GSEC Experience
Passed my GSEC exam with a 93% today and would like to share my overall experience since I visited these forums a lot when I was preparing. I took the SEC401 with Eric Cole back in April. I have a BS in Information Security and Forensics I received a few years ago, but spent the first 2 years out of college working away from the security field, so I would not consider myself very experienced. I recently landed a security role with a new company and decided to take the SEC401 as a refresher. With that being said, the course was still very useful. I found that I had forgotten a lot of material, and topics were covered in a lot of detail.
I left the class and decided to sign up for the GSEC certification(work was paying). I knew I had a busy summer ahead of me so I scheduled it for the last possible day(November 4th). One thing led to another, and the 6 SANS books eventually ended up collecting dust. Late September rolled around when I realized I had to sit the exam in about a month.
At this point I was worried, having read other people's experiences and how long they prepared. I ended up reading all 6 books in about 5 weeks. My strategy was to read every page, and index everything along the way that I found important. My format was: term, book#, page#, description. My index also included terms and concepts I was familiar with. I decided that if I was going to index, I might as well do it right. I ended up with about 650 terms in my index, which translated to about 16 excel pages. I also made a separate document with the notes from class and other diagrams I found helpful.
After completing the index I took my first practice exam a week before my real exam. I used my index and the books, but decided I would not spend too much time looking up answers. I ended up scoring a 79% in a little under 4 hours. I found it very helpful that getting a question wrong was followed by an explanation with the correct answer.
Two days later on Friday I took my second practice exam. I scored a 90% on this in about 4 hours. I found that the first and second practice exam had a lot of the same questions, which is why I believe I scored so much better. I would have preferred a bigger variety in question however. I spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, and on Tuesday night a reread my index and notes one more time. Not to try and learn anything new, but to familiarize myself with index/notes so I could look up questions faster.
I sat the GSEC on Wednesday Nov 4th. My testing center experience was fine. My only complaint was that while taking the test, it would take up to 10 seconds to go on to the next question at certain times, but not every time. I did not bother to complain about it. I started off at a very slow pace. After the first 30 questions I was at 100%, but decided I need to pick up the pace if I was going to finish on time. Time management has always been an issue for me when taking exams. I eventually finished in 4.5 hours, taking a 10 minute break after about 3.5.
I want to say that I found the real exam harder than the practice, probably because it took me longer to complete and I found myself looking up more items in my index. With that being said, I scored a 93% on the final exam, which was better than both of my practice exams. So I would say that the practice is definitely a good indicator of the real exam, with a lot of the same format questions. I ended up double checking a lot of answers I probably did not need to, because I decided I did not want to take any chances and make silly mistakes.
The key is, as other have already mentioned, to know the general concepts and have a strong index for technical and in-depth questions. Since the exam is written from the books, everything can be found a certain page. However, you will run out of time looking up every answer, that is why it is important to have an understanding for the material.
I hope this thread has answered some questions future GSEC takers might have. Overall, I found the exam to be very manageable with a good basic understanding of the concepts and a strong index. Let me know if you have other questions!
I left the class and decided to sign up for the GSEC certification(work was paying). I knew I had a busy summer ahead of me so I scheduled it for the last possible day(November 4th). One thing led to another, and the 6 SANS books eventually ended up collecting dust. Late September rolled around when I realized I had to sit the exam in about a month.
At this point I was worried, having read other people's experiences and how long they prepared. I ended up reading all 6 books in about 5 weeks. My strategy was to read every page, and index everything along the way that I found important. My format was: term, book#, page#, description. My index also included terms and concepts I was familiar with. I decided that if I was going to index, I might as well do it right. I ended up with about 650 terms in my index, which translated to about 16 excel pages. I also made a separate document with the notes from class and other diagrams I found helpful.
After completing the index I took my first practice exam a week before my real exam. I used my index and the books, but decided I would not spend too much time looking up answers. I ended up scoring a 79% in a little under 4 hours. I found it very helpful that getting a question wrong was followed by an explanation with the correct answer.
