Common Security+ Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Common Security+ Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Study Mistakes

Watching videos without doing questions

Videos feel productive but they're passive learning. You need to actively test yourself. Rule of thumb: for every hour of video, do 30 minutes of practice questions.

Studying too long (3+ months)

Intensity beats duration. A focused 4–6 week sprint is better than a 4-month crawl where you forget Domain 1 by the time you finish Domain 5.

Ignoring Domain 5

It's a sizable share of the exam. Read the governance lesson and spend two days on it. Easy marks.

Only using one resource

Your primary resource + practice questions from a different vendor. Different question styles expose different gaps.

Exam-Day Mistakes

Spending too long on PBQs

Performance-based questions appear first and can eat 15–20 minutes each. Flag them, do the multiple choice, come back.

Changing answers

Unless you find a concrete reason, your first answer is usually right. Changing answers on gut feeling costs more marks than it gains.

Not reading the full question

The last sentence tells you what they're asking. Read it first, then read the scenario with that question in mind.

Running out of time

You get roughly a question a minute. If you're stuck for more than 90 seconds, flag it and move on. (Confirm the current question count and time limit at comptia.org.)