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Security+: What a Disappointment! |
| Greg takes CompTIA's Security+ exam and comes away wishing he'd spent the fee on expanding his CD collection. |
| by Greg Neilson |
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4/6/2004 -- If you've read my earlier column on my plans for 2004, or my comments featured as part of CertCities' 10 Hottest Certifications for 2004, you would know that I am pretty bullish on CompTIA's Security+ certification. Actually, that should read was bullish. You see, I finally took the Security+ exam, and I must say I was very disappointed by it.
I'll say up front that I failed the exam by a couple of questions. But this is not about my score: I don't need Security+ title for my job or any future career plans. I took the exam because I was excited about the title; I thought it would be useful to broaden my security knowledge in areas that I don't deal with on a regular basis.
From my experience in taking more than 100 other certification exams, I expected Security+ to ask unambiguous questions with varying levels of difficulty that when combined -- and let's face it, there are 100 questions here today, so there's lots of scope for this variation -- would give a reliable indication of whether someone has acquired basic security skills in a broad range of areas. And I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation to have, especially considering this exam's $225 (U.S.) price tag. (Even worse, in Australia the cost in local currency was $415, which equates to $312!).
Unfortunately, this is NOT the exam we have today.
Much of Security+ consists of pretty easy questions about security, which probably accounts for the relatively high percentage needed to pass (83 percent). -- not unreasonable considering how many easy questions there are. However, there's two other types of questions on this exam: a handful covering content so obscure that only an expert can answer, and -- here's the kicker! -- others that are so poorly worded that you are unable to determine what you are being asked, let alone which is the correct response! In fact, before I took the test, I had seen comments posted in forums complaining about the quality of the Security+ exam questions, and I pretty much dismissed those posters as whiners. But now I know they were on to something. I wish I could put detailed examples of these questions here; but that, of course, would be giving away exam questions, which I can't do.
Now, I'm not a psychometrician, so I can't say that the Security+ exam doesn't confirm to this testing standard or that one. But considering the quality of the questions asked and the imbalance of the question difficulty levels, I can say that I simply don't believe that this exam does what it sets out to do: truly test one's knowledge of the subject at hand.
I have a number of other CompTIA certifications: Network+, Server+, Linux+ and IT Project+. Security+ simply doesn't conform to the same standard. Therefore, until CompTIA does some work to fix the problems with this exam, I can't recommend that anyone else take it, and I will no longer recommend the program to others. I did learn a great deal about security in my preparation, but as far as the exam itself goes, I would have been much better off spending the cash on expanding my CD collection.
I'd like to hear back from those of you out there that have taken this exam. What do you think? Let me know by posting your comments below.
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Greg Neilson, MCSE+Internet, MCNE, PCLP, is a Contributing Editor for Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and a manager at a large IT services firm in Australia. He's the author of Lotus Domino Administration in a Nutshell (O'Reilly and Associates, ISBN 1-56592-717-6). You can reach him at Attn: Greg.
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There are 69  user Comments for “Security+: What a Disappointment!”
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Page 4 of 7
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| 4/9/04: jaarin96 from Texas says: |
Just curious in light of some comments above how much security experience you must REALLY have for this ENTRY level cert? Like any company will hire an Security entry level cert person, but that point is moot. I look at Security + as a stepping stone towards Sans GIAC/CISSP/SCCP/or vendor (microsoft/Cisco) security certs. The only thing with the same pass percentage (mid 80s) I have seen is Cisco's CCNA. And I know all about ambigous and poorly worded exam questions. (MCSA 2000 and 2003/A+/Server+/Network+). If you think CompTIA is ambigous in its questions look at the Cisco Academy some time. Even Microsoft throws questions in exams, folks with many more years in the IT industry have never encountered. Remember Security + is the biggest money maker for CompTIA at what $227 a pop. They're raking in the the dough. The certification industry is all about the money. The test centers, the schools, the study book writers, the websites, the test centers. Maybe they should make a test center cert i can take, i'll never be unemployed. LOLOLOL |
| 4/9/04: Anonymous says: |
On a related note CompTIA announced today the release of Idiotplas. It is designed specifically for those seeking confirmation of their ability to pay $225 for an exam that verifies their low end skill set. |
| 4/9/04: IT Pro says: |
I think each post that is bashing COMPTIA certification is from the same person. Obviously this person can't get a job in IT. Don't blame your certs for that. |
| 4/9/04: jaarin96 from Texas says: |
CompTIA are entry level certs. If you don't think they are, type in any CompTIA cert into Monster.com or Hotjobs.com see how many INET+ or NETWORK+ folks they're hiring. Then type in Cisco CCNA and keep scrolling. THAT'S why I made the switch to Cisco. You cannot braindump a Cisco cert, you actually have to know the material and work with routers and switches. On the good part some colleges like Capella are now starting to give 6 credits for some CompTIA certs. So EBiz and NETWORK and IT Project |
| 4/10/04: LeeM from England says: |
I passed the Security Plus with a score of 886 out of 900. I found the questions made perfect sense to me. Nothing whatsoever hard about it. Learn your stuff and you are sorted! |
| 4/10/04: Anonymous says: |
Hey LeeM, if it made perfect sense how come brushing your teeth doesn't? |
| 4/11/04: Greg from California says: |
I have my A+ and Network+ certs. I thought on those exams there were poorly worded questions. My biggest complaint about Comptia exams is how to review them. If there are bad questions, how can you complain and or talk about them to correct them. I took and passed the above certs because my employer paid for them, but if it was out of my own pocket....forget it. |
| 4/11/04: Jim from New York says: |
I took and barely passed the Security+ test. I thought the questions were ridiculous and wondered who in the hell wrote these? I had to study for and take this test because my company paid for the training, but I could have wrote a better test than Comptia did in a weekend at home. I agree with Mr Neilson's comments on this test, not because he failed, but because of the poor test questions and what you are actually tested on. |
| 4/12/04: Cherper from Carson City, Nevada, USA says: |
I took the test, passed it in like 22 minutes. I thought that it was too easy. I studied for a long time, and was very disappointed by the ease of the questions. |
| 4/12/04: Anonymous says: |
consider the fact that comtia is ENTRY LEVEL , i am mcsa , mcse , mcdba , did my plus S with M$ only exams , and did comptia s plus for fun , and yes comptia exam was a walk in the park (ok a sprint thrue the park), considering "designing win2k security " comptia is for juniors looking for a job , cant believe this can count for mcse , this being said that was the last comtia exam i'll ever pay for , never paid an exam seat this much a minute did'nt have time to get hot |
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