Cisco's $10 Million in Scholarships for Cyber

NetworkingStudent

OctalDump wrote: »

From the Cisco forums:

You should visit this website Support Home Page Support Home Page, login using your account information (if you don't have one, create one).Click on *Contact Certification Support* provide your personal info, type your issue then at +Product+ select Cybersecurity Scholarship Program. Typically the support responds within a day.

Thank you OctalDump, I followed youer advise and it worked.

My class runs the following dates:

June 20, 2017 and the end date is September 20, 2017.

Is there anything I can do in the mean time to train for this course?

Thank you

tech4lyfe

I was accepted for the april 2018 group. Sooo far away, I may accidentally forget about it until the time comes. But, I'll just study for my CCNa r&s exam in the meantime

devilbones

Mooseboost wrote: »

So who all is in the March 2017 group?

I am in this as well.

TacoRocket

Just a heads up. In order to get the voucher you have to complete the labs as well as getting medals. The videos don't seem required. Do not know how I feel about the material for the exam. I think that people in the later cohorts will have a better pass rate.

Mooseboost

ITPro.TV released some videos for the exam. I am curious how well their content will match up with the Cisco offering? So far their training seems to cover basic network operation but they are still in the process of releasing material.

securityorc

I am in the first cohort and will schedule my exam somewhere in the beginning of February. I was pleasantly surprised by the quantity of the material and the coverage of the topics, but I don't know if these materials are enough for the exam. Some of the questions are confusing, and from the few people who had taken the exam, I've heard that there may be questions not covered in the course. I am curious if there are other people in the first cohort here. Will keep you updated after I take my exam.

Mr.Network

d_masis wrote: »

i am on the same cohort!

I'm in the March group.

Nafe92014

Kinda funny how they randomly picked people. . Was really hoping to get into this program. .

SuperLT09

MooseBoost, I'm in the March cohort as well.

GeekyChick

Nafe92014 wrote: »

Kinda funny how they randomly picked people. . Was really hoping to get into this program. .

If I were you and I still wanted to get in, I would email them and ask if they would let you in. It's worth a try. Follow OctalDump's instructions above to get onto the Support Page.

whoknew

Hi Everybody,

As I'm in the1st cohort, AND I've sat & passed the 1st exam (SECFND 210-250) I thought that I'd share a little info about what t expect, what to do, etc.

1. Don't try to start early. The 1st course (of 3 required is the Intro to Cybersecurity on the Cisco Networking Academy. However, you MUST enter
the Net Academy site from the main training site or it won't register in the main training site.

2. The main 2 courses are, in order, the SECFND & the SECOPS. You'll be ported into a training site where there will be 14 or 15 chapters.

3. Each chapter has sub-sections. Each sub-section has a video, text with images & a little qizz-let(1 to 4 questions).

4. Each chapter has a lab & a full quiz at the end of the chapter. You MUST complete all chapter quizzes with a "Bronze" or higher medal AND
complete all labs to earn that voucher for the free certification exam. You can take the chapter quizzes as man times as you like.

5. Don't waste your time with outside blogs or study threads. That is already set up for you in the main training site. Mentors are involved & assist.

6. There is a weekly, 2 hour, WebEx with your mentors to go over that weeks assigned chapters AND a final review for each cert exam. ATTEND
THESE MEETINGS...THEY'RE MASSIVELY HELPFUL!!!

7. Lastly, the SECFND exam is 65 questions with a 90 minute time limit and a minimum passing score of 825/1000. All multiple choice and drag 'n
drop. Questions are ALL from the exam material. No tricks or misleading questions. Some bad wording but overall, VERY straight forward. Hell, I'm
an idiot and I scored well over 900 in 45 minutes.

Bottom line: do ALL of the course work thoroughly, study what you don't know thoroughly and you'll have enough to pass. Best of luck to everyone.

Ertaz

whoknew wrote: »

Hi Everybody,

As I'm in the1st cohort, AND I've sat & passed the 1st exam (SECFND 210-250) I thought that I'd share a little info about what t expect, what to do, etc.

1. Don't try to start early. The 1st course (of 3 required is the Intro to Cybersecurity on the Cisco Networking Academy. However, you MUST enter
the Net Academy site from the main training site or it won't register in the main training site.

2. The main 2 courses are, in order, the SECFND & the SECOPS. You'll be ported into a training site where there will be 14 or 15 chapters.

3. Each chapter has sub-sections. Each sub-section has a video, text with images & a little qizz-let(1 to 4 questions).

4. Each chapter has a lab & a full quiz at the end of the chapter. You MUST complete all chapter quizzes with a "Bronze" or higher medal AND
complete all labs to earn that voucher for the free certification exam. You can take the chapter quizzes as man times as you like.

5. Don't waste your time with outside blogs or study threads. That is already set up for you in the main training site. Mentors are involved & assist.

6. There is a weekly, 2 hour, WebEx with your mentors to go over that weeks assigned chapters AND a final review for each cert exam. ATTEND
THESE MEETINGS...THEY'RE MASSIVELY HELPFUL!!!

