Taking MGT512 Course in Jan 2018 Supporting Study Material Suggestions

bigrod

Hello all,

I am registered for MGT512 in January in preparation to take the exam for the GSLC certification. I understand I will receive a thumb drive and some downloadable MP3s; however, may I solicit additional books and materials I should purchase to help me prepare for the exam?

I plan to make an index, it will be my first and welcome advice on building that as well. I am extremely nervous about this course and exam as my employer is paying for it and my job depends on my successfully passing it. My memory isn't nearly what it used to be so I need to be armed with as much helpful material as I can carry in to the exam room.

Thank you in advance for your input and assistance, it is sincerely appreciated.

scasc

Relax, I'm sure you will do just fine . I'm looking to do 512 in Feb - all materials are provided by SANS - use them as the focal point of your studies. Regarding an index - I personally keep it as simple as possible - something along the lines:

Stating the concept
Tools - what purpose is, what output is etc.
Page number
Summary of the page in concise keywords - so in this case Change management, logical access, crypto etc. and key elements under each heading.

512 does not have any labs (at least that is what the website says) so focus on the material and understanding this and use the 2 practice exams they give you to find out where you are strong/weak in. I usually revise, make notes, index etc and then attempt the practice exams - usually a good indicator where you are.

bigrod

scasc wrote: »

Relax, I'm sure you will do just fine . I'm looking to do 512 in Feb - all materials are provided by SANS - use them as the focal point of your studies. Regarding an index - I personally keep it as simple as possible - something along the lines:

Stating the concept
Tools - what purpose is, what output is etc.
Page number
Summary of the page in concise keywords - so in this case Change management, logical access, crypto etc. and key elements under each heading.

512 does not have any labs (at least that is what the website says) so focus on the material and understanding this and use the 2 practice exams they give you to find out where you are strong/weak in. I usually revise, make notes, index etc and then attempt the practice exams - usually a good indicator where you are.

Thank you, scasc, it is appreciated.

What are your thoughts on purchasing other books? I've also read posts where others felt Security+ study guides were helpful as well.

TechGuru80

The exam is based on the official course books so you don’t really NEED anything else. Read all the books, watch the videos if you purchased on demand, listen to the mp3s.

As far as Index, you can google tips, but at minimum...term, book, pages, at least a brief description but you could make it as detailed as you want.

Don’t take a practice exam until you are basically done creating an index...that way you can see what areas are weak and can tweak your index...if you do well enough on the first practice exam you can just take the real thing.

bigrod

TechGuru80, thank you kindly for the advice. I didn't purchase on-demand, maybe I should do so. I want all of the material I can get my hands on. Can the videos be copied to a thumb drive?

TechGuru80

No...you get access to the videos online for 4 months. Basically the mp3s are similar in that it’s the audio of the course being taught but I prefer having access to the videos too.

TechGromit

I would be interested to know is the Video Files are more updated then the MP3 files. I'm following along in my SANS 610 books with the MP3 lectures and labs, the instructor says the example is "On the bottom of page 58, in your course books", and I was on page 45. He also mentions screen shots for a lab that we didn't go over in class but we could do later alone if we want, but no screen shots are included. Apparently although the course material is updated every so often, the MP3 are not updated at the same time as well.

scasc

bigrod wrote: »

Thank you, scasc, it is appreciated.

What are your thoughts on purchasing other books? I've also read posts where others felt Security+ study guides were helpful as well.

Sorry for the delay - as said really don't need to in my opinion as all the things you need are provided. With the technical courses you can download **** sheets with commands etc of tools which supplement the texts however for 512 - the books they provide are totally fine.

BillHoo

I brought a Sec+ study guide with me to the exam along with the recommended courseware. I only referred to the Sec+ material only once during the exam. I probably would not use it again for that as I found the anser in my SANS courseware. Although it gave me a little more assurance to have additional references.

bigrod

Bill, thank you for that information. I am so nerved about this exam, much of the information at last week's SANS training was so over my head, and having never taken a SANS exam, I just don't know what to expect. My course books look like they were caught in a confetti bomb given all of the tabs I pasted in them as we went through the course. The OnDemand stuff and pretests are not yet loaded to my SANS account but with the fact that I could be relieved of my job if I don't pass the exam comfortably nestled in the back of my gray matter, I'm really concerned about passing and I'm still weeks away from even scheduling it. Any suggestions, words of advice, adult beverage recipes....

InCryptable

bigrod wrote: »

Any suggestions, words of advice, adult beverage recipes....

Those of us on this board have been in your shoes...just getting done with a training week and feeling like you only picked up about 20-30% of what was discussed. As other have pointed out in these threads, with SANS courses, it all comes down to re-reading the books and making up an Index of the key terms as you go back through your books, the OnDemand, and of course listening to the MP3's on your daily drives. That's where the learning takes place that is going to put you over the top in passing this cert...you can do it!

The easy part was going to the training course - that was the tip of the iceberg for your pursuit of this cert. But now, you have to get at the 85% of the iceberg under the water with building your index, re-reading, OnDemand, MP3's, etc...

There are threads on here, and hopefully someone will post links, but there are instructions out there about building an index and various ways to do it.

Good Luck - You'll pass if you put in the time & effort. The easy part (training course) is over...now is the slightly more difficult part of pursuing this cert and finishing off your SANS training.

TechGuru80

To get you started here is a common blog post: https://tisiphone.net/2015/08/18/giac-testing/

Personally I found I prefer buying tabs because you can get higher quality than the ones provided. I only tab major sections/topics and labs so I can reference them if needed. The name of the game is speed...you won't be able to look up everything but when you need to look something up, you need to be very organized.

cshkuru

There was a question earlier about content of the on-demand courses. I have taken 3 now and my experience is that the .mp3s tend to be a little dated, but the on-demand is the current version of the course. They only show what projected on the wall so don't expect to see the instructor much. Another hint, all the material in the book is contained in the course material tab. I have seen a few people now who didn't realize that. My method is I go to a slide, read the material in the side bar, then play the video which focuses mainly on the powerpoint for that page. That way I have read every page of all the books when I am done.