and previous internships in cybersecurity, which laid the groundwork for their certification preparation. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding one's learning style and mentions their preference for a hands-on approach over passive video watching or textbook reading. They introduce the resources they used, such as free practice tests from Exam Compass, and the use of chat GPT as a study aid, which will be detailed further in the video.

05:01

🔍 Utilizing Chat GPT and Practice Tests for Effective Learning

In this paragraph, the speaker describes their study process in detail. They used 25 free practice tests from Exam Compass and incorporated chat GPT to gain a deeper understanding of unfamiliar terms and concepts. The speaker would take notes on terms they were not familiar with using Notion, rephrasing the information provided by chat GPT to enhance retention. They also mention using practice exams from Professor Messer and Udemy to diversify their question pool and prepare for the exam's format. The speaker stresses the importance of understanding why they got questions wrong and using multiple resources for clarification, including YouTube for visual explanations.

10:02

🖥️ Mastering Performance-Based Questions with CyberCraft

The speaker discusses their method for studying Performance-Based questions (PBQs), a unique and challenging part of the CompTIA Security Plus exam. They recommend the CyberCraft YouTube channel, which provides explanations and walkthroughs of PBQs similar to those on the actual exam. By watching these videos, the speaker gained an understanding of how to approach these questions, which was instrumental in their preparation. They also mention utilizing the PBQs available in their practice exams to further prepare for the exam's application-based scenarios.

Keywords

💡CompTIA Security Plus

CompTIA Security Plus is a globally recognized certification that validates the essential principles for any cybersecurity role. In the video, the speaker mentions having recently passed this exam, which is the central theme of the video as the speaker shares their study techniques and materials used for preparation.

💡Study Techniques

Study techniques refer to the methods and strategies used to learn and retain information effectively. The video focuses on the speaker's personal study techniques, which include using specific resources and understanding one's learning style to pass the CompTIA Security Plus exam efficiently.

💡Chat GPT

Chat GPT is mentioned as a tool the speaker used in conjunction with study materials. It is an AI-based chatbot designed to simulate conversation with users, in this case, used to clarify and explain cybersecurity terms and concepts, aiding in the study process for the exam.

💡Management Information Systems

Management Information Systems (MIS) is an academic discipline that combines business and information technology. The speaker mentions having a bachelor's degree in MIS, which provided them with an entry-level background in cybersecurity and IT, relevant to their study and eventual passing of the CompTIA Security Plus exam.

💡Cybersecurity Internships

The speaker references two summer internships in cybersecurity, which contributed to their foundational knowledge in the field. These experiences are highlighted as beneficial in preparing for the CompTIA Security Plus exam, underlining the importance of practical experience alongside theoretical study.

💡Exam Compass

Exam Compass is mentioned as a resource providing free practice tests for the CompTIA Security Plus certification. The speaker used these practice tests to familiarize themselves with the exam format and content, emphasizing their utility in effective exam preparation.

💡Professor Messer

Professor Messer is referred to as a provider of practice exams for the CompTIA Security Plus certification. The speaker compared different practice exams and found Professor Messer's to be similar to the actual exam, suggesting that these resources were instrumental in their study strategy.

💡Notion

Notion is described as a note-taking platform used by the speaker to document and review unfamiliar terms and concepts. By rephrasing definitions in their own words within Notion, the speaker aimed to enhance understanding and retention of the material, which is a key aspect of their study method.

💡Performance-Based Questions (PBQs)

Performance-Based Questions are a type of exam question that requires the test taker to perform tasks or make decisions based on provided scenarios. The speaker discusses using specific resources, such as the CyberCraft channel, to understand and practice these types of questions in preparation for the CompTIA Security Plus exam.

💡CyberCraft

CyberCraft is a YouTube channel that the speaker used to study for the performance-based questions section of the CompTIA Security Plus exam. The channel offers detailed explanations and walkthroughs of scenario-based questions, which helped the speaker to grasp the format and approach needed for this part of the exam.

