I Got The New Hotness: Security+ Cert

Yup I passed! That's it really so we can end here...

I'm joking. I'm going to write about how the test went and what I did this last week as test day approached.

The Week Of:

Flash back to last Sunday and I was a mess. I was so stressed that my eyes were hurting and the blood vessels weren't looking to good. I had to reach out to K & N to help keep me in line. I knew without external judgement I would work/study like crazy. I ended stopping all work at 7pm all week. If it wasn't sec+ material after 7 it didn't get done.

I also made sure that I took a day off from work the Friday for my test to just chill and not think about working. Now I understand everyone can't do this (hell I barely can) BUT if you are too worried about your pending test your going to probably be trash at work so it was best to not go. I also took the time during that day to check out the route I was going to take to get to the testing center.

The Day Of:

I woke up in a "good" mood. I cut on music and made breakfast. LOL half joking, I work up early bc I was stressed. The self doubt was starting to hit and I needed to get back my confidence so insert my old school playlist. While I was waiting I tried to buy some shoes and was reviewing some flashcards. About an hour before my test I decided to head out incase roads had gotten worse.

I got to my testing center 30mins early and they let me start early. Per usual I suggest that once they let you sit down you brain dump all the info you been repeating constantly. This is probably the first test where I used the paper given during the test. I wrote down ports, import parts of questions, and a few 3 letter words that had previously tripped me up.

So we all know how this ends but I want to talk about timing. I didn't really time myself while studying. I know the security+ app gives 50 mins to take 50 questions. Knowing that I could do that really helped me out during the test. I had 50mins left and a little over half the test left so I stopped giving myself space to over analyze and answered the questions.

Doing this allowed me time to go back to the performance questions. Even after finishing those I had about 10mins to review flagged questions. I used everything but the last 2mins. I usually make 2 mins my cut off because at that point I'm liable to go change things I hadn't un-flagged off nerves.

When testing and you feel yourself freaking out you should stop and do a deep breathing exercise. For me I always breath out deep for 8 counts and then try to do some structured breathing. Towards the end of the test I tried to not get my results until they printed but the last screen had the results. 🤦🏽‍♂️ REGARDLESS we celebrate for getting through this with wings and a drink.