WGU UVC2 Crypto exam question

I took the practice exam for this recently and scored a mid 80's. I have gone through the Ucertify material, Skillport material and read the book once.

My score report was pretty even across the board and I am figuring on reading the book another time and going through at least the quizzes for the other 2 materials before my exam.

I will be taking my exam in the next week or so and was wondering for those that have already taken the exam, are there any area of the book, or other WGU resources, that you wish you would have paid more attention to before taking the exam? I've read from several people that the test is much deeper material than the practice test or learning resource quizzes, but I don't know if they mean deep as in know all the bit sizes, key lengths etc, or if they mean know all the formulas that are in the book.
So I am trying to figure out where to focus the most to lock in a pass.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

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Comments

JoJoCal19

I haven't taken it yet, but my co-worker who has earlier this year told me he just read the crypto chapter of the Eric Conrad CISSP Study Guide and was able to pass comfortably.

nathandrake

I did all the learning material offered in the course, read the crypto chapter in the CISSP study guide, and made mid 80 in the per-assessment. I failed it my first attempt by like a point or two. Reviewed over some of my weak spots and passed it my second attempt. I found the real exam more difficult than the per-assessment, but not by much. I'd recommend reading what JoJoCal19 posted. I think that really helped me.

One thing I recommend, make sure to read the history part of crypto in the Ucertify (maybe it was in the skillport as it was about 6 months when I took it). I got two questions on it on my first attempt (don't remember if I got any questions over it on my second attempt though). I just kind of blew over that part as I didn't think I'd get asked any questions. That's probably what caused me to fail it the first time.

cyberguypr

I also got a very low score on this exam, compared to a high 90s in the pre. I didn't care for the way the questions were worded. I remember a particular crypto attack question that had the exact same answer listed twice.

kocher

Thanks for the info guys. I'll go through the school material again, mainly the book as I think I have ucert and skillport pretty well down.

I'll see if I can get a copy of Eric Conrad's study guide and go through the crypto chapter as well.

I've only put in about 8-10 days of studying, but pushing to finish up the degree before end of term. Just have this and the Capstone left.

billyr2009

I am working on UCV2 as well. Would the shon Harris aio book suffice as well for study prep? I think I may read through this crypto section twice and then take the pre assessment.

JoJoCal19

billyr2009 wrote: »

I am working on UCV2 as well. Would the shon Harris aio book suffice as well for study prep? I think I may read through this crypto section twice and then take the pre assessment.

I was thinking the Shon Harris crypto chapter would be even better than the Eric Conrad one because the AIO goes into more depth. I actually am going to read it after Eric.

sigsoldier

I would concur that having a solid grasp of the crypto chapters from any cissp study guide should be sufficient to pass.

kocher

Well, I studied for a few more days and took the practice exam again last night. I read the Eric Conrad Crypto chapter, and went through all the WGU material again. I got a worse score, 80%.

I took the actual exam today and also scored an 80%.

I went through the WGU material twice in total, and read the Eric Conrad chapter. I didn't have time to read the Shon Harris chapter.

I also used a couple CISSP crypto study guides I had found on the webs. I've attached them for reference for others. Please note they are not my notes, or my work. Full credit goes to the authors of the material.

Chapter 8 - Cryptography.pdf

ch05.pdf

5-Cryptography-Part1.pdf

JoJoCal19

Congrats on the pass kocher. Do you think the uCertify or whatever practice test was representative of the difficulty of the questions on the actual exam? Also, without going into detail, is the exam real low level technical or does it stay pretty high level?

kocher

I'd say the school practice test was about the same difficulty and depth as the exam. My Coaching report from the exam matched almost exactly to my coaching report for the WGU practice test in areas of weakness.

The ucertify tests were easier than the exam.

I would agree with cyberguy though that the questions and answers were poorly worded, or purposely worded weirdly to trip you up.

The exam had a couple questions that I would say were not covered in the material at all, but a background in security and vulnerabilities should provide an edge in answering them as they weren't overly difficult.