Highlights

The speaker passed the CompTIA Security Plus exam after studying for nine days using chat GPT.

The speaker graduated from George Mason University with a bachelor's degree in management information systems.

The speaker had entry-level knowledge in cybersecurity from coursework and two summer internships.

The speaker studied for three to five hours per day due to having ample free time before starting a job.

Understanding one's learning style is crucial before beginning to study for the Security Plus.

The speaker prefers a hands-on approach to learning rather than watching videos or reading textbooks.

Four main resources were used for studying: Exam Compass practice tests, chat GPT, Professor Messer and Udemy practice exams, and Notion for note-taking.

Exam Compass offers 25 free practice tests covering different objectives of the Security Plus.

Chat GPT was used alongside practice tests to explain unfamiliar terms and concepts.

Notion was used to take notes on unfamiliar terms, rephrasing them to aid memory.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding why practice questions are answered incorrectly.

YouTube was used as an additional resource for visual explanations of terms.

Cybercraft's YouTube channel was recommended for studying Performance Based questions.

The speaker covered the entire CompTIA objectives and passed the exam on the first try.

Study techniques should be adapted to individual learning styles and schedules.

The speaker will be sharing more content related to cybersecurity as they start their job in August.

Transcripts

yo what is up YouTube Welcome Back to

the channel so I just passed the CompTIA

Security Plus exam about two days ago

after studying for nine days using chat

GPT and in this video I'm going to give

you guys a complete breakdown of exactly

what materials I used to pass the exam

on my first try and also go over my

study techniques and I'll walk you guys

through exactly what I did to ingrain

the material into my head before taking

the exam now before we get into the

video I want to give you guys some

background about myself and some context

I actually graduated recently from

George Mason University with a

bachelor's degree in management

information systems which is sort of

like a mix of business and I.T while I

was studying and getting this degree

some of the coursework involved cyber

security and I.T related content so I do

have some background in terms of uh

cyber security but only at an entry

level uh sort of level I also do have

two internships summer internships

involving cyber security as well so

those definitely help me out as well in

terms of preparing for the Security Plus

exam and sort of having a initial

background but I didn't have any sort of

intermediate or advanced level

background knowledge involving cyber

security one other important piece of

information I want to include is the

fact that right now I'm pretty much just

waiting to start my job in about a month

from now so I have a lot of time for

myself a lot of time to allocate towards

studying for different certifications so

I was able to study for about three to

five hours per day and I know that's

probably not realistic for a lot of you

guys who are working part-time or

full-time jobs or studying in school so

for me I was able to do it in nine days

but I know for you guys if you have

other commitments you probably have to

add up a couple more days or maybe a

couple weeks on to your study time using

these techniques so with that being said

let's go ahead and talk about the

resources that I use to study for the

Security Plus so one thing I think

that's really important to consider

before beginning to study for the

Security Plus is understanding your

learning style and the way you learn the

best so for me personally in terms of

studying for a test or even a

certification like this I'm not someone

who can just sit in front of a computer

and just watch videos

for the entire three to five hours so I

can't just sit down and watch Professor

Messer videos I know a lot of other

YouTubers recommend those videos I

personally only watched a couple of them

I'm also someone who can't really sit

down and read a textbook from beginning

to end I know some of you guys are

superhuman or just enjoy reading or like

reading and I just can't do that I'm

more of someone who has a Hands-On

approach to learning who likes to get

involved and really active in terms of

my learning that's I think the best way

for me to retain and learn information

so once I fully understood my learning

style I was able to pinpoint different

resources that would work best for me so

I use four main resources and I'll leave

them in the description below as well so

you can check it out but the first one

is going to be practice tests from exam

Compass it's 25 completely free practice

tests that go over a different

objectives about the Security Plus and I

also use chat gbt in conjunction with

this resource and I'll show you guys

exactly how I did that later on in the

