{"id":14932,"date":"2025-11-28T10:22:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/comptia-security-study-guide\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:22:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:22:45","slug":"comptia-security-study-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/comptia-security-study-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Comptia Security+ Study Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let me tell you \u2013 when I first decided to tackle the Security+ exam, I felt like I’d walked into a Best Buy on Black Friday. Overwhelmed. Sweaty-palmed. Surrounded by flashing acronyms (PKI? SSH? RTO?) that might as well have been written in Klingon. I\u2019d just switched from retail tech support to a junior cybersecurity role, and my boss dropped the \u201cYou\u2019ll need this cert in 6 months\u201d bomb like it was no big deal.<\/p>\n

My rookie mistake? Buying every study guide Amazon suggested. I had a Tower of Certification Terror in my home office \u2013 Mike Meyers\u2019 book gathering dust next to Darril Gibson\u2019s, half-finished Udemy courses mocking me from my browser tabs. (Still convinced the \u201cCompTIA Security+ For Dummies\u201d cover side-eyed me every time I opened Hulu instead.)<\/p>\n

The turning point came at 2 AM<\/strong>, three Red Bulls deep, when I accidentally set my VPN lab on fire. Metaphorically. (Though my AWS bill that month did look… crispy.) Here\u2019s what finally worked:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Embrace the PBQs like your annoying-but-useful cousin<\/strong>
    \nThose performance-based questions aren\u2019t just exam fluff. I practiced setting up firewalls in Packet Tracer while rewatching The Office (Seasons 2-5 only \u2013 fight me). Turns out, memorizing port numbers clicks better when you\u2019re also debating Jim vs. Dwight life philosophies.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Acronyms are your Starbucks order<\/strong>
    \nCompTIA loves alphabet soup. I made flashcards with Sharpies and leftover Panera napkins:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \n
    • SSH<\/strong> (Secure Shell) = \u201cStop Snooping, Hackers!\u201d<\/li>\n
    • RTO<\/strong> (Recovery Time Objective) = \u201cReally Time to Order pizza\u201d (because that\u2019s what I\u2019d need during downtime)
      \nStick them on your fridge next to the grocery list. You\u2019ll accidentally learn them while reaching for the OJ.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
      1. The App You\u2019ll Actually Use<\/strong>
        \nForgot Quizlet. The CompTIA Security+ Pocket Prep app ($20\/month) became my bathroom break companion. 10 questions per… uh… session. Scored higher each week than my Wordle average.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Here\u2019s the cold brew truth<\/strong> \u2013 No guide covers everything. I passed with 782\/900 (barely survived the cryptography section) using:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • Professor Messer\u2019s free YouTube videos<\/strong> (that man deserves a Nobel for clear explanations)<\/li>\n
        • Jason Dion\u2019s practice exams<\/strong> (brutal, but they prepare you for CompTIA\u2019s trick questions)<\/li>\n
        • Homelab made from an old Dell OptiPlex<\/strong> (ran Kali Linux while my cat \u201chelped\u201d by walking on the keyboard)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Wait \u2013 the secret sauce?<\/strong> Schedule your exam BEFORE you feel ready. I booked mine during a Dunkin\u2019 Donuts caffeine high, which lit a fire under me faster than any study plan.<\/p>\n

          Final thought: Security+ feels like drinking from a firehose, but you\u2019re not trying to swallow the ocean. Focus on attack vectors (that\u2019s just a fancy way of saying \u201chow bad guys get in\u201d) and disaster recovery. Oh, and disable Windows updates on your practice VM unless you enjoy surprise reboots mid-lab.<\/p>\n

          (You\u2019ve got this. And if you fail? Welcome to the club \u2013 retakes build character. Now go enable MFA on your router before some script kiddie hijacks your smart fridge. Seriously.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Let me tell you \u2013 when I first decided to tackle the Security+ exam, I felt like I’d walked into a Best Buy on Black Friday. Overwhelmed. Sweaty-palmed. Surrounded by flashing acronyms (PKI? SSH? RTO?) that might as well have been written in Klingon. I\u2019d just switched from retail tech support to a junior cybersecurity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}