240. Conclusion
Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of this course. Now, we’ve covered a lot of material throughout this course and our time together. During our time, we’ve covered everything you need to know to understand all five of the domains covered by the CompTIA PenTest+ certification exam.
Let’s review those five domains one more time at a high level. Now, I know we didn’t cover these domains and their objectives in a sequential order in the course, and that’s okay. I took the time to cover all the material found from them, but I rearranged them to make it easier for you to learn everything you need to know for this exam. I can tell you from over 20 years of personal experience with CompTIA exams, CompTIA isn’t known for ordering their domains or objectives in the most straightforward or logical way sometimes, and these objectives aren’t designed to be taught in the order listed in that exam objectives PDF that you downloaded back in lesson two, but I promise we did cover all of those objectives and every bulleted item underneath them in this course.
Now, if you need to review any of the specific objectives, you can always look back at the title for each video in this course because I have clearly labeled them with the relevant objective number in parentheses after their name. The first domain we had was domain one, which is planning and scoping, and it makes up 14% of your exam questions on test day.
This domain was focused on the techniques that emphasize governance, risk, and compliance concepts; scoping and organization or customers’ requirements; and demonstrating an ethical hacking mindset. Domain two is information gathering and vulnerability scanning, and this makes up 22% of your exam questions.
This domain was focused on your ability to conduct vulnerability scanning, passive reconnaissance, active reconnaissance, vulnerability management, and analyzing the various types of scanning and enumeration results. Domain three was attacks and exploits, and it makes up 30% of your exam questions. This domain was focused on your ability to research social engineering techniques, perform network attacks, conduct wireless attacks, perform application-based attacks, conduct attacks on cloud technologies, and perform post-exploitation techniques against the expanded attack surfaces that exist in our typical enterprise networks. In domain four, we talked about reporting and communication, and this covers 18% of your exam questions.
This domain was focused on your ability to document the findings from a penetration test, analyze the results, and recommend appropriate remediations for the identified vulnerabilities in a well-written report to meet your business and regulatory requirements. Domain five was tools and code analysis, and this makes up 16% of your exam objectives. This domain is focused on your ability to identify the proper tool that’s being used during each phase of a penetration test based on a given use case, and your ability to identify and analyze scripts or code samples and their intended effects in several different programming and scripting languages like Python, Ruby, Perl, JavaScript, PowerShell, and Bash. So as you can see, this is all stuff we’ve already talked about as we spent time in the course together. I truly hope you appreciated my approach of starting out with planning and scoping, then moving into information gathering and vulnerability scanning, then into attack and exploits, and finally into reporting and communication before diving into things like coding and tool reviews that we did at the end of the course. I personally believe this is the best way to learn this material as you move from one stage of a penetration test to another in a more chronological order.
Now, I know we’ve covered a ton of information in this course, and you’re probably excited to run off and schedule your exam, take the test, and become CompTIA PenTest+ certified, but before you do, I recommend you stick around until the end of this lesson, where I’m going to give you my top five tips and tricks for raising your score on the CompTIA PenTest+ exam and getting you certified on your first attempt. After all, this exam is expensive, and you probably don’t want to have to pay for it twice.
Now, speaking of taking the exam, how do you sign up for and schedule your exam? Well, you could take it at any PearsonVUE testing center around the world using their local testing center option. Personally, I’ve taken exams all over the world, including North and South America, Asia, and even in the Middle East. These days, though, you can also take the certification exam from the comfort of your own home or office using the PearsonVUE onVUE testing system. To do this, you have to have a room where you can be alone, a good solid internet connection, and a webcam so a live proctor can watch you while you’re taking the exam to ensure there’s no cheating going on.
Personally, I’ve taken a handful of my exams using this service as well, and they work pretty decently. Now, to take the exam, you do need to purchase an exam voucher, and then, you can go schedule the day and time of the exam that you want to take it. You can buy that exam voucher by going to PearsonVUE directly when you’re scheduling your exam at PearsonVUE.com or going to the store at store.comptia.org to buy it from the CompTIA web store.
Now, if you do either of these options, you’re going to pay full retail price for your exam voucher based on the location of where you’re going to be taking the exam because CompTIA uses different pricing for different countries around the world, but if you’d like to pre-purchase your exam voucher before you schedule the exam, you can actually save 10% off by going to our website at DionTraining.com/vouchers. From here, you can select the voucher you need, which country you’re going to be taking the exam in, and then purchase your voucher directly from us if we have the vouchers for your particular country.
Currently, we carry vouchers for over 50 countries around the world, so it’s worth taking that step and going to DionTraining.com/vouchers to see if we carry one for where you live. As a CompTIA Platinum Delivery Partner, we receive a special discount rate on these exam vouchers, and we pass the savings on to our students. When you order the voucher from our website, you’re going to receive a unique one-time use code and get free access to our fully searchable library of CompTIA videos to help you with any last-minute studying you may need before the exam. Now, once you have that code, you’re going to go over to PearsonVUE.com, and you can schedule the exam for any day and time that you prefer and pick whether you’re going to take it at the local testing center or online using the onVUE system.
