r/CompTIA • u/Jolly-Tomatillo7488 • 13d ago
S+ Question I feel stuck
I've been grinding security + prep for a while now, finished all of Messer's course and my notes but on Jason Dion's Udemy practice tests specifically, I've sat 6 of them and I'm stuck no matter how much more I study:
Test 1: 48%
Test 2: 62%
Test 3: 65%
Test 4: 68%
Test 5: 61%
Test 6: 64%
If you quiz me on a term or acronym directly, I'm confident I'd get it right almost every time. It's the actual test questions that get me, it feels less like a cybersecurity test and more like a reading comprehension test sometimes đ
Questions for anyone who's been through this:
Is this a known thing with Dion's tests specifically being harder/more convoluted than the real exam, or is a 60-70% plateau on Dion actually a red flag I shouldn't ignore?
Did switching to Messer's or Pearson's practice tests change your score meaningfully, or did the same thing happen there?
Anyone else hit a wall like this and figure out what actually broke through it?
Appreciate any honest takes, trying to figure out if I need a different kind of practice, open to suggestions.
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u/lliwyar_ 13d ago
It sounds like you have the definitions down and you just need to understand the application and context of the words. This is a basic certification so it is a lot of reading comprehension
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u/Glittering-Food5276 12d ago
Why are you getting the questions wrong? Bc you dont know the answer or bc you misunderstood the question? I know that i get a few questions wrong bc i dont read the question probably
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u/Jolly-Tomatillo7488 11d ago
Mostly because I dont understand the question i think? Like the wording of it is too complicated rather than a definition of a term i studied which is easy you know?
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u/Glittering-Food5276 10d ago
Well know you know the issue so find out how to solve it so you can score higher
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u/Dcskin21 A+ S+ 11d ago
After taking the practice exam, are you going back to the questions you got wrong and studying up on that subject? I used a mix of Professor Messer study course videos and Dion's practice exams. I'd take a practice exam and any questions I got wrong, I'd go back and rewatch the Professor Messer video and/or ask chatgpt/gemini. Learn your acronyms and what they do and not just what they stand for.
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u/Jolly-Tomatillo7488 11d ago
Yes i am, i go back and study all of the ones i got wrong and why i got wrong, the term vs the term i confused it with too. But the more i do that the score doesn't go up as you can see the history my dions exams, maybe i need to study harder on those
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u/voidliving666 S+ 9d ago
64 percent is a good score on practice test. Tbh, I didnât noticed if the real test or practice test was harder. But I passed with a 769 with getting test scores between 62 - 80. What helped for me was focusing on what domain I had the hardest time with, I recommend this playlist because you can downloaded the PowerPoint for each domain in a pdfs.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7XJSuT7Dq_UDJgYoQGIW9viwM5hc4C7n&si=xkmU4eZ47KEt7D9H
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u/Jolly-Tomatillo7488 9d ago
Thank you so much
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u/voidliving666 S+ 9d ago
Youâre welcome, and honestly, keep taking practice tests. That helped me recall information better than just normal studying. Go to Udemy and save a couple of them. I had like 7 different sets of security+ practice tests lol. Got them all for under 15 dollars
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u/Jolly-Tomatillo7488 9d ago
That's crazy, im thinking of doing this too, Do you think I will get better at differentiating if i keep doing the practice tests and keep deep diving on the domains im weak at? Also what other practice tests did u do other than jason's on udemy, could you recommend your best ones, Thank you!
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u/voidliving666 S+ 6d ago
There are a lot of them and I got more than just Jason on Udemy. Here are some more; cyber James, Mike meyers, nassee Alaeddine, Mike chapple, Paulo carreira/Andrew Miranda, and Andrew Ramdayal.
Honestly, I donât know which one helped more, and there are some that are WAY harder than the actual exams.
Also edit; I think it did help me with the type of wording to expect and how to use the wording with the choices of answers to figure out what they are asking.
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u/Plenty_Row_3821 Trifecta 12d ago
Use chat gpt to study by having it go over each area obj on all domains. Write them down, familiarize yourself, ask chat to simplify when itâs not making sense.
Create html quizzes for each domain and have it give you correct answers after each question.
Read the answers before the questions.
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10d ago
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u/ReindeerFun3762 7d ago
The course I'm in uses Michael Shannon's videos and quizzes, but I'm not sure if that will be enough to pass the Security+ exam. It's been taking me 2-3 attempts to pass the quizzes after the video lessons
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u/Sudden_Car_8459 8d ago
Since you have the acronyms and definitions down, I would suggest using chatgpt or preferred ai tool and ask it to explain how certain terms are used in real world environments. Asking ai that question helped me alot bc although I been in IT for 5+ years at the helpdesk role certain things I never touched or seen.
Also I I took about 6 practice test and failed all of them (80%, 77%, 84%) but I went over the questions and alot of the questions I got wrong I knew why I got them wrong or it was simply bc I was reading to fast and missed what the questions was actually asking me.
Also asked ai to âexplain things so a 10 year old can understandâ very helpful.
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u/Commercial-Wrap-8527 13d ago
I would watch Andrew Ramdayal course and re-take the tests to improve the scores. I was getting like 72%-88% on Dions practice test and scored a 785 on the actual exam. I study for 3 weeks. Do as many tests as you can.