If I had to do it again, I'd study a bit harder on SSL/TLS. That would be an area that I don't think was covered well enough in the provided materials. That being said, the school materials are definitely good enough to pass with out using outside sources. However, the pdf files I attached did help me concrete a couple things that were important. School material had the information, but I felt the PDF's explained a couple things more clearly.

I've got to do my Capstone yet before Halloween and I'll have completed the degree in one term.

abupc

Thank you to all for the valuable information. Are there any good practice tests out there that have some of the questions that the test does?

abupc

bump....

ratbuddy

You mean besides the preassessment? That's the closest you'll find.

JoJoCal19

Just passed the exam today. Got a 75 on the exam. On the one WGU practice assessment I did I scored a 77. I felt the real exam was 95% representative of the difficulty from the pre-assessment. I even saw some of the same questions. To prepare I just read the Crypto chapter in Eric Conrad's CISSP Study Guide twice.

tsimmns

JoJo, I see you had a BS from Florida I assume from their actual campus. What led to you getting into IT and how did WGU look at you for entrance without prior IT experience? You can message me if you'd prefer to answer not on here. Just trying to get an idea to pave a path for myself if I finish my business degree first and then get another bachelors degree in IS or go straight to Masters.

abupc

I actually printed out the pre-test some of these questions are very difficult to answer when you have to choose the BEST answer.

roninkai

Just passed this course today via the assessment. Only 15 days into the term! whooohoo!

Anyway, in uCertify, I was scoring in the 80's, and 90's. I did my official WGU pre-assessment test and got 80%. I went back over my notes for another hour and studied a few weaker areas, and then took it this afternoon. My final score was 72% which was lower than I thought it would be. But many questions were out of left field, things I hadn't studied much or seen at all.

Some tips for those taking this to avoid this "surprise" trap. Make sure you are up in the following:
- quantum cryptography
- SSL/TLS
- HMAC/MAC
- KDC
- PGP
- Wireless Authentication

What threw me was the quantum stuff, and some of the finer details of SSL/TLS. The questions were worded to throw you off. I went back and fixed a few answers after reading more carefully. I thought I'd knock it out of the park after some nice uCertify scores and a decent pre-assessment, but it caught my by surprise. I'm just happy I passed and this is over! Now onto CHFI! I'm hoping to get through 3 courses in total for July.

momolicious

Stared this class. Got a 79% on the pre-assessment. A week of doing Ucertify, I took the assessment and failed with a score of 61% (passing score is 65%). Ego aside, I understand crypto, and still failed. A cutting score of 65% is plenty of room to pass any exam. That said, I want to make everyone aware that this test is worded terribly. I flagged 30 questions knowing what each option was and still couldn't narrow down what they were asking. I'm over it.

momolicious

Okay. Week later, passed it with a 75%.

I did 50% of uCertify and 100% of the Skillport modules. I found that the modules have much of the same terrible lingo as the assessment, so it definitely helps prepare you on that front. Also, much of what the modules focus on, with regards to the characteristics or facts of x or y, can be felt on the assessment.

If you've failed the assessment and are just now going through it, like I did, it'll be clear as day when you go over the modules.

If it wasn't obvious, I did very little studying of the material, especially with the reading. After failing the assessment, I did try to go and read some of the chapters, but found that the amount of reading was not worth amount of relevant information.

So, recap:

Week 1:
Material: uCertify (48%), Skillport (0%) (Wasn't working for me due to Java BS), Reading (0%)
1st Attempt: Pre-Assessment (79%), Assessment (61%)

Jotted down key things from the assessment, which I won't share.

Week: 2
Material: uCertify (50%), Skillport (100%) (Fixed it, had to use IE

, Reading (20%) (skimmed through)
2nd Attempt: Pre-Assessment (80%), Assessment (75%)

Disclaimer: I think I have a strong understanding of crypto. Unfortunately, to pass this class, you'll have to actually go through the Skillport material. Okay, now I'm over it.