Two days later on Friday I took my second practice exam. I scored a 90% on this in about 4 hours. I found that the first and second practice exam had a lot of the same questions, which is why I believe I scored so much better. I would have preferred a bigger variety in question however. I spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, and on Tuesday night a reread my index and notes one more time. Not to try and learn anything new, but to familiarize myself with index/notes so I could look up questions faster.
I sat the GSEC on Wednesday Nov 4th. My testing center experience was fine. My only complaint was that while taking the test, it would take up to 10 seconds to go on to the next question at certain times, but not every time. I did not bother to complain about it. I started off at a very slow pace. After the first 30 questions I was at 100%, but decided I need to pick up the pace if I was going to finish on time. Time management has always been an issue for me when taking exams. I eventually finished in 4.5 hours, taking a 10 minute break after about 3.5.
I want to say that I found the real exam harder than the practice, probably because it took me longer to complete and I found myself looking up more items in my index. With that being said, I scored a 93% on the final exam, which was better than both of my practice exams. So I would say that the practice is definitely a good indicator of the real exam, with a lot of the same format questions. I ended up double checking a lot of answers I probably did not need to, because I decided I did not want to take any chances and make silly mistakes.
The key is, as other have already mentioned, to know the general concepts and have a strong index for technical and in-depth questions. Since the exam is written from the books, everything can be found a certain page. However, you will run out of time looking up every answer, that is why it is important to have an understanding for the material.
I hope this thread has answered some questions future GSEC takers might have. Overall, I found the exam to be very manageable with a good basic understanding of the concepts and a strong index. Let me know if you have other questions!
Comments
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Tongy
Member Posts: 234
Congratulations on the pass and the excellent score!
I'm hoping to get on a GSEC course early next year, only difference is that I won't be taking the exam - work won't pay for it and I don't see the benefit of the certification over the ones I already have...
The course is supposed to be second to none, with superb content and a lot of respect industry-wide, though. -
TechGromit
Member Posts: 2,156 ■■■■■■■■■□
My only complaint was that while taking the test, it would take up to 10 seconds to go on to the next question at certain times, but not every time.
Nice score. I was offered a chance to mentor/teach with a score of only 87%, with a 93% you'll probably get a call from SANS if you want to run the company.
I noticed the same thing, but it was only 3 or 4 questions the pause was more then 5 seconds. Overall most the the questions loaded fairly quickly, but the test did load a lot slower then the practice exams which I took at work.
My index had around 1,800 entries and still I had a few questions that where not on my index.Still searching for the corner in a round room. -
hr1stov
Member Posts: 14 ■□□□□□□□□□
Thank you!TechGromit wrote: »Nice score. I was offered a chance to mentor/teach with a score of only 87%, with a 93% you'll probably get a call from SANS if you want to run the company.
I received the email about joining the mentor program, probably will hold off for now. Did you join? If so, how was your experience? -
cyberguypr
Mod Posts: 6,928 Mod
I've always wanted to do the mentor program but have held back due to the fact that you are expected to do some recruiting yourself. Not my cup of tea. -
hr1stov
Member Posts: 14 ■□□□□□□□□□
Another thing I am wondering about is how long did it take people who recently passed a giac cert to receive their digital badge? I know its been recently implemented and it says to keep an eye out for an email.
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kiam
Member Posts: 18 ■□□□□□□□□□
Probably within 2 weeks.Another thing I am wondering about is how long did it take people who recently passed a giac cert to receive their digital badge? I know its been recently implemented and it says to keep an eye out for an email.
According to GIAC Forensics, Management, Information, IT Security Certifications,
"Existing certification holders will receive their badge email invitations in the days and weeks following the launch in Fall 2015. If you are recently certified, the email notification to claim your badge will be issued within two weeks of your certification date. If you have not received your badge email invitation, please contact Digitalbadges@giac.org"
