CompTIA Security+ SY0-401 Exam Cram 4th Edition

Exam Cram is one of the best and most comprehensive series of books I've found when it comes to passing certification tests. I used it when I took the A+ certification test which notably was very easy in comparison, and once again using a book from the series to study and take my Security+ exam. So what sets this book series apart from others?+ Comprehensive & Easy to Understand Information: It does a great job of explaining information, has exam alerts (meaning important information you'll want to remember for the exam), and even chapter tests.+ Test Simulator: Included with the book is a CD that contains a simulation software to actually test your knowledge for each chapter, or your overall preparedness for the security+ exam. But it does more then just tell you your score, if you get an answer why it tells you why it was wrong. What the correct answer is, and where to find the information in the book.+ Exam Cram (Cram Sheet): This is a great tool so that the night before and morning of the test you can go over this cram sheet to ensure you have all the relevant knowledge memorized, notably as test questions do change it is best to ensure you read the whole book and have a firm grasp of all subject matters.Based on the aforementioned, I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone studying for the Security+ certification exam. As I've had great success with it, as have many of my colleagues. As always I will update this review if you my opinion changes throughout my use of this product, so that it remains current and reflects my current opinion of this product.

On my team of 7, I was the first to pass (by months) and I was the only one who used this book. Make sense?It makes your mind swim with info at first, but after two readings, I booked my test, read the cram sheet the morning of the test, and passed without an issue.A few mistakes in the text don't really effect the content of what they're teaching you, just copy editing misses.

The book covers a decent amount of material and if you read it slowly it will help you to understand important concepts. However the book was missing some stuff that was on the test... Primarily commands to perform various tasks in Unix, Linux and Windows OS environments. The Cryptography portion was helpful and provided the 'base' amount of refreshment for me to remember what I learned in college already. The book did repeat several things though and covered portions which it did not really need to cover. The cram sheet was excellent. The ports and protocols list in the book were missing some important information you needed to know in the test (TCP vs UDP, LDAP, LDAPS).What I did the prepare and pass was the following:Read the entire Examcram over the course of a monthTake the practice test and identify areas you are weak in, then reread those chapters.Purchase a security+ questions app on my phone (contained 600 questions).Identified my weaknesses from those questions then either research them on the web or in the book.Took all the free Security+ practice test questions I could online, thus identifying further weaknesses (then researched the info).Watched all of the performance based questions on Youtube I could.Read the Exam cram sheet right before going into the testing center.I highly recommend buying Certblaster's SY0-401 questions (Of the 30 free certblaster questions I used, at least 5 of them were on the test).My background is:3 years Employed in the IT field (2014 - now)AAS in cybersecurity (2015)No other certs

Book is awesome, love the way the author gets right to the point and even provides up to date examples of scenarios of common terminology being used in the work field. Only bad thing about this book is I have found a few typos but its fine, no ones perfect the book serves its purpose and helped me study better.Plus it comes with a neat cheat sheet and a CD for testing purposes.

Good book to study from. I would have given it a better review if the CD had the simulators on it of a link of some type to to them. I have paid for the test the books and then this book I refuse o add more money to get the simulators too. Also No MAC support.

This book is AWFUL. It contains major mistakes and factual inaccuracies that are NOT in the errata. Beware if taking the exam and relying on this text. The publisher is totally unhelpful and frankly, arrogant. If a company is publishing a book that is supposed to educate, the text should be free of errors. Period. The authors, Diane Barrett, Martin Weiss and Kirk Hausman purport to be experts, yet the book they take credit for writing shows a LACK of expertise. Furthermore, the technical editor, Chris Crayton, Proofreader, Megan Wade-Taxter and their supervisors have all failed to catch very obvious errors. This has a profoundly negative effect not only on the students/exam-takers who rely on these materials, but also the companies that hire them. Information Technology, particulary Information Technology Security, which is the focus of this book, has no room for error. Subtle configuration, design and implementation errors can have severe, far-reaching effects. The Equifax breach is a perfect example. Yet, Pearson continues to disinform the next generation of IT Security professionals. SHAME ON THE WRITERS, EDITORS AND PUBLISHER OF THIS BOOK.

Got my security + certification using this book and it's practice tests. I've used the Exam Cram in the past for the A+ and the Network+ and now my Seucrity+ and every time I've gone in and passed the exams on my first try. These have been and will continue to be my go tos when taking CompTIA cert exams.

Used it for online classes at UMUC for reference and citations for the CMIT 320 class. I passed my Security + first time so I would rate it good to great! CD has good practice exams. Definitely worth the costs!