Hi y'all I just passed the Security exam today!! I found study advice posts very helpful while I was studying so I wanted to contribute.

Just to preface, I feel like I have pretty severe unmedicated ADHD so my advice accommodates for that. I also have zero actual IT experience, though I do have a background in computer science and biotech. Got the Sec certification because my supervisor required me to. I took several months to study but only about 3-4 weeks worth of time was really spent being serious about it.

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What I did in chronological order:

- Watched Jason Dion's videos on Udemy. Took a couple months to get through all of them. I don't recommend watching them all at once like how I did. I barely absorbed anything.

- Did three practice exams by Jason Dion and went over what I got wrong thoroughly for each one. I scored between 65% and 78% on the practice exams.

- Identified which concepts were most important and what I was weakest in. Overall large schemes: OSI model, common ports and their uses, wireless authentication, asymmetric/symmetric encryption, basics of networking.

- Watched scattered PowerCert and Professor Messer videos for topics I didn't understand well. Took notes thoroughly when watching videos. It wasn't until this point that I felt like I was actually absorbing the material.

- Went through each acronym on the objectives list and thoroughly studied the meaning of each term, mostly from Professor Messer video transcripts and other Security centered websites. This took about a week.

- Day of the exam I just went over my common port number flashcards and watched videos by CyberKraft about how to do PBQs.

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Thoughts on the exam:

- Despite the OSI model being a huge focal point in the study material I don't recall getting any questions about the OSI model on the real exam. No questions asking "what layer is this on" or anything on my exam.

- It is extremely important to be able to look at an acronym and be able to recall what it means in depth.

- I did not understand the differences between 802.1x, RADIUS, and TACACS enough and there were many questions comparing them and how you would use them. Make sure you study these well.

- I got 4 PBQ questions and 74 regular questions. I don't feel that I did well on the PBQs, but I still passed so idk how heavily they're weighed. I waited til the end to do the PBQs. I had about 20 minutes remaining when I finished everything on the exam.

- The real exam questions are not as convoluted as Jason Dion's exams.

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What I would do differently to help me be more efficient with time and prime my brain better to absorb material as someone with ADHD:

- Do 1-2 practice exams FIRST rather than watching lecture videos first. This helps make your brain hyper aware of what exactly you don't know, and primes it to absorb information more efficiently later when you watch videos. When you do these practice exams treat them like homework and look up videos about each term or concept that comes up that you aren't familiar with. Thoroughly go over what you got wrong.

- Take thorough notes as you study, don't just screenshot videos or look at powerpoints.

- Be conscientious about the objectives list as you study and don't just trust that video creators are designing their content in a way that it'll cover everything.

- Study all the acronyms from the objectives list thoroughly one by one, watching videos and reading in depth for every term. Expect this to take several days.

- Understand what each commonly used port does.

- Study network authentication methods/protocols more thoroughly.

- Do 1-2 more practice exams at this point.

- Watch and take notes on Professor Messer videos for topics you still don't understand well.

- Watch more videos about PBQs.

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Quick tips and resources:

- OSI model pneumonic:

All People Seem To Need Data Processing

Application Presentation Session Transport Network Physical

Important parts of each layer:

- Application SMTP, HTTPS, Telnet

- Transport TCP/UDP, source and destination ports

- Network source and destination IP addresses

Ports quick reference: https://blogs.getcertifiedgetahead.com/ports-network-security-sscp-exams/

Professor Messer: https://www.youtube.com/@professormesser

CyberKraft: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberkraft1

PowerCert: https://www.youtube.com/@PowerCertAnimatedVideos

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