The speaker, Travis IQ, shares his experience passing the CompTIA Pen Test Plus exam. He discusses the exam's structure, the CompTIA domains, and his views on their testability.
Travis emphasizes the importance of understanding the exam objectives and their relative percentages in the overall exam. He suggests focusing more on the middle part of the exam, which includes information gathering, vulnerability scanning, attacks, and exploits. He also highlights the importance of tools and code analysis, though he notes that these areas might be less testable compared to the other domains.
Travis shares that the exam is a maximum of 85 questions and lasts for 165 minutes. The passing score is 750 out of 900. He advises not to stress over the passing score, and instead, focus on answering as many questions correctly as possible.
He also compares the Pen Test Plus exam to other exams like the OSCP and CEH, stating that while CompTIA's exam includes performance-based questions, it is less dynamic and more static than the OSCP. He also mentions that while CompTIA exams are technically vendor-neutral, they might contain more vendor-specific content compared to the OSCP.
In conclusion, Travis encourages potential candidates to optimize their test preparation based on the exam structure and objectives, and to consider the real-world lab in OSCP as an added advantage.
1. The speaker, Travis IQ, has passed the CompTIA Pen Test Plus certification exam.
2. The CompTIA Pen Test Plus exam covers several domains, including planning and scoping, reporting and communication, information gathering, vulnerability scanning, attacks and exploits, and tools and code analysis.
3. The speaker believes that the most testable content in the exam is related to information gathering, vulnerability scanning, and attacks and exploits.
4. The exam includes both multiple-choice and performance-based questions, with a total duration of 165 minutes.
5. The passing score for the exam is out of 900, which equates to around 80-85% on a 100-point scale.
6. The exam is expensive, and the speaker advises considering alternate funding sources if necessary.
7. The exam is designed to test not only knowledge but also the ability to apply that knowledge in practical situations.
8. The speaker has compared the CompTIA Pen Test Plus exam to other certification exams like CEH, but has not taken the GIAC Penetration Testing & Ethical Hacking (GPT-EH) exam.