Let me start off by saying don’t do what I did 😆

I was originally supposed to start studying beginning of March. I watched a couple videos from Mike Chapple then spent the next couple months procrastinating. I would open the certmaster, read like one page then get bored and go do other things and forget about it. Or I would watch some of Mike’s videos and stop and go weeks/month without looking at the course info. I never got through the whole exam prep until yesterday. 

I scheduled my exam for beginning of June but kept rescheduling because I still wouldn’t seriously start studying. Last week I tried to consistently watch Mike Chapple’s videos and got up to 23/43 of video course and realized there’s no way I was going to finish. I prefer reading to watching videos.

I finally decided I had to buckle down because there were no more open reschedules for the month and I needed to take the test by June 30th. I’m currently attending WGU for my MSCIA and this was the last thing I needed to complete this semester (which ends June 30th). I went through the certmaster and read the lesson then took the corresponding test. I did up to 13 and some of 14.

I then started reading the sybex study guide but decided that reviewing the questions at the end of each chapter would be quicker. I remember reading someone else’s post and how they cram studied was by doing the exam prep questions and getting GPT to explain the ones they missed or guessed on. I got to like chapter 10 then skimmed and read the summaries. I also bought Mike’s last minute review sheet. 

I took the certmaster assessment a couple hours before my test and got a 75%. I went and looked at the questions I got wrong and read through the explanations. I honestly was scared I wouldn’t pass but glad I did. I have a bachelor’s in CIS with a concentration in cybersecurity but no security work experience. 

Passed CySA+ (752) with 1.5 days of serious studying but ~1 week of overall study