Re: Sans GIAC GSEC exam

["Alex Krycek" <alex_krycek () hush com>]

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I've learned to never say 'never' so I won't tell you that "you
will never pass the exams without the official courseware", because
you just might.

I will tell you that the odds of you passing the exams without
studying from the official courseware are definitely NOT in your
favor.

All of the questions (100 from the first exam + 100 from the second
exam) are pulled directly from those books.

If you want to increase the chances of passing the exams, get the
books and study them in detail.  And don't bother wasting your time
with the practice tests, they won't help in preparing you for the
real exams - you won't find any (maybe one or two but that's it)
real exam questions from those practice tests - they will only give
you a false sense of confidence.  Spend your time studying from the
books, the official courseware books.  Trust me!

It is my opinion that the GSEC exams are not a true test of your
security knowledge.  It is more like a game of Trivial Pursuit in
Network Security, where all of the questions on the cards are
pulled from the content in the courseware books.  And the majority
of the questions are just that, trivial.  Trivial in the sense that
the questions (at least the majority of them) that are asked in the
exam are looking a specific piece of information that you will only
find in a single sentence in a paragraph buried on a page somewhere
in one of the books.

Don't get me wrong, if you study from those books and the audio
(MP3) files that come with the self-study kit, you will learn a
lot, and I mean a lot.  It's just that the exams are not a true
test of the knowledge you have gained from all of your studying.
It is not a true measurement of what you have learned.

Tip:  Get the self-study kit, take your time and study the books
and listen to the MP3s - get an iPod so you can listen to them
anywhere.  Create your own detailed Table of Contents for all of
the books.  You will find that each book does not have its own
detailed table of contents or index.  That's because the exams are
open-book and a detailed table of contents would only assist you in
finding the answers during the exam.  Do this - create a file, name
it Master Table of Contents and as you study through each book, add
entries to this master file so you know what page in what book that
particular topic can be found.  When you take the exam, have that
file open and you can Ctrl-F through that file for the particular
keyword/topic you are looking for.  (Don't plan on looking up the
answer in the books for every single question; you'll never finish
the test in time.)

It's a fun exam to study for, so take your time and enjoy it.



- --- Steve Barron <thurgoodj187 () hotmail com> wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I have registered for the GES exam challange and was looking for
anyone's
> opinions on resources to study.
>
> Right now I have passed the Security + exam, which I read 3
related books
> for.  Also I have the GSEC PRep guide by Mike Chapple and GSEC
Security
> essentials Toolkit by Eric Cole.  Also I have some online
training from
> skillsoft.
>
> Does anyone recommend any other resources other than the
expensive SANS
> courses or study guides?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Steve
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