video number two is going to be practice

exams from Professor Messer and udemy

and I'll talk about a little bit later

on in the video how I use these exams to

help me pass and number four is going to

be notion which is pretty much a

note-taking platform that I use to

pretty much keep track of all the

different terms that was not familiar

with with that being said though guys

let's go ahead and hop into my computer

right now and see exactly how I studied

for the Security Plus exam alright you

guys welcome to the inside of my

computer so right now I have

um pretty much

uh the exam Compass practice test pulled

up right here I'll leave a link in the

description for these practice tests so

you guys can follow along or use them in

the future as well I have Chan gbt

pulled up that I use to um uh as a

resource to study throughout the entire

exam and I'll show you guys exactly how

I did it and my technique uh right now

so I have a notion document pulled up

right here for my Security Plus notes

and pretty much

what I did in terms of these notes is

that I would take notes on any sort of

uh term or methodology or sort of a

framework that I was not familiar with I

would pretty much just write the thing

down and reword uh what chat gbt gives

me so I actually had a prompt right here

that would enter into chat gbt so it

pretty much says I'm currently studying

to get my Security Plus exam

certification I want you to act as a

tutor

um

and pretty much to explain the general

overview of the term that I type in and

also how how it might relate to the

Security Plus exam so I'll pretty much

do this right here I would copy this

prompt right here

type it in here

um and get the confirmation uh for Chen

gbt saying that it's ready to go pretty

much

um and let's just go ahead and take

practice test one so whenever there is a

term or an idea or an acronym that I had

no idea what it meant I would stop where

I was going let's say I don't know what

fishing is I would copy phishing

and I would paste that right over here

actually it would be I would have a

practice exam right over here in chadbt

right here

I would copy that in there

uh paste and fishing and Chachi BT will

pretty much give me a

a really easy to digest uh definition of

fishing but the reason why I enjoy using

Chachi BT over just doing a basic Google

search is because first of all chegebt

does a great job at giving you the

answer right then and there sometimes

with Google you have to sort of um kind

of dig for your answer which is kind of

annoying sometimes I think it's just

more efficient for me and for my

studying technique but also you can sort

of customize your response as well so in

this case we added in the prompt to give

an example of how it relates to Security

Plus Concepts so this is definitely more

effective in terms of helping me study

for the Security Plus specifically so in

this case right here you can see it

gives us a whole paragraph exactly what

phishing is and also different sort of

ideas that we may need to know for the

Security Plus exam now for each of these

different uh terms

that you'll find throughout these

practice tests and also your practice

exams you don't need to know these terms

from you know a really deep and advanced

level you just need to know the basics

of you know what for example fishing is

you just need to know exactly what it

does how it works

um and that's pretty much how to

identify it maybe and that's pretty much

all you need to really know

um the the Security Plus itself the

certification goes really wide but

doesn't really go deep deep down so you

just now have a basic foundational

knowledge of exactly what these

different terms mean and how they work

so that is pretty much how I'd use it

um

uh since I don't know what fishing is in

this case I would go to my notion

documents right here I would just type

in

um fishing

and then I would read the definition

that uh

PT gives me and I would rephrase it in

my own terms in my notion document that

way I'm able to actively understand

exactly what I'm typing and it helps out

with the memory as well so you remember

what's going on for the actual exam so

that is pretty much how I used

um Chachi BT in conjunction with uh

these practice tests so I took all these

25 different 26 sorry different practice

tests and did the exact same thing for

every single term or acronym that I

wasn't familiar with and then after that

I went ahead and took the two different

practice exams oh sorry uh yeah from

from Professor Messer and uh udemy and

I'll leave links to those practice tests

in the description below uh but the main

reason why I like to take different

practice exams uh from different

providers is just because you have a

more diverse uh pool of questions

um personally for me in my opinion I

think Professor Master practice exams

were the most similar to the actual exam

but I think it's just important to take

a lot of practice exams I took about

four I failed a couple of them and then

