I wanted to share with you the content of an email I sent to a group of students I had the pleasure of teaching last week, as I drove forward the idea of not being afraid to take the CompTIA Security+ certification exam. While content knowledge is important, my experience is students stand a better chance of success if they are relaxed during the exam, adopting an approach that includes both time management and "intelligent guessing" as detailed in a posting on my blog. Here is the email content:

SUBJECT: Comparison: Certification Exams and Eating Dinner

When you go to a good restaurant and look at the menu, you are basically planning for the next 90 minutes. A quality meal will have an appetizer, main course, and a dessert. All this, if you so desire, can be followed up with an after-dinner drink. How about, based upon the information provided below, you approach your exam in the same manner?

The appetizer is that first pass through the questions. Those performance-based questions are more challenging to digest so they will be part of the main course and will be skipped. Eat only those questions that are your favorites, leaving the less tasteful for dinner (your second pass). Where you sense that an item is could either be an appetizer or could be eaten with the main course (you are reasonably sure you know the correct answer but might change your mind), don't be afraid to give it a bite (answer the question), but be sure to keep it at the table (mark it) because you might want to eat it later.

On to the main course. Here you are relaxed, cruising through the meal. It is where, with the exception of the PBQs which should be saved for dessert, you answer those questions that you have not answered.

Dessert is a pleasure. Pleasure starts with those tasteful and satisfying PBQs. Make sure that you have plenty of time for the PBQs. That will only happen if you have moved through the appetizer and main course in a fairly rapid manner. Take as much time as is available for the PBQs, not rushing but savoring their taste.

When you are done it is time to consider having an after-dinner drink. Me, I don't drink so it is time to signal that I'm done and get up from the table. Some of you may choose to drink, and that's OK as long as you remember at the end of the meal, blood flow is directed away from your brain and distributed to your digestive system to deal with what you've eaten. So be careful changing your mind (and answers to questions).

That's pretty much it. Enjoy the meal and remember, if you don't know an answer, guess intelligently.

Wanted to share with you a comment I made to the president of an educational institution that relates to the CompTIA Pentest+ certification. As you might expect, I'm of the opinion "Certified Ethical Hacker" gets a boost because of the certification title. But I think that is where the advantage ends. In today's email to him I said, "we need to talk about Pentest+ as an alternative to CEH. For background, see: https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/pentest-plus-vs-ceh/#gref".

I'm curious about the CompTIA CertMaster Linux product. In my undergraduate courses, I often get questions like, "What's the best tool to use to prep for the certification exam?", or "Can you recommend a good 'test simulation' product?". One would logically reason that the "best" prep tool is the one offered by the certifying body responsible for the examination. That said, I didn't actually use the product when I obtained the Linux+ certification. Thus, I don't feel comfortable recommending the tool to my students based on my lack of first-hand knowledge.

Have you used the CertMaster product? If so, do you recommend CertMaster as a good prep tool? What did you like about CertMaster?

Did you know out of the 129,397 total U.S. Cybersecurity job postings during Q1 2019, Project Management was rated #4 as a top specialized skill? In your opinion, why is project management so important?

We've recently asked a panel of experts to join us for a webinar (Thursday, September 19th at 11 am CST) to explore this question.

Joining us for this event:


Please share your thoughts on this topic. We will be exploring the importance of project management skills within IT rob roles.

CompTIA Partner Summit 2019 is in the books! It was a busy week for CIN. CIN sponsored the Instructor Day sessions on the first day, August 6th with really good sessions covering the Big 3 certs as well as, CySA+, PenTest+, Cloud+ and Linux+. The new CIN platform was launched and announced on Wednesday, August 7th. The CIN Booth was busy the rest of the time with folks interested in the platform and asking questions about the community. We are growing!

Were you there? Share your experience and/or pictures with the group.

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is as excited about the new CIN platform as I am. It is my sincere hope that we will have the same level of interaction, idea sharing, and community in these new forums as we have had in our past Train the Trainers and other series. Please help us get the word out about the new platform and encourage your colleagues to get signed up. This is going to be a great resource and I truly look forward to working with you all to help CIN continue to grow and better serve you. Please let me know if you have any questions or need any help in getting up to speed with the new system. Feel free to post any questions, input, and/or feedback to this thread or drop me a note directly. Thanks,
Lee

Having a mentor can help you navigate your career and explore new opportunities. It's also great to be a mentor so you can give back and continue learning as well. So with that said, I'd like to help pair anyone up who is interested in being a mentor or mentee. Please send me a message and let me know what specifically you are interested in mentoring or being mentored in. Excited to hear from people!

Anyone from the Linux+ TTT preparing for the exam? Check out the Linux+ Huddle, a Slack based study group that is a group preparing for the Linux+ cert. It is headed by by Du'An Lightfoot who is streaming live sessions on his YouTube channel every Sunday and Wednesday. Discussion happens in Slack! Great group right now.

Linux+ Huddle Slack Channel sign up.

CompTIA Instructors would need resources to train candidates more effectively.

With IoT devices increasing by the billions, and Blockchain promising to revolution how transactions are conducted, have we reached the point where IoT and Blockchain certifications are in order?

Sharing of resources among instructors, heck yes!

Please answer the attached poll.

Really enjoy the great new Linux+ from CompTIA. Of course, I say that about all the certs.

Thanks in advance for your assistance. Contact me if interested in this completely made up example presentation...

Linux is open-source and Linux rocks, so by logical extension open-source rocks too.

Hello all those with or planning to get PenTest+! I've found my new forum home here is seems. Let me know if you have any questions.

Is anyone willing to share job descriptions for Comptia courses for possible teaching positions? I need JDs for ITF, A+, Security + and CYSA if you have any of those, thanks.

Test question?