Passed CCSA NGX (156-215)

76%..pass was 70% or better.

More difficult than I expected. Many questions where it seemed 2 answers were correct and had to pick the best one. Of course many exams seem like that. For anyone interested in the exact exam topics the breakdown on my report had the following:

Content security, SmartDefense, Security Policy, Configuring VPN's, NAT, LDAP User management, Disaster Recovery, Monitoring traffic and connections, and Authentication.

The topics are also listed on Checkpoints web site but I was still unclear if site-to-site VPN and Remote access were covered or just site-to-site. I only had questions about site-to-site and did not see anything on SecureClient or SecuRemote.

Study materials were the Syngress book configuring Check Point NGX and all the pdf documents I could find on Checkpoints web site. For anyone taking the exam I highly recommend these documents, especially the SmartCenter user guide. They can be found at:

http://www.checkpoint.com/support/technical/documents/docs_r60.html

I also used the Boson practice tests. Just bought my CISSP book and gonna start that long journey next.

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Comments

Webmaster

Congratulations, and thanks for the info!

I see you also have a MCP. About 5 or 6 years ago a couple of my collegeas took the CCSA exam and and said it is somewhat similar to MS exams, but a tad harder. MS exam questions have changed style since and are now longer, but would you agree with them being similar?

Good luck with preparing for the CISSP!

jsond

Webmaster wrote:

Congratulations, and thanks for the info!

I see you also have a MCP. About 5 or 6 years ago a couple of my collegeas took the CCSA exam and and said it is somewhat similar to MS exams, but a tad harder. MS exam questions have changed style since and are now longer, but would you agree with them being similar?

Thank you! The MCP was my 2nd certification and I acheived it when I was a year into IT (2000). So it is really hard for me to remember the format of the questions. I will say out of the 65 questions, there was not one where you had to choose more than one answer. All of them were on answer only, not pick 2 out of 4 or anything like that. Unlike cisco they were very straight forward and not tricky at all. I probably only had 3-4 questions where you had to look at a diagram and then answer. And the ones I did were all for NAT questions. I was expecting at least a few questions that had diagrams of the rule base and asked you to select a rule that didn't belong or maybe which was the correct authentication rule our of the ones listed or anything like that but there were none. Very straight forward but the main thing that made it difficult is trying to decide which was the best answer.

mikeyoung

Congrats! And thanks for your thoughts on the exam. Sounds like something you really have to work for... which is as it should be!!

Now.. get out there and use it

Mike

TURTLEGIRL

CONGRATULATIONS

Webmaster

I'm thinking of going for the CCSA myself, mainly to be able to write some practice exams and perhaps some notes for it. I see you used the Configuring Check Point NGX book from Syngress. Was it worth it? I don't want to buy an outdated book, which almost everything available for CCSA seems to be, outdated.

Ricka182

congrats!

jsond

Webmaster wrote:

I'm thinking of going for the CCSA myself, mainly to be able to write some practice exams and perhaps some notes for it. I see you used the Configuring Check Point NGX book from Syngress. Was it worth it? I don't want to buy an outdated book, which almost everything available for CCSA seems to be, outdated.

Yes the Syngress book is up to date. It really was the only one I could find on the NGX that is up to date and it has all the info necessary to pass the CCSA, and then some. Easy to read and has a good amount of screenshots.

Webmaster

Thanks! I had some doubts whether it would be sufficient (in addition to the product documentation of course) because they mention it's can be used as a complimentary guide for the exam.

jsond

Webmaster wrote:

Thanks! I had some doubts whether it would be sufficient (in addition to the product documentation of course) because they mention it's can be used as a complimentary guide for the exam.

That is correct, it is not a true CCSA/CCSE guide. No practice questions or anything like that. But very good information and easy to read chapters all pertaining to the exam. If you are going for the CCSA then you can probably skip the chapters on VoIP, remote access VPN's, and maybe just skim over the chapter on SPLAT. If you use the documents on the site and this book, it should be plenty to have you prepared for the exam.

ubergeek

Would like to inquire on what references (books/authors) would you recommend that would suffice the ccsa ngx (156-215) exam? thanks

dmm37

CONGRATULATIONS!

I was also thinking of taking this exam, I have been managing Checkpoint NG for about 2 years and setup the system from the ground up. We use SecureClient and SmartDefence as well.

Would this be enough to possible pass the exams or should a few books be read as well?

David

Ten9t6

Congrats on the pass and the review.

Kenny

Webmaster

dmm37 wrote:

I was also thinking of taking this exam, I have been managing Checkpoint NG for about 2 years and setup the system from the ground up. We use SecureClient and SmartDefence as well.

Would this be enough to possible pass the exams or should a few books be read as well?

I think it may be wise to use at least one product that focusses on the exam objectives. You could start by getting some good practice exams, and then based on the results you can decide whether you need a book. Since there aren't any CCSA books that are really up to date, it seems that the Syngress book is the best option currently.

alcatrel

COngratulations !!!

Couls you say me how many questions you have in the NGX exam ??

Thanks

jsond

alcatrel wrote:

COngratulations !!!

Couls you say me how many questions you have in the NGX exam ??

Thanks

Thank you! I would say the Syngress book "Configuring XGX VPN-A/Firewall-1" is an excellent resource for both the CCSA and CCSE. It is really the only one I could find on the ngx but it is a good one. Also check out the link in my 1st post for checkpoint pdf doucuments that cover all the topics. I cannot stress enough how helpful those are, and best of all they are free.

I was posting in the CISSP forum as I was going to try that next. Already bought my book and had been studying for a few weeks. But my boss and 2 co-workers have recommended the CCSE 1st. I knew it made sense since all the CCSA info is still in my head and I am halfway there but I was wanting to try the CISSP 1st. Regardless they are probably right and that will give me a few more months experience in security to help with the CISSP. So looks like I will be in this forum a while and hope to sit for the exam in late March.

Binary_01

Jsond,

First, congrats on your pass!

I'm also studying for the CCSA cert, I have my exam scheduled next monday.

I'm a little worried, I have downloaded the boson ccsa exams and I find them very easy, I passed the first exam with 93% in about 30 minutes.

Should I be worried because Boson's CCSA test exam really suck?

To bo honest, my only weak points is LDAP and VPN. Did you get a lot of questions on those subjects?

I'm not looking for any answers, I believe in quality certified people, I just want to know if I should base myself on Boson exam to know if I'm ready or not...

Take care!

jsond

Binary_01 wrote:

Jsond,

First, congrats on your pass!

I'm also studying for the CCSA cert, I have my exam scheduled next monday.

I'm a little worried, I have downloaded the boson ccsa exams and I find them very easy, I passed the first exam with 93% in about 30 minutes.

Should I be worried because Boson's CCSA test exam really suck?

To bo honest, my only weak points is LDAP and VPN. Did you get a lot of questions on those subjects?

I'm not looking for any answers, I believe in quality certified people, I just want to know if I should base myself on Boson exam to know if I'm ready or not...

Take care!

Thanks man. The boson test #1 is very, very easy. But to me they got progressively more difficult after that. Test 2 was easy, not as easy as #1 but still not too difficult. Test 3 if I remember was challending and it took me a few tries to get over 90%. Most of the questions on test 4 seemed to be geared towards the ccse and many topics that were not even covered on the ccsa. However keep in mind I took those tests about 6 weeks ago and they are constantly doing upgrades so much could have changed since then. I did not see alot on VPN and LDAP, maybe 4-5 questions total between the 2. I expect to see alot more on VPN's when I sit for the CCSE.

Binary_01

Thanks for the feedback, I did notice that the 2nd test was harder!!