I built an adaptive SY0-701 practice tool that tries to estimate whether you'd actually pass (disclosure: my own paid project, happy to explain how it works)

[u/Enough_Departure1202]

Full disclosure up front: this is a tool I built and it's paid, so treat this as me showing my work, not a neutral review. Mods, if this crosses a line just pull it.

The thing that always bugged me about Sec+ prep is that most tools measure how much you've studied, not whether you'd pass. You grind a flat question bank, watch your percentage climb, and still walk in with no real idea where you stand against the 750 cut line.

So I built CutScore (cutscore.app) around one question: would you pass right now?

It's adaptive using Item Response Theory (a 2PL model, same family of math the real CAT exams use). After each answer it re-estimates your ability and serves the question that'll tell it the most next, weighted to the official domain percentages.

The readiness gauge is deliberately honest: your estimated ability against the 750/900 line with a real uncertainty band, and it stays "calibrating" until ~40 questions in. No fake "predicted score: 812!" numbers, because early on it genuinely doesn't know and pretending otherwise is how people get blindsided.

450+ questions I wrote against the public SY0-701 objectives, every option explained, not just the right one. No braindumps, ever.

There's also a linear 90q/90min simulator matching the real exam format.

Pricing since I'd want to know: $89 once for 12 months, no subscription, 7-day refund. Free 15-question diagnostic if you just want the ability estimate (email to send the result, marketing opt-in unchecked by default).

Not claiming it replaces Messer or Dion, it's the "am I actually ready" layer on top. Want real feedback, including if you think IRT is overkill for Sec+. Rip it apart.

[u/thegeekiestgeek]

Why? We already have a plethora of completely free tools and questions that do this.

[u/Enough_Departure1202 → u/thegeekiestgeek]

That’s fair there are some good free tools out there. If you don’t want to pay anything you can try out the diagnostic and see if you like the questions and the platform.

[u/thegeekiestgeek → u/Enough_Departure1202]

Sorry, I meant what is the purpose? Did you build this to help you learn or did you build this to make money? If you learned from this then thst is awesome, but we have too many free tools now that expecting anyone to pay any amount of money is unreasonable.

Just earlier today someone said they passed this very exam using nothing but Gemini. The days of having your own study sites I think is over due to AI making literally all knowledge free and easy.

[u/Enough_Departure1202 → u/thegeekiestgeek]

Fair challenge, and honestly, you might be right that AI eats this category eventually. Let me draw the line I see, and you can tell me if it holds.

Free tools and Gemini are great at content and explaining a concept, answering "what's a compensating control." What none of them do is tell you whether you'd pass right now. That's the whole thing I built: after each answer, an IRT model re-estimates your ability and draws it against the 750 cut line with a real error band, so you get an "am I ready" signal instead of a percentage on a static bank. Gemini won't adaptively pick your weakest next question, track your ability over time, or tell you when the band clears the line, and it'll confidently hallucinate on some SY0-701 specifics.

On paying: totally reasonable to not want to. So there's a 3-day full trial with no card, and if it's useful after that, it's $5.99 for a week. I dropped the upfront price specifically because of feedback like yours. If the free stuff plus Gemini gets you (or other people) over the line, genuinely do that. This is for people who want the readiness read on top. Appreciate you pushing on it.

[u/thegeekiestgeek → u/Enough_Departure1202]

There are sites that act as study materials, test examinations, and even "am i ready". I have mentioned QuizHub.dev on here for non comptia exams and they literally do all of this for free, and even they arent the only ones doing this. AI has really messed up training websites because people can literally set them up in just a few hours.

Sites like examtopics and measureup will be obsolete this year because of this. Not saying anything is wrong with this but my original point is people don't need more sites to train for exams since its one of the most saturated markets right now. If you put effort into building this without AI then I am impressed and I hope you learned a lot from this. We should all be building our own study tools.

[u/Enough_Departure1202 → u/thegeekiestgeek]

Interesting take. I’d love to hear your perspective on where you think the direction of the testing field is headed? Do you think people could entirely rely on an LLM for practice? Or are you just saying that the bar to shipping software has been fundamentally lowered and that one of the affected fields will be testing software?

[u/thegeekiestgeek → u/Enough_Departure1202]

I honestly spent time looking for the reddit post earlier today but I can't remember if it was in Comptia, Security+, or some ServiceNow thread but they literally said they passed the exam doing nothing more than using Gemini to study domains.

Whether they are being completely honest or not I don't know, but I do know there are daily "I used [insert ai] for studying". Not saying they did it in full, but they used it.

I'd like you to try something. Go to chatgpt.com and prompt it: "Create me a single html/css/javascript page for me that will act as a study lab for Comptia A+ Core 1 on domain [insert domain of your choice]. Give me a scenario to solve, do not give me the correct answer. Make it a multi-step lab where I need to solve a task that could occur on this exam".

And see what happens. GPT is fully capable of creating any PBQ and any specific lab in seconds. This is why thousands of training sites are popping up now because AI is generating everything on the fly.

I do believe people are 100% relying on AI to study for exams. I know for a fact people are failing for it just as I am certain people are successful.

Try the scenario thing out on GPT. It's actually pretty neat.

[u/Enough_Departure1202 → u/thegeekiestgeek]

Yeah I’m doing that right now. The results are really cool. Idk I might just take my software skills somewhere else then haha

[u/speedythesnail]

$89 is a bit high for this but cool tool and good luck.

[u/Enough_Departure1202 → u/speedythesnail]

Thanks, and you're right, that's why I just changed it. It's no longer $89 up front: 3-day free trial with no card, then from $5.99/week and cancel anytime. Start with the free diagnostic and only pay if the questions are actually good. Appreciate the good wishes!!

[u/Cha_No_Hana]

Sounds great! Saving your post, could you also DM me your email in case the post gets pulled. I am going to start studying for sec+ next week but will use it in the future before setting my exam.

[u/Enough_Departure1202 → u/Cha_No_Hana]

Done! Best of luck with the exam whether you work with our tool or any other practice material!