7. Lastly, the SECFND exam is 65 questions with a 90 minute time limit and a minimum passing score of 825/1000. All multiple choice and drag 'n
drop. Questions are ALL from the exam material. No tricks or misleading questions. Some bad wording but overall, VERY straight forward. Hell, I'm
an idiot and I scored well over 900 in 45 minutes.

Bottom line: do ALL of the course work thoroughly, study what you don't know thoroughly and you'll have enough to pass. Best of luck to everyone.

Congrats on your pass! Thank you for taking the time to follow up in this thread.

PocketLumberjack

whoknew wrote: »

Hi Everybody,

As I'm in the1st cohort, AND I've sat & passed the 1st exam (SECFND 210-250) I thought that I'd share a little info about what t expect, what to do, etc.

1. Don't try to start early. The 1st course (of 3 required is the Intro to Cybersecurity on the Cisco Networking Academy. However, you MUST enter
the Net Academy site from the main training site or it won't register in the main training site.

2. The main 2 courses are, in order, the SECFND & the SECOPS. You'll be ported into a training site where there will be 14 or 15 chapters.

3. Each chapter has sub-sections. Each sub-section has a video, text with images & a little qizz-let(1 to 4 questions).

4. Each chapter has a lab & a full quiz at the end of the chapter. You MUST complete all chapter quizzes with a "Bronze" or higher medal AND
complete all labs to earn that voucher for the free certification exam. You can take the chapter quizzes as man times as you like.

5. Don't waste your time with outside blogs or study threads. That is already set up for you in the main training site. Mentors are involved & assist.

6. There is a weekly, 2 hour, WebEx with your mentors to go over that weeks assigned chapters AND a final review for each cert exam. ATTEND
THESE MEETINGS...THEY'RE MASSIVELY HELPFUL!!!

7. Lastly, the SECFND exam is 65 questions with a 90 minute time limit and a minimum passing score of 825/1000. All multiple choice and drag 'n
drop. Questions are ALL from the exam material. No tricks or misleading questions. Some bad wording but overall, VERY straight forward. Hell, I'm
an idiot and I scored well over 900 in 45 minutes.

Bottom line: do ALL of the course work thoroughly, study what you don't know thoroughly and you'll have enough to pass. Best of luck to everyone.

How does the content compare to the CEH?

nisti2

Congrats on your pass!!
I'm on the cohort of December. Thanks for sharing!

securityorc

Hey all,

Reporting late due to some busy days of work and study, but as promised, I wanted to share my experience of the SECFND exam, which I thankfully passed!

If you go through the course material and really focus on those topics described in the exam guide, you will have no problem passing it! The questions were a mix of single answer, multiple choice and drag & drop. I was worried hearing about the misleading nature of the questions, but I found the majority very straightforward and to the point. Only a couple were ambiguous, and for those I found it helpful to eliminate the wrong answers and then only had 2 choices to think about. Of course, I don't know what answers I got wrong, but my score was not bad, so I'm happy!

Oh, and I do recommend to be familiar with the features and data formats of the different security devices covered in the course!

whoknew

PocketLumberjack wrote: »

How does the content compare to the CEH?

The CEH has a lot of secondary overlap material with the 210-250 but the CEH is an attacker's exam whereas the 210-250 is a defending exam. Also, as the CCNA Cyber Ops is an entry level cert, the CEH has a much wider scope & depth of coverage AND a minimum experience requirement of 5 years of total security work. We'll see what level of difficulty the next 210-255 exam brings.

whoknew

securityorc wrote: »

I am in the first cohort and will schedule my exam somewhere in the beginning of February. I was pleasantly surprised by the quantity of the material and the coverage of the topics, but I don't know if these materials are enough for the exam. Some of the questions are confusing, and from the few people who had taken the exam, I've heard that there may be questions not covered in the course. I am curious if there are other people in the first cohort here. Will keep you updated after I take my exam.

I'm also in the 1st cohort. Sat the 210-250 exam on February 13th & passed (see below). How'd you fare???

Replicon

I am on the 3rd Cohort waiting for more info form cisco.
Anyone starting in March 15th to received email? I read somewhere that we will received notification/email 2 weeks before cohort start.

GeekyChick

Replicon wrote: »

I am on the 3rd Cohort waiting for more info form cisco.
Anyone starting in March 15th to received email? I read somewhere that we will received notification/email 2 weeks before cohort start.

I haven't heard anything yet.

Anyone who has already done the class/test, how much Linux do I need to know? I'm in the March cohort. Also, how much time per day did you spend? I know everyone is different, but I'm trying to just get a feel for how much time I'll need to spend on it.

TacoRocket

Not much. Its almost like an introduction to the subject (Cyber Ops that is)

GeekyChick wrote: »

I haven't heard anything yet.

Anyone who has already done the class/test, how much Linux do I need to know? I'm in the March cohort. Also, how much time per day did you spend? I know everyone is different, but I'm trying to just get a feel for how much time I'll need to spend on it.

securityorc

whoknew wrote: »

I'm also in the 1st cohort. Sat the 210-250 exam on February 13th & passed (see below). How'd you fare???

