GIAC practice tests and Final Exam

airhack

Hi guys,

can someone share their experience with the difference between the 2 GIAC practice tests and the final exam.
I am just trying to understand if the practice test is similar to the final exam, or the questions in the final exam are completely different to the ones from the practice test.

I am not expecting the entire questions from the practice tests to appear in the final exam, just trying to understand if passing the practice test comfortably will help me boost my confidence..

thanks

ajd86

In my experience and based on the consensus around the forum, the practice exams generally reflect the actual exams pretty well. In some cases, the actual exams are said to be slightly harder, but there have also been some to say the actual is easier. I believe if you can get a solid score (80+) on two practice exams, you are ready for the real deal.

docrice

My experience has been like that as well. They feel pretty similar, except in the practice exams if you answer a question wrong you're told why your choice was incorrect.

Tearstone

Anyone who has taken the practice test and the exam. Do any of the questions from the practice repeat on the final?

shyrjiin

Perhaps a few questions, not enough to matter IMO. I find the relevance of the practice tests to the actual exam to be wildly different. It seemed that for some of the exams the practice test did not help at all while others were harder than the actual test.

Sir Aaron

shyrjiin wrote: »

Perhaps a few questions, not enough to matter IMO. I find the relevance of the practice tests to the actual exam to be wildly different. It seemed that for some of the exams the practice test did not help at all while others were harder than the actual test.

The format of the actual exam is exactly the same as the practice exams. So merely taking the practice exams will help because it prepares a student to look for certain patterns in the way a question is asked and the style of the answers.
The questions themselves will sometimes overlap nicely with the practice exams, other times not so much. I suspect this simply has to do with the number of questions in the test bank. I got zero questions on Zigbee while some of my coworkers did. I had numerous questions on Bluetooth, almost to the point that I thought it odd.
I got an 85% on my first practice exam. I took the second one a few days later and got a 95%. I felt that was probably a bit of a **** since many of the questions seemed the same. The next day I got a 93% on the actual exam.

twodogs62

Similar type questions.
practice test lets you get feedback on missed questions.
practice tests lets you get the feel of real test and get idea where you are weak and need to study.

Tearstone

Thank you all for the feedback. I am looking forward to taking the GWAPT before the end of the year. I took the first practice test with no studying or opening a book and got a 67%. Right now I am going through an indexing all of the books and carefully going over sections I identified I am weak on. I'll be taking another practice test soon and schedule the exam shortly thereafter. I'm glad my college doubles as a GIAC testing center