Test Members

1) Use all the materials, and most importantly, all the quizzes.

2) Get scores of at least 90% on all the quizzes.

3) Don’t memorize quiz questions and answers. This is a sure recipe for failure. Except for a random quiz (that gives you random questions), don’t take the same quiz twice in a day.

– Why not?

– This encourages your brain to memorize the questions and answers.

– It is also misleading. Your score is sure to improve because you just saw the correct answers to all the questions. However, the increased score doesn’t give you an accurate view of your comprehension, but instead it indicates you were able to memorize the questions and answers.

In contrast, if you take a quiz on Monday and then again on Wednesday, your score on Wednesday is a much better gauge of your understanding.

4) Read the explanations.

5) Ensure you understand why each answer is correct, and why each answer is incorrect. This best prepares you to accurately interpret the questions on the live exam and answer them correctly.

– Why?

This note from someone who recently passed gives the answer:

Think a lot of folks may be missing some important aspect or your test questions and that is they are not reading the incorrect answers to get an understanding of why they are not correct. I found that having reviewed those many answers to the exam questions came to mind since I had taken the time to read those along the way.

6) When you’re close, check out the Am I Ready FAQ.
https://gcgapremiumpass.com/frequently-asked-questions/#amiready

• Go here: https://blogs.getcertifiedgetahead.com/.
• Enter a search term in the Google Custom Search text box.
• Press Enter.

You’ll see a list of blog posts I’ve written along with some others that Google considers relevant on the Internet.

Here are a few terms that I’ve recommended people enter after they emailed me a question:

• raid
• logs
• 501 vs 401
• public key
• private key
• CompTIA CEUs
• digital signature
• certification path
• symmetric encryption
• asymmetric encryption

• They didn’t use all the materials.
• They didn’t get recommended scores of 90% on all the materials.
• They memorized the questions and answers.

If you’d like to fail, these steps will help you.

• Don’t use all the materials.
• Don’t get passing scores of at least 90% on all the quizzes.
• Memorize as many questions and answers as you can.
• Ignore the explanations.

If you’d like to pass, read the “How to Pass” section above.

Question: I’m scoring 80% (or 90% or some other %) on the practice tests. Is this enough for me to pass the exam?

Answer: No.

I repeat this often. The scores you get on the practice tests are not as important as your understanding of the content. If you go through any practice tests enough times, you can memorize the questions and answers. However, if CompTIA slightly modifies any question, your memorized answer can be incorrect.

Ideally, you should be able to look at any practice test question and know why the correct answers are correct and why the incorrect answers are incorrect. That way you’ll be much better prepared to interpret the questions no matter how CompTIA words them.

This blog post discusses how to interpret Security+ questions and this blog post gives some additional info to help ensure you are ready for exam day.

I’ve heard from some users telling me that they failed the exam (often by only one or two questions) but when I looked at their account, I found that their account didn’t have any record of them doing these test banks.

As an example, one person told me “I passed all the practice test with 95 or above” and “…scored 720.”

However, his account showed no record of him doing these test banks prior to failing the exam. After that fail, he did use these test banks and was getting better and better scores. I hope they helped him pass the next time, but we both would have been happier if he used them before taking the live test and passed the first time.

Gratefully, I hear from many more people telling me that they did pass the first time using materials on this site and/or the CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-501 Study Guide. I love reading these emails and hearing about these successes.

Remember, just getting high scores on any of these quizzes isn’t enough. If you go through them enough, you can probably memorize the correct answers. As with all of the practice test questions, it’s best if you know why the correct answers are correct and why the incorrect answers are incorrect. This way you’ll have a much better chance at being able to interpret the questions and answer them correctly no matter how CompTIA words them. 

When doing the newer performance-based questions, if you get an element of the question wrong, you’ll see something like this in the explanation:

• The questions you answered correctly are highlighted with a green box.
• The answers you answered incorrectly are highlighted with a red box (with the correct answer shown).
• Note that this does not show what you actually selected.

However, if you don’t scroll down to the explanation you don’t see this text.

This page provides a much fuller explanation of what you’ll see in the display.

As always, it’s best to know why the correct answers are correct and why the incorrect answers are incorrect. This way, no matter how CompTIA words the questions, you’ll be able to answer them correctly. All of the questions have explanations so that you can gain a better understanding of the answers.

You correctly answered 100 questions out of 100 questions (97%). 

The math looks a little fuzzy, but it’s an accurate reflection of the results.

• In Learn Mode, you can keep clicking until you click the correct answer.
  If you ultimately clicked the correct answer, it marks the answer as correct.
• However, you lose some points if you don’t answer it correctly on the first click in Learn Mode.
  This results in a percentage less than 100%.