GCIH Passed 4/27/2017
frfghtrjosh
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Greetings All,
Passed GIAC GCIH yesterday with a 90%. Below is some of my insight.
Preparation: I studied the On-Demand SANS 504 class for about two month before taking the exam. Took my CEH last year and that help a little (I mean "a little"). The SANS on-demand class was very informative and very well executed. I went through the videos maybe 3 times, read through the books twice and played around with the lab portion a few times. I took the 1st Practice Exam (in 2 hours) and scored a 84%, I went through it mostly without notes to test my true understanding of the concepts. I also made notes of the missed question and updated my index. My 2nd Attempt I hit 86% in about the same time. I felt ready.
Index: The first time I went through the lessons, I made the majority of my index and with each sequential pass through I added onto the index. I used a tip found on this forum and and tabbed every 10 pages in the book for easier lookups. For the indexes I made 4 different ones, Definitions, Tools, Windows Commands and Linux Commands. I made 4 columns on each ones, including: Term, brief description, book# and page#. For the 1st practice exam I left them ordered by Book number but consistently found myself trying to use it as if it was alphabetize by term. I change it for the 2nd practice exam and final exam to be just that, alphabetized by term, much easier.
Test Day: Test day came and I booked it at a familiar testing facility to ease that stress and so I knew I had some room to spread out the books. I used the SANS 504 books, my index, Blue Team handbook, Red Team handbook, and a few SANS **** Sheets printouts. The test was straightforward, very very similar to the practice exams. I looked up every answer that I was not 110% sure of. I was not a fan not having a back button, but oh-well. There was only 1 question that I was absolutely stumped on and could not find the answer anywhere, so I attempted a best guess. I flagged that question for review not only because it was unfamiliar but I also though it was completely outdated and not relevant. I skipped a few questions (maybe 7) so I could concentrate on them at the end. I finished my last question with about 1 hour and 15min left and I felt confident...and BOOM there it was a 90%
. I let a sigh of relief out (I was the only one in the room then).
Overall a great experience, not many complaints from me. The test center coordinator made sure my test went through and within 3 hrs or so I got an email congratulating me and to order my certificate. Today I received the email for the digital badge and check to see if I was added to the online directory, which I was. I am looking forward to my next SANS class, whenever my company will cough up the money.
Hope this helps!
Passed GIAC GCIH yesterday with a 90%. Below is some of my insight.
Preparation: I studied the On-Demand SANS 504 class for about two month before taking the exam. Took my CEH last year and that help a little (I mean "a little"). The SANS on-demand class was very informative and very well executed. I went through the videos maybe 3 times, read through the books twice and played around with the lab portion a few times. I took the 1st Practice Exam (in 2 hours) and scored a 84%, I went through it mostly without notes to test my true understanding of the concepts. I also made notes of the missed question and updated my index. My 2nd Attempt I hit 86% in about the same time. I felt ready.
Index: The first time I went through the lessons, I made the majority of my index and with each sequential pass through I added onto the index. I used a tip found on this forum and and tabbed every 10 pages in the book for easier lookups. For the indexes I made 4 different ones, Definitions, Tools, Windows Commands and Linux Commands. I made 4 columns on each ones, including: Term, brief description, book# and page#. For the 1st practice exam I left them ordered by Book number but consistently found myself trying to use it as if it was alphabetize by term. I change it for the 2nd practice exam and final exam to be just that, alphabetized by term, much easier.
Test Day: Test day came and I booked it at a familiar testing facility to ease that stress and so I knew I had some room to spread out the books. I used the SANS 504 books, my index, Blue Team handbook, Red Team handbook, and a few SANS **** Sheets printouts. The test was straightforward, very very similar to the practice exams. I looked up every answer that I was not 110% sure of. I was not a fan not having a back button, but oh-well. There was only 1 question that I was absolutely stumped on and could not find the answer anywhere, so I attempted a best guess. I flagged that question for review not only because it was unfamiliar but I also though it was completely outdated and not relevant. I skipped a few questions (maybe 7) so I could concentrate on them at the end. I finished my last question with about 1 hour and 15min left and I felt confident...and BOOM there it was a 90%
. I let a sigh of relief out (I was the only one in the room then).Overall a great experience, not many complaints from me. The test center coordinator made sure my test went through and within 3 hrs or so I got an email congratulating me and to order my certificate. Today I received the email for the digital badge and check to see if I was added to the online directory, which I was. I am looking forward to my next SANS class, whenever my company will cough up the money.
Hope this helps!
Comments
Regarding 90%...is there different advisory boards for each certification? I became an advisory board member when I passed my GSEC, just curious if there are different boards.
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Congratulations, nice score too.
Proper Preparation is the key to passing. In my case I only created two indexes, one for all the books and another for commands/programs, where they were referenced in the books, what they for and several examples of command syntax. I found I really didn't use the command/program index very much during the exam, but I'm sure it helped me get a better score just by creating it.
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