once you start to get about maybe 70 80

percent that's when you're sort of more

likely to actually pass the uh the exam

itself once you feel comfortable and

confident and you're sort of getting

about 70 80 percent

um that's when I felt comfortable taking

the exam and I passed out on the first

try so once you take these practice

tests and these practice exams if you

get any of these questions wrong make

sure you guys understand all the

acronyms all the terms that are in there

exactly understand why you got the

question wrong in the first place I know

in the practice exams I will suggest the

professor master and the udemy exams

they have explanations there for you if

you do get them wrong so make sure you

guys utilize that and understand exactly

why you got these questions wrong so in

addition to that let's say you use the

same exact study technique with chat gbt

and you copy and paste in a term that

you're not familiar with but even after

Chachi BT's explanation of what it means

you're still sort of unsure or unclear

of exactly how it works or what it means

once that happened to me I went ahead

and just searched up that term on

YouTube and I was able to get a good

video explanation of exactly how that

term works in the real world so don't be

afraid to use multiple resources like

chechi BT YouTube and Google to make

sure you guys have a good understanding

of exactly what these terms and acronyms

really mean and how they work that is

pretty much how I study for them

multiple choice portions of the exam but

one other thing I want to touch on is

the Performance Based questions and how

I study for those so let's go ahead and

hop into my computer right now and this

is the pretty much the channel That I

use to study for my Security Plus

Performance Based questions it's the

channel is called cybercraft

um and it's just this guy pretty much

giving you a really good explanation of

exactly uh how these Performance Based

questions work and really giving you a

walk through of each of these questions

so for example I watched this entire

video right here

and he pretty much just goes through a

question that is exactly or very similar

to the performance-based questions that

the actual exam contains obviously

you'll have different questions but

um the way he walks you through it and

he talks about it and explains it is

really helpful

um and he'll go over multiple different

performance-based questions that you

guys would be uh I think you would find

really helpful and he has multiple

different videos of different

Performance Based questions so make sure

you guys utilize this Resource as a way

to study free performance-based

questions and you also have a lot of

different performance-based questions on

your practice exams as well

um so that is pretty much how I studied

for the pbqs for the Security Plus so

that is pretty much my study techniques

and the research that I use to study for

Security Plus within a nine days I

studied and used these different

techniques for about three to five hours

per day and I went over the entire

CompTIA objectives and covered

everything and that is pretty much how I

got it done and was able to pass on my

first try one thing I will say though if

you're working a part-time job full-time

job or you just don't have three to five

hours to allocate every day uh study for

the exam you definitely definitely don't

have to that was just something I did

because I had a lot of free time and I

was willing to sacrifice

um for a nine day period just to get it

done um but you can definitely do this

and spread it out over over a uh a

longer period of time is to make it more

manageable and more uh sort of easy to

digest but overall

sort of the concepts you guys can carry

on as well this is definitely not

something where it's set in stone you

can definitely take different techniques

um and really implement it into your own

uh study routine I know a lot of people

including uh people that I know who

really work and study in a way where

they can really just sit down and read a

textbook and really get it done that way

or they can sit down and watch YouTube

videos uh like the Professor Messer

videos and you can also do that as well

um just really understand exactly how

your learning style is and sort of take

these different techniques that you see

from different YouTube videos but this

is pretty much what worked for me and

how I was able to pass the exam in nine

days if this video helped you guys out

and provided value to you guys make sure

to like the video and subscribe to the

channel for more content so I'm starting

my job in August as a cyber security

associate so I'll have a lot of content

for you guys later on uh regarding my

career in cyber security in general so

make sure you guys stay tuned And

subscribe and join the family but that

being said though guys thank you guys so

much for watching I hope you guys passed

the exam am on your first try best of

luck I'll catch you guys in the next

video peace