Taking the GCIH 8 days

yoba222

Just finished taking the first practice test. Scored a 76% (passing is 67%). Not too bad. Will review the ones I got wrong over the next two days and take the second practice test Wednesday March 22. Exam is booked for Monday March 27.

So far I skim read all the books once, then word-for-word read all the books once. I've self-labbed maybe half of the labs. Probably won't do all the labs, just whatever remaining that I scored the weakest on.

jbeb

Good deal on the practice exams.

I just finished taking the second practice test and am disappointed in my scores, 73% on the first and 77%. I know which sections I need to work on but since the study material is limited really to what SANS gives you, where else or what other study material does anyone else suggest using? I've indexed and have taken an exhaustive amount of notes but can't seem to score any better. I'm a bit demoralized and any help would be greatly appreciated.

TechGuru80

Try making flash cards or try teaching somebody the subjects you aren't doing well in...I've heard several people have success with that strategy.

Also I would constantly listen to the videos if you have access still or the audio files.

JoJoCal19

jbeb, what areas are you scoring weak on in the practice exams? Depending on what they are, we could recommend some outside sources of material to shore up that knowledge if you are finding the course material isn't presenting it well enough for you to understand.

TechGromit

yoba222 wrote: »

Scored a 76% (passing is 67%).

Not sure where your getting your information from, but the passing score for the GCIH is a 73%, not a 67%. Perhaps you basing the passing score on a different exam? The GCIA, GICSP, GXPN, and GPYC certifications have a passing score of 67% and the GPPA 69.3%. Different GIAC certifications have difference minimum passing score requirements.

GIAC Certified Incident Handler | GCIH Certification

briancam35

which books have you been studying for the GCIH and pyton?
thanks

yoba222

So it is 73%. Must have misread somewhere. Studying the official course books for the GCIH. There's no Python on the GCIH but separate from it I'm reading Head First Python and next in line from that book will be Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.

JoJoCal19

Might be worth getting Ed Skoudis' Counter-hack Reloaded book and brushing up on those areas.

yoba222

Just finished practice exam 2: 83%.
4 more days until the real thing.:)

GirlyGirl

yoba222 wrote: »

Just finished taking the first practice test. Scored a 76% (passing is 67%). Not too bad. Will review the ones I got wrong over the next two days and take the second practice test Wednesday March 22. Exam is booked for Monday March 27.So far I skim read all the books once, then word-for-word read all the books once. I've self-labbed maybe half of the labs. Probably won't do all the labs, just whatever remaining that I scored the weakest on.

What I have realized recently is that passing scores have changed, just not on the website. I took a practice test and the passing score for the test was lower than the website stated for the exam. Then, I took the exam and it was the same lower score as the practice test. This may sound weird, but please use the score on your practice test to gauge what the passing score on the exam will be. I took an exam recently and that was the case. The same passing score on the practice test was the same one on my exam. I have no idea where you obtained the 67% from either but whatever is passing on the practice test is passing on the exam.

yoba222

A-ha I accidentally looked at a GCIA description after duckduckgoing for GCIH. The GCIA is the 67% one. See the things is the practice exam results only show pass so who knows?

briancam35

would you sell the GCIH books? thanks

TechGromit

GirlyGirl wrote: »

What I have realized recently is that passing scores have changed, just not on the website. I took a practice test and the passing score for the test was lower than the website stated for the exam. Then, I took the exam and it was the same lower score as the practice test.

What I would like to know what criteria they use to set passing scores. Do they have 100 people take the exam and want 20% of them to fail so after getting in all the scores they raise or lower the passing score to meet that requirement? Just a guess.

GirlyGirl

TechGromit wrote: »

What I would like to know what criteria they use to set passing scores. Do they have 100 people take the exam and want 20% of them to fail so after getting in all the scores they raise or lower the passing score to meet that requirement? Just a guess.

I will say this. I love GIAC. The reason I say that is because they have been good to me. I am not going to admit or deny failing a GIAC exam. So, I will not admit or deny failing a GAIC exam. They offer incentives to retaking any exam. I am not going to say what incentives but incentives.