So if you’re willing to take that one extra step of going to DionTraining.com/vouchers first, you can save 10% or more off the cost of your exam and get free access to our searchable library as a bonus. All right now, as promised, here are my top five tips for increasing your score on the PenTest+ exam. First, use a cheat sheet. Now, you’re not allowed to actually carry anything into the exam with you, but if you’re testing at a local testing center, they’re going to give you a whiteboard or a dry erase board that’s the size of a normal sheet of printer paper. If you’re taking the exam online, they’re going to give you a digital whiteboard for this purpose too. Now, once the clock starts, you’re allowed to brain dump anything you want onto that paper, things like ports, terms, or anything else that you might forget by the time you get to question 60 and beyond. I recommend you use the first one to three minutes of your exam time writing things down on the whiteboard they give you.
It will come in handy later on in the exam, I promise. Second, skip the sims. Simulations, or performance-based questions, as CompTIA calls them, are usually the first three to five questions on the exam. Now, most students find these to be the hardest questions on the exam, and they’re the most time-consuming. My recommendation is that when the exam starts, simply mark those for review, skip them, and do all the multiple choice questions first. Then, at the end of your exam, go back and do the simulations. Don’t even read the simulations your first time through the exam. Trust me, just skip them. By doing this, you’re going to gain confidence in the multiple choice questions that are going to help you out during those simulations. Once you finish going through all your multiple choice questions, then I want you to go back and do those simulations. Students who use this technique tend to see their score rise by at least five to 10% over those who don’t.
Third, take a guess. If you’re in doubt, take a guess. There is no penalty for wrong answers on the exam. So if you have any worries, just go ahead and try to eliminate as many choices as possible, and guess between the remaining choices. Multiple choice questions only have four options. So if you could figure out that one or two of them simply can’t be right, you’ve already exponentially increased your chances of guessing the right answer from those remaining options. Fourth, pick the best time for the exam. Are you a morning person, or are you a night person? Pick the time of day that works best for you.
Don’t try to squeeze in the exam after working a long day at the office, either. Personally, I like to schedule my exams around 10 a.m. That way, I could take the day off work, and I don’t have to wake up super-early, and I can avoid rush hour traffic if I’m going to a local testing center. Also, schedule it so you have enough time beforehand to relax a little bit. There is nothing worse than showing up at the testing center at 9:59 when your exam is scheduled for 10 a.m. Be at least 20 to 30 minutes early. Get comfortable at the facility. Use the restroom if you need to, and then go take the exam. It’ll help increase your score, I promise. Now, a quick side note here. If you’re taking the exam online, the proctor will not let you use the restroom once the exam starts, so make sure you use the bathroom before you log in for your exam. Otherwise, you might be taking the exam with your legs crossed. My fifth and final tip is that you need to be confident. You’ve got this. When you walk into that testing center, or your home office if you’re taking it online, you shouldn’t be wondering am I going to pass?
You should already know you’re going to pass. You should have already studied all the information in this course. You’ve watched the videos. You’ve taken the quizzes. You’ve studied your downloadable study notes, and if you’re not confident right now, then wait a few days to schedule your exam. Take a bunch of practice exams in the meantime, and get that confidence up. In this course, I’ve also included a full-length practice exam for you as a bonus, and this’ll help you determine if you’re ready for the real thing.
Take that practice exam, and if you’re not scoring high enough, re-study the areas you missed by re-watching those lessons in the course. Then, take that practice exam again. Still not confident? I want you to go and get some more practice exams from another high-quality training source. Here on Udemy, we are limited on the number of practice exams we can include in a video course like this one, but I do have a separate practice exam-only course that has six full-length practice exams for you to use during your preparation for the certification as well. Now, when you take a practice exam, your goal is not to memorize the answer key.
After all, I wrote these questions, and CompTIA writes the official exam questions. That means you’re not going to see my questions on their exam word for word, but the same concepts are going to be covered by the exam, and I also try to do my at best to mimic the way the real exam writes their questions so you’ll be well-prepared. So please, do yourself a favor, and don’t try to memorize my answer key and expect to pass the real exam. Instead, you need to understand why the right answer was right and the wrong answers are wrong. If you can do that, you’re going to be able to pass the exam with no problem at all come test day. Now, when you review your practice exam results, I’ve provided you with detailed explanations for every single question in that practice exam.
Take the time to learn from your mistakes, and you’re going to do great on the real exam. So keep taking those practice exams until you’re confident, then go off and schedule your exam. Walk into that test center knowing you’re going to pass just like he did. All right, if you follow my five tips, you’re going to be ready to take and pass your CompTIA PenTest+ exam on your first attempt. Now, I know you’re going to do great on the exam, so keep studying, take the exam, and let me know when you pass. Notice I said when and not if.
I am so confident in your ability to conquer this exam, and when you do, I want to hear about it. Post about it on Facebook, or go on LinkedIn and tag me in it. Share your success story in our Facebook group, or even go ahead and post it in the Q and A for this course. Your fellow students and I want to hear about your success and what worked for you, and I know you’re going to be super-excited when you receive the CompTIA PenTest+ certification in the mail from CompTIA. So once again, congratulations for making it to the end of the course. Now, let’s go put all your newfound knowledge to work using the practice exam. Good luck, and I hope to see you again in a future course as you continue to climb the ladder in your cybersecurity career.
