Going neck-to-neck against Cryptography

in SSCP
Just as I thought I knew crypto well, I realized I didn't. So I've gone back to the whiteboard. The beast is beatable if you get down to details without overwhelming yourself with non-CISSP content.
What really gets me are attack types on cryptop (known plaintext, chosen plaintext, etc) and minute details of algorithms. Good news is I understand the logic, but hate memorizing facts; for example for AES how many rounds of encryption takes place when key is 192 bits? Answer is 10!
I gave up thinking which part is hard; I'm just going to learn it well. How do you deal with crypto?
What really gets me are attack types on cryptop (known plaintext, chosen plaintext, etc) and minute details of algorithms. Good news is I understand the logic, but hate memorizing facts; for example for AES how many rounds of encryption takes place when key is 192 bits? Answer is 10!
I gave up thinking which part is hard; I'm just going to learn it well. How do you deal with crypto?
Comments
I did a bit of intensive studying and it has really helped me understand it at high level.
Standard disclaimer: This is just my interpretation of the facts, so mistakes are possible. Validate this for yourself.
If your going down that route. Remember that symmetric is almost always machine to machine (internal, set it and forget it). While Asymmetric is almost always visible to the end user (SSL and sub-components, hashes, etc.).
Depends on how and what you remember easiest, doesn't it?
- beads
I have +7 years experience in cryptography.if you need any help don't hesitate to ask.