Alright, Internet. June 20 is officially my showdown with the CompTIA CASP+ (CAS-004) exam. No bootcamps, no video tutorials, no magic spells—just me, my trusty study guide, and a gradually fraying grip on reality.

Why? Because I like pain, apparently.

What is CASP+ and Why Is It Staring Into My Soul?

CASP+ is short for CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner. But let’s be honest, it might as well be called:

“The exam where CompTIA asks you to design secure enterprise networks, implement cryptographic solutions, manage risk, and do it all while drinking cold coffee and sweating.”

This thing isn’t just memorization. It’s performance-based, scenario-driven, and written like it’s trying to catch you slipping. You need to think like a cybersecurity architect and a risk analyst and a cloud engineer and a project manager. All at once.

My Study Strategy (AKA: Hope, Hustle, and Highlighters)

Forget 12-hour video courses and fancy dashboards. I’m going old school:

The Official CompTIA CASP+ CAS-004 Study Guide

This book is my best friend, my worst enemy, and possibly sentient. I’ve lugged it around the house like it’s a sacred text. Every page turn feels like unwrapping a new boss fight:

• Chapter 1: “Let’s talk enterprise security architecture.”
• Me: “Do I have to?”
• Book: “Yes. And you also need to explain it using five acronyms you’ve never seen before.”

I’ve highlighted so much that my study guide now looks like it was attacked by a radioactive parrot.

Daily Routine Breakdown

• Morning: Read 10 pages. Re-read 5 of them because I didn’t absorb anything.
• Afternoon: Take a practice quiz and panic over how many trick questions exist in the world.
• Evening: Rewrite confusing concepts in my own words. Realize my own words make even less sense.
• Night: Whisper “asset classification” into the darkness like a cybersecurity-themed ghost.

What I’ve Learned (Besides Stress Eating)

• Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) is way more fun when you pretend you’re writing policy for a space station.
• Zero Trust isn’t just a framework—it’s how I feel about every multiple-choice question now.
• Cryptography makes me want to encrypt myself and disappear.

Final Countdown Mode

I’ve got less than a month to go. This is crunch time, baby. I’ve canceled fun, postponed side quests, and traded Netflix for NIST. I even turned down a weekend barbecue because “I have to study asymmetric encryption.”

Do you know how sad that sentence is? It’s haunting.

June 20, I Choose Violence (and Maybe a Victory Dance)

No matter how this ends—whether I walk out of the test center with my head held high or slowly crawl to my car whispering “CIA triad” through tears—I’m proud of the grind.

This isn’t just about a cert. It’s about proving I can handle top-tier technical challenges, solo, one page at a time.

So here’s to the long nights, the dry reading, and the weird acronyms. CASP+, I’m comin’ for you. Just as soon as I finish Chapter 14.