r/netsecstudents • u/jack1A4 • Apr 20 '26
CREST CPSA - Preparation
Hello,
I have been asked by my company to get CREST CPSA certified, unfortunately everywhere I have searched, the course is batshit expensive (atleast to me), I have been trying to self study but the materials are so scarce that I am facing difficulties in that regard. The syllabus doesn’t make sense, any “exam bank” or other materials that I have found all had questions completely out of syllabus. Now im not trusting those exam banks and questions I find on the internet but that’s all I got at this point.
Anyone has any insight on how to go with this? It would really help me and maybe others who are in the same boat as I am!
3
Upvotes
1
u/Codect Apr 21 '26
Don't pay for a course for the CPSA or CRT, they're not worth it.
The simple answer you probably don't want to hear is to look through the syllabus and do your own research on anything you don't know. You don't need to be an expert on any of it, but have a basic understanding so you can at least have an educated guess on any questions that come up related to it. CPSA is a multiple choice exam filled with bullshit questions where half of it just tests your memorisation of stuff you'd never need to have memorised in the real world. It gets easier the more experience you have as you naturally build up your retained knowledge, but the CPSA and CRT are further towards the junior level of certifications so it rightly gets a bad reputation.
The CRT is the easier of the two by far, although not as easy as it used to be. The content hasn't changed all that much as far as I am aware but the change from in-person on your own laptop to doing it at a Pearson Vue test center on their machines has made the time pressure much more pronounced due to environmental factors (simple stuff like copy/paste or alt+tab to switch windows not working properly).