Today was the big day.
I’d taken the day off work to sit my CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) exam — but for reasons I still can’t explain, I booked it for 8am. So there I was, standing outside my local Pearson VUE test centre at 7:30am, clutching my Tea, wondering why I’d voluntarily given up my lie-in.
As you can imagine, I was the only person daft enough to book an exam that early.
The Pre-Exam Ritual
Finding the centre was easy, and the place was spotless. The staff were genuinely lovely — friendly, reassuring, and somehow wide awake.
Having not sat an official exam since school, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Turns out, even if you’re the only person there, the rules are strict:
- Empty your pockets
- Lock your phone, keys, and wallet in a locker
- Show your ID… twice
- Get your photo taken
- Sign for a whiteboard and marker to use for notes
Once the security checks were done, it was time to enter the exam room — just me, a computer, and the crushing weight of 90 minutes of cyber questioning.
The Exam Itself
74 questions. 90 minutes.
I clicked Begin… and immediately froze.
The first question was a simulation (PBQ) that dropped me into a command prompt and expected me to run scans to collect information. I stared at the screen for two full minutes like it had personally insulted me.
Eventually, I admitted defeat and moved on, promising myself I’d come back to it later.
The next few PBQs weren’t much easier, but at least I was now warmed up. Then came the multiple-choice questions — tough, but a bit more manageable. My strategy was simple: eliminate the obviously wrong answers and hope for the best between the last two.
The hardest part? Abbreviations.
I thought I knew them.
Turns out… I didn’t.
And that really shook my confidence — I found myself guessing far too often and thinking, “There’s no way I’m passing this.”
The Final Push
I made it through all 74 questions with just a few minutes left. That’s when I remembered the first PBQ.
I rolled back to question 1, opened the command prompt, and typed help.
Success — actual help! After five minutes of experimenting, I think I scraped a few points from that one, which felt like a victory on its own.
Then came the moment of truth. I clicked Submit.
The dreaded spinning wheel appeared…
…then the result flashed up:
Congratulations.
I genuinely thought they’d given me the wrong result — but as I was the only person in the room, it had to be mine.
Score: 768.
Passing mark: 750.
A low pass… but a pass all the same.
Final Thoughts
It was tough. It was stressful. It was way too early in the morning.
But I did it — and now I can officially say:
This old dog has learned a few new cyber tricks.
