Re: Current Index of SANS GSEC Materials?

[Brad Andrews <andrews () rbacomm com>]

Quoting The Security Community <thesecuritycommunity () gmail com>:

> Sorry to dig up this old thread.
>
> I'm just curious as to how the test went.  Did you finally roll your  
>  own index?

I made an Excel list of the titles, books and page numbers.  I also  
added a couple of extra entires for some terms, but I was not as  
exhaustive as I could have been.  I used the search feature in Excel a  
lot to find terms in the titles that were not at the beginning.

I would have liked to have indexed more terms, as I had a hard time  
finding a few things.  Some of those did come after using my own  
experience, but I can vouch that a solid index is very helpful.

I plan on writing a short perl script (or such) to make a real index  
for any future tests.  It will be almost a requirement if no  
electronic tools are allowed, since my current method only allows me  
to sort my list by the first word in the slide title.  (All future  
GIAC tests are supposed to be proctored and not allow electronic  
devices.)

I did pass with scores of 85 & 91, so I think I did well.  :)

I am not sure how much learning the indexing really added.  Even a  
good index requires some experience or additional knowledge in many  
cases to know how to interpret things and answer correctly, though it  
certainly makes it a lot easier.

I am now looking at taking the GPCI test (which I signed up for),  
which is a bit more of a challenge since I didn't take the course and  
no practice tests are provided.  I am hoping that my extensive  
experience with PCI, along possibly with the GSEC materials I have  
will help me pass that too.  You can't index something you don't have  
(in that case).  :)

Brad