I read posts off and on. If I find it worth me logging in, I will log in. Most of the time after you've been on this site for a while, a lot of questions and comments are repetitious. So I don't log in. I will say that I do believe they are aware that even with an open book, people still fail. Just because I spend 6k, read the books, do the OnDemand, index, I am not guaranteed to pass the exam (beyond popular TechExam beliefs) . If that theory is correct. I will buy the exam course for a 10th grader in high school and if they follow these alleged steps, in theory they will pass. If they don't I want 5x of what I invested.
I said that to say, I think GIAC understands the financial commitment people are making. They understand that people are paying out of pocket, know matter what people allege GIAC caters to. Ie. Companies/businesses. Considering GIAC prices go up once a year or so, I don't see why they shouldn't lower the scores a few points or so. People have failed by a few points. I am not sure what they use to gauge the exam experience. That is a good question.

yoba222

Just got back from the training center. And a pass. Score 87%.

I didn't bother bringing my index because I never made one. Also didn't bring the books. I did print the SANS **** sheets/pocket reference guides, which were handy to refer to several times. Took me 90 minutes to finish.

grouchy_Smurf

Congrats Yoba! Opinion or thoughts after testing about the test?

I have just under 30 days to test..

jbeb

Congrats on passing! I've scheduled my test for April 6th. Any tips for taking the test?

IaHawk

Congrats! Test is scheduled for May 18th, getting down to crunch time for me!

yoba222

Tips? I felt like the practice exams were very fair and matched the difficulty and asking style of the actual exam. So definitely master those (I took screen shots of everything on the 2 practices). Be familiar with all or as many as possible of the 100 or so tools in at least the name and perhaps the protocol the tools works with. Try to use every (free) tool at least enough to recognize it in a screenshot.

The Windows command line stuff I was probably weakest on and it's in there. Plenty of Linux too, but I am much stronger in that area so hard to advise.

The eJPT I earned last year helped me out a lot; the CCNA I earned last year also helped here and there. I never actually took the SANS training--this was an exam challenge.

TechGromit

GirlyGirl wrote: »

I said that to say, I think GIAC understands the financial commitment people are making. They understand that people are paying out of pocket, know matter what people allege GIAC caters to. Ie. Companies/businesses. Considering GIAC prices go up once a year or so, I don't see why they shouldn't lower the scores a few points or so. People have failed by a few points. I am not sure what they use to gauge the exam experience. That is a good question.

So your implying if you pay enough for a course and an exam, you should be guaranteed a pass? I'll have to do some research to see as the price of SANS courses and exams increased over time, have the passing scores decreased. I just think a passing grade should be the same set score, for all the exams. As for failing, I know several people that failed GAIC exams, it takes more than sitting in class and reading the books to get a passing grade.

JoJoCal19

TechGromit wrote: »

I just think a passing grade should be the same set score, for all the exams.

I don't know about that. As having the GSEC and GCIA, I can tell you the GCIA is much harder, and I can understand why it has a lower passing score than the GSEC.

JasminLandry

Congrats!

jbeb

Thanks for the tips yoba222! I take the test at 10am today. I will also say that I purchased two additional practice tests (I tend to really over do it) but I scored 85% on both and most of the questions were different so I feel pretty good about that. I've studied within an inch of my life and taken a ton of notes. Nervous and excited for this.

jbeb

Update! Took the test and passed with an 86%! Thanks to all who provided tips and additional resources!

bsjj27

Jbeb, I'm taking this Monday, just took first practice exam today and scored a 84%. How did the practice stack up to the real thing? How many questions are there, is there 150 on the real thing? Congrats on the pass

jbeb

Hey, thank you! and good luck on Monday! I found that the practice test questions were similar to the actual exam, some I almost thought were word for word but they change something in the actual question that makes it totally different from the question I saw in the practice exam. I got down to the wire with time, had about 3 1/2 minutes left so I had to do some educated guessing on the last few questions. I think it was just making some associations that helped me. Also, the highest score I received on the practice tests was 85%.

MitM

Congrats on passing. Stupid question, since you didn't take the SANS class, what were the study materials that you used (books, videos, practice tests, etc).?

IaHawk

bsjj27 wrote: »

Jbeb, I'm taking this Monday, just took first practice exam today and scored a 84%. How did the practice stack up to the real thing? How many questions are there, is there 150 on the real thing? Congrats on the pass

Let me know if you don't use that extra practice test. I'd happily take it!

bsjj27

Passed the test today, I thought it was very difficult, managed a 93%, still don't no how, best of luck to everyone else working on it. I scored 84% on both practice tests.

IaHawk

Congrats! I'm really getting after it this last month. Any suggestions on what to focus on or how best to prepare?

I'm starting to create my index this week and lab, lab lab. I've been through the books and audio one time already.