WyzGuys Tech Talk

by Bob Weiss

I am doing a lot of one-to-one tutoring with students who are preparing for the new SY0-601 Security+ certification exam.  As I have done with the CISSP, CASP+, and CySA+ certifications, I have done some research and put together this post to help students prepare for the exam.

To that end, if you find this post as your prepare for your own exam experience, and you find it helpful, I would appreciate getting your feedback on the exam.

A good place to start is with a comprehensive Google search.  The search parameters I used was comptia security+ performance based questions.  You may just copy/paste this into Google.  The URL this creates is:  https://www.google.com/search?q=comptia+security%2B+sy0-601+performance+based+questions,  Scroll down to get past the paid advertising sites.  Use your judgement and select the results that fit your needs.

I also opened a post on Reddit at:  https://www.reddit.com/r/CompTIA/comments/v6v80b/security_601_pbqs/.  Posts like these that I have started in the past collect additional comments for a long time, so this is worth a visit.   Please add a comment or question of your own.

In terms of general training resources, I have been a fan of Professor Messer for many years. His full video course is completely free of charge.  There are of course additional resources you can purchase.

Thor Pederson, at https://thorteaches.com is another highly recommend resource.

Jason Dion was recommended to me just today, and his training materials can be found at https://www.diontraining.com/comptia-security/.

Now we get down to practice questions, especially those more difficult Performance Based Questions (PBQs).

https://passemall.com/comptia-security-performance-based-questions/ This article explains PBQs. Provides a simulated PBQ question example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9PjFsThpeI  Mike Chapple gives exam taking tips,  6 minutes on video

https://www.professormesser.com/security-plus/sy0-601/sy0-601-take-ten/sy0-601-security-plus-performance-based-question-01/ Nice drag and drop PBQ simulation question about the protocols required to perform different computer security and networking tasks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IazBA0IfAI This PBQ simulation is about designing a custom firewall rule using Windows Defender Firewall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb2nxC2ca3A This PBQ simulation covers configuring a new hardware firewall device to permit only connections described in the scenario

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcMHsXTWzcI In this video the instructor explains how to approach PBQs.  There is a PBQ simulation at 8 minutes 53 seconds.  This video takes 17 minutes total time.   She offered the following three references:

• Backwards bicycle video https://youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0
• CompTIA Sample PBQs https://www.comptia.org/testing/testing-options/about-comptia-performance-exams/performance-based-questions-explained
• Infosec Institute Sec+ performance based questions https://getcertified4less.com/uploads/file/SecurityMiniCourseHandbook.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCNCkqY5sD0 This video covers CySA PBQs so they will be similar to Security+ PBQs but not necessarily identical.  This video is a little slow paced and disorganized, plus it is hard to hear in the beginning.  It’s not your equipment its the instructors. Could have used a second take.  Take a look anyway if you can stand it and have the time to spare. This video is 1 hour 25 minutes long.

Comments from students will be appearing here.  If you want to include something in this post, please fill out the comment form below.  I will add your comment in a day or two.