2 posts above you, I passed as well

Onwards to SECOPS now!

coffeeluvr

I passed 210-250....yay! Now onto SECOPS!!

whoknew

GeekyChick wrote: »

I haven't heard anything yet.

Anyone who has already done the class/test, how much Linux do I need to know? I'm in the March cohort. Also, how much time per day did you spend? I know everyone is different, but I'm trying to just get a feel for how much time I'll need to spend on it.

So here's the Section 9 sub-section topic list on Linux from the training material. Its the longest section in the entire 210-250 course training material. If you know all of these topics down to specific command lines & understanding the Linux OS, it's processes, structures & defaults, then you're golden. If not, just go through all of the training material thoroughly & you'll have what you need.

As far as overall time for each course, I probably spent 6 to 8 hours a week doing the reading, sub-section quizzes, section quizzes & labs. And, as no one ever accused me of being particularly bright, I nonetheless, managed to score a 941 on the SECFND exam by going through the course material carefully & thoroughly.

gkca

"9.20 Managing Services in SysV Environments" and no mention of systemd, that's weird these days...

whoknew

gkca wrote: »

"9.20 Managing Services in SysV Environments" and no mention of systemd, that's weird these days...

Actually the systemd vs init or systemd vs sysvinit coverage is buried within that subsection & other section 9 subsections. In fact, you can count on that general topic being covered in the section 9 sub-section quiz-lets, the main section 9 quiz, the section 9 labs, the exam blueprint and the 210-250 exam. Ssssooooooooo....

TacoRocket

I made the same score as you! 941/1000.

Took me about 23 minutes from start to finish. I used only the cisco scholarship material.

As usual I have this already detailed on my blog here:
https://virtualizedcomputing.wordpress.com/2017/02/25/secfnd-passed-exam-review/

I plan on making it a habit of reviewing the exams I take for you guys. Because I understand people are concerned and want to prepare adequately for the exams!

whoknew wrote: »

Actually the systemd vs init or systemd vs sysvinit coverage is buried within that subsection & other section 9 subsections. In fact, you can count on that general topic being covered in the section 9 sub-section quiz-lets, the main section 9 quiz, the section 9 labs, the exam blueprint and the 210-250 exam. Ssssooooooooo....

Iristheangel

Random question: Is Stealthwatch part of the exam at all? More curious since I work with it every day.

TacoRocket

No they mention it as a way to handle Netflow information. For a Cisco exam it is very vendor neutral. Way more subtle about product placement then what I've seen from other Cisco exams

Iristheangel wrote: »

Random question: Is Stealthwatch part of the exam at all? More curious since I work with it every day.

whoknew

TacoRocket wrote: »

I made the same score as you! 941/1000.

Took me about 23 minutes from start to finish. I used only the cisco scholarship material.

As usual I have this already detailed on my blog here:
https://virtualizedcomputing.wordpress.com/2017/02/25/secfnd-passed-exam-review/

I plan on making it a habit of reviewing the exams I take for you guys. Because I understand people are concerned and want to prepare adequately for the exams!

TacoRocket, you're freakin killin me here brother. How the hell did you even read 65 questions in 23 minutes???
Quadruple espressos right before the exam??? It took me 45 minutes & I thought that was way too fast.

Of course, there is the alternate explanation that I'm just a plodding, OCD (read 'em all 3X) ridden, idiot savant....sans the savant. That's certainly a popular theory among my colleagues at work.

Did you share the URL for your blog with the CCNA Cyber Ops study group on Facebook? That would be useful in spreading the word as that new-ish FB group already has over 3,000 members.

And, of course, congrats (albeit tinged with some minor grudging) on your road runner (meep-meep) pass.

TacoRocket

I have not seen the Facebook group (I think my facebook has been deleted). I actually left from work to the test center. As far as timing goes, I think its me versus the exam. The previous I've taken have fared around the same times (CEH in around 32 minutes, GCIH 53 minutes, and SECFND at 23 minutes).

I don't go over the training material multiple times but I do read other books on computer subjects and that might assist. For example this past week (or two) I bought 3 books from No Starch: Practical Packet Analysis 3rd edition, Black Hat Python, and Penetration Testing.

I might start detailing the books I've read recently, not for bragging but to help disclose that I am heavily engaged in a lot of material that might overlap.

I welcome comments or feedback for improvement. I've recently tried to break away from nothing but progress updates. I started it for me to have public accountability to get my school and certs done. Its done wonders when you cant hide it from people!

whoknew wrote: »

TacoRocket, you're freakin killin me here brother. How the hell did you even read 65 questions in 23 minutes???
Quadruple espressos right before the exam??? It took me 45 minutes & I thought that was way too fast.

Of course, there is the alternate explanation that I'm just a plodding, OCD (read 'em all 3X) ridden, idiot savant....sans the savant. Did you share the URL for your blog with the CCNA Cyber Ops study group on Facebook? That would be useful in spreading the word as that new-ish FB group already has over 3,000 members.

And, of course, congrats (albeit tinged with some minor grudging) on your road runner (meep-meep) pass.