CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Certification Course Overview & Study Tips

I'm James Messer. And welcome to Professor Messer's SY0-701 Security+

Training Course. In this video, I'll give you an overview of this training course and give you an idea of what to expect in this course

as we go forward. If you're working towards your Security+ certification, then you're probably already aware that CompTIA is one

of the largest certification bodies in the world. And if you're working in information technology or you're looking to get a job in information technology,

then you're probably familiar with their A+, Network+, Security+, and many of their other industry certifications. And of course, if you're working towards a career

in cybersecurity, IT security, or any of those related fields, Security+ is a great place to start. You might also find that many organizations require you

to have a Security+ certification to work for that organization. This is especially true for governmental agencies

or very large corporations that have an emphasis in cybersecurity. But even if you're not required to earn a Security+

certification for your job, this can still provide you with a great deal of personal knowledge and satisfaction. CompTIA stands for the Computing Technology Industry

Association, and they are the largest provider of independent certifications in the IT industry. There are a number of organizations

that are part of CompTIA, and these include IT resellers, distributors, manufacturers, and other organizations that have key technologies associated with the IT field.

The CompTIA certifications are recognized in over a hundred countries, and you'll find that the exam is available in many different languages.

If you're looking for Security+ course from someone who has been in the IT industry and worked in cybersecurity, then you're in the right place.

My IT experience ranges from supercomputer operations, software engineering, network analysis, and ultimately cybersecurity systems engineering.

I'm also a training course author and publisher with many different courses available. And of course I have A+, Network+, Security+,

and many other IT industry certifications. The version of the Security+ exam that we're going to talk about in this course is the one that was released on November

the 7th of 2023, and it's labeled with a version number of SY0-701. If you're working to take the SY0-701 exam,

then you should be sure that all of your study materials have been specifically written for this version of the exam. Depending on when you're watching this video,

you might want to go to the CompTIA website and verify that the SY0-701 is still the most current version of this exam.

If there's a newer version of the exam available, you might want to come back to the Professor Messer website and look for the most updated version of this course.

You'll also find that this course consists of over 120 different videos. I've taken all of the topics from the exam objectives

and created bite-sized videos so that you can find exactly what you're looking for learn that piece of information,

and then you can decide to watch another video or come back later and continue your studies. This is also a complete course for the SY0-701 Security+ exam.

We haven't left out any information, and all of our videos are written to correlate exactly with the CompTIA exam objectives.

The videos I make available are not a subset of the videos. I don't hide anything behind a paywall. And you'll find that every minute

of every video in this course is available for you to watch for free on YouTube. The goal in this course and all of the courses

that we create at Messer studios is to give you your first job in IT or get you a better job in IT. Earning these industry certifications

can help with your overall professional development and ultimately provide you with more flexibility for higher-paying jobs in the future.

There's nothing special you have to do to gain access to these videos. All of these videos are fully indexed on my website,

and you can watch them for free online. One of the things that I also provide is an offline version that you can purchase

so that if you wanted to download every video and all of the audio files associated with this course, they're available on my website for a fee.

We also make additional study materials such as course notes and practice exams, and you can also find out about those on my website as well.

To watch the videos or learn more about these additional training materials, visit our website at professormesser.com.

To earn your Security+ certification, you take a single exam. This exam is 90 minutes long and you

can get a maximum of 90 questions, although you could get fewer than 90 questions during your exam.

The scoring system for this exam may be different than what you might be accustomed to. It's on a scale from 100 to 900, and you need to score a 750

to pass your exam. There are five areas of focus for this exam. CompTIA refers to these as domains.

Domain 1.0 is the General Security Concepts, and it's 12% of your exam. Domain 2 is Threats, Vulnerabilities,

and Mitigations, and that is 22% of the exam that you'll take. Security architecture is domain 3. That is 18% of your exam.

Security Operations is domain 4. That is 28% of your exam. And domain 5 is Security Program Management and Oversight,

and that makes up 20% of your exam. A majority of the questions that you'll get on your exam are multiple choice questions where

you'll get a single question and multiple answers to select from. That's obviously very straightforward.

You can choose A, B, C, or D, and if you get the right answer, then you earn points for that question. But CompTIA also asks other types of questions,

and you may get a handful of these questions at the very beginning of your exam. These are questions that might be matching,

drag and drop, sorting, or some other type of question format. CompTIA refers to these as performance-based questions, and they require you to perform a task

or complete some other type of process that's different than a typical multiple choice question. To be able to answer these multiple choice

questions or performance-based questions, you'll need to know the content that comes directly from the CompTIA exam objectives,

and these videos step through every single bullet that's in those objectives to be sure that you know exactly what's expected to you

when you walk into the exam room. Those official objectives are free for you to download, and they are a wealth of information.

You can get a link from them directly at comptia.org. I have links on the Professor Messer website that will lead you also to the correct pages on the CompTIA

website. Once you have those exam objectives, you can put them side by side with our videos

and step through each video at a time to cover every topic from the objectives. I also recommend that you get a good book.

We have some choices that might be good for you on the Professor Messer website. And get plenty of hands-on so you can try out

some of these different ideas and techniques in your own time using your own system. And before you walk into your actual exam,

you might want to step through a series of practice exams. And we have plenty of practice exams on the Professor Messer website for you to go through.

You'll notice that the exam objectives from CompTIA are numbered by domain and sub-domain numbers. And my videos are numbered exactly the same way,

which makes it very easy for you to look at a topic in the exam objectives and immediately find the right video that correlates back to those topics.

If you're using a third-party book, it's very common that there would be an appendix for cross-reference,

or they may give you a list of the exam objectives at the very beginning of a chapter. That makes it very easy for you to correlate what's

in your book with the appropriate videos to watch for that topic. We've designed this course so that you

can start at the beginning and watch all the way through. Or if you're reading a book or need to find a particular topic, you can easily jump into a video,

learn exactly what you need to learn, and jump right back out again. You can use the technique that works

best for your style of study. There are two different ways to take your exam. You could either take it at a testing center

or you can take it at home. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, so you should find the method that works best for you.

A third-party testing center is usually a training center, a community college, or something very similar, and they have inside of their facility

a training room specifically set up to provide these exams. That means all you have to do is register for your exam and show up at the right time at the testing center,

and they'll take care of everything from there. CompTIA wants you to have as secure a testing environment at home as they can provide in a testing center,

so be sure to check the CompTIA website so that you know the rules and regulations when you're taking an exam in your home.

That's everything you need to get started. And you can check the Professor Messer website for books, training videos, and so much more.

Whether you're stepping through our comprehensive video training course, you're looking through our course notes or practice exams, everything you

need to be successful for this exam is available at professormesser.com. As I mentioned earlier, you'll also want the exam objectives,

and I have a link to the website from professormesser.com/objectives. We also maintain an amazing community

of people that are working towards their certifications. You'll find our Discord chat is available at professormesser.com/discord.

And if you'd like to have some fun with your studies, join us for our monthly study groups where I ask you questions that come from the exam objectives.

And you'll have an opportunity to ask questions of me regarding the exam, technology, or anything else that you'd like to ask.

We'll be with you for every step of your Security+ studies, and we wish you the best with your certification efforts. We'll see you in the next video.