High School Cybersecurity Students going for Security+

[Glenn Habibi]

Hi everyone,

I currently teach a full-year (182 school days, 40 minutes per day) class in Cybersecurity at my high school. The students are doing a course for college credit from a university. The course as it exists currently is therefore not aligned with Security+, but we're hoping to have some students who want to go for the certification do so.

There is of course some intersection, my university-level course does cover malware, threat assessment, security policies, I do some linux, etc. but I have concerns for how the students will do. I can have them practice material from CompTIA but I know I'll be very pressed for time if I'm covering the college-credit course essentials and also focusing on Security+.

Does anyone have specific experience along these lines? High schoolers going for Security+ and in a course that doesn't 100% focus on that exam specifically?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Tom Polak]

I currently teach a course at a high school with college credit thru our local community college.

I do encourage my students to take the Security+ exam, and most do, about 50% pass, and move into Cyber Programs at the collegiate level. I currently use Cengages CompTIA Security+ textbook by Mark Ciampa and have support activities using Testout.com Security Pro coursework.

In addition, our Communicate College gives me access to NETLAB+ CyberSecurity labs, which provide more hands on experience.

Hope that helps.

Tom

 

[Glenn Habibi]

Thank you, that's very helpful. Would you say the students you have that pass the exam are doing a lot of work on their own, or is what you're covering in class getting them close to (or more) passing marks?

 

[Glenn Habibi]

Oh I was also hoping to ask, how closely aligned is your course with Security+? Mine is a basic intro to information security college-level course, so it covers most of the groundwork, but doesn't delve too deeply into a lot of the specifics.

 

[Stephen Schneiter]

@Glenn Habibi, great conversation! I think you will gain a lot of information as we get into the Security+ TTT series. CompTIA will also have new TestOut content geared towards high school students, Security Pro that will launch at the same time as the CertMaster Learn content.

 

[Glenn Habibi]

Good to know, thank you!

 

[Mr. Dana Fellows]

Hi everyone,

I currently teach a full-year (182 school days, 40 minutes per day) class in Cybersecurity at my high school. The students are doing a course for college credit from a university. The course as it exists currently is therefore not aligned with Security+, but we're hoping to have some students who want to go for the certification do so.

There is of course some intersection, my university-level course does cover malware, threat assessment, security policies, I do some linux, etc. but I have concerns for how the students will do. I can have them practice material from CompTIA but I know I'll be very pressed for time if I'm covering the college-credit course essentials and also focusing on Security+.

Does anyone have specific experience along these lines? High schoolers going for Security+ and in a course that doesn't 100% focus on that exam specifically?

Thanks in advance!

Do the students have knowledge equal to the Network+ prior to this course? If yes, I would think they would not have trouble being somewhat successful in the amount of time you have. If they are new to networking in general, I would suspect less success.

 

[Jen Z]

@Glenn Habibi, great conversation! I think you will gain a lot of information as we get into the Security+ TTT series. CompTIA will also have new TestOut content geared towards high school students, Security Pro that will launch at the same time as the CertMaster Learn content.

I'm hoping we'll get more information re: the advantages of the TestOut content vs. Learn & Labs. They seem redundant to me...