GCIH Passed!!! Should I take SANS 560 for GPEN or SANS 660

Last Thursday (06/12/2017), I passed the GCIH exam. It's my first security cert and I am very happy!

I want to be a good pen tester and wanted some advise on which course to take up next.
Should I take SANS 560 or jump to SANS 660?

The below link suggests, the SANS 560 has more deeper training than 504 although I thought both are similar.
Any thoughts or advise from personal experience? I am just 6 months into info sec.

https://pen-testing.sans.org/vsfaq

"I've Already Taken SEC504. Should I Take SEC560 as a Follow-on?
560 was designed as a perfect follow-on for people who have already taken 504 and are looking to get into more depth with tools used in professional penetration testing and ethical hacking. 560 is not recycled 504 material; it is an entirely new class with an entirely new set of slides and exercises."

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Comments

Hornswoggler

Congrats!!

SEC560 is a very natural progression and NOT a duplication. You'll learn a ton!! Good luck.

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

JasminLandry

Have you thought of taking the OSCP?

fabostrong

Congrats on passing. Did you take the practice exams? If so, how'd you do on them and how much are they like the actual test?

docrice

504 and 560 has minimal overlap. 660 is a significant jump ahead from what a co-worker told me. If you have no offsec experience, 660 will be a waste of your time since you likely won't be able to handle it.

TechGromit

You have to learn to walk before you can run. Another way to look at it, you can't skip High School and jump right into college.

kanikedude03

I definitely would not recommend jumping directly into SEC660 before taking SEC560. I"m not saying it's impossible, but it would definitely require an insane amount of studying. If you sit the GXPN exam, it's partially lab based and you can't skip questions once you get to the lab section. I've taken SEC560 and SEC660. Even with the college degrees in Computer and Electrical engineering and the knowledge from SEC560, SEC660 was tough. It's definitely one worth taking when you are ready though!!

ChicagoCyber

I was really happy doing 560 after 504. It felt like a natural progression. About half of the class had already taken 504. A few with experience had come straight from 401 or had taken 542 before the class.