It's official, I am going for SEC560 in New Orleans

SteveLavoie

One of my personal dream is to go to training at a SANS event... I am happy that it will happen in 59 days.. in New Orleans. I will attend the SEC560 Network penetration testing class, the GPEN certication. 

I am a long time IT Pro with many certification (CISSP being one of them). Any recommandation on reading material before I attend ?

MrsWilliams

Congratulations on your acceptance. 

@johndoee wrote about his experience and recommendations with regards to his New Orleans event. It might be useful to type in New Orleans and read what he wrote. 

I am not sure I've ever heard of anyone reading material prior to attending an event. With that in mind, it's not necessary. 

You'll be given X amount of books and like 90 days or so after the event to take the exam. Yes, you can get an extension.

A small percentage of people and I mean small percentage of people, take the exam the day after class ends. I've personally met one person who has been successful at doing such a thing. That really is based on creating your index during class and having some experience in the topics covered. 

To answer your question, most people don't do any pre-class studying. It is not needed whatsoever. 

Enjoy the city and the class.

Considering it was your d.r.e.a.m of attending an event, I am going to go out on a limb and say this is your first event.

Don't worry if you don't grasp all of the information. You'll have plenty of time to read and re-read the information and do any labs when the event is over. I've seen people come for Day 1 then leave and never come back. Technically and honestly, everything you need is in the books. You don't need the instructor to give you real world examples and proof read pages in the book in order for you to pass the exam. If you can read a book and do labs, you can pass. The real world examples, proof reading pages to you, and question and answer session are just bonus. You can get the same questions answered with on-demand chat/emails. 

People say that it's an opportunity to network. Cool, not going to argue that.

What I will say is I have NEVER heard of anyone getting a job from networking at a SANS event. That is what I will say.

Enjoy

iBrokeIT

Do the SANS Holiday Hack challenge (for fun) since it is from Ed's team.  Other than that, rest up since all of the material that you need to pass the exam will be given to you.

chrisone

Enjoy! super happy for you bud. You will have a memorable time. 

LonerVamp

First of all, New Orleans was beautiful and fun last year. I hope you enjoy the town a bit (Bourbon street is in walking distance).

Second, just make sure you are comfortable with Linux. Otherwise, I think you'll be given lots of material and prep. (Caveat: I have not taken SEC560.)

SteveLavoie

iBrokeIT said:

Do the SANS Holiday Hack challenge (for fun) since it is from Ed's team.  Other than that, rest up since all of the material that you need to pass the exam will be given to you.

Nice I will try it this year.. 

SteveLavoie

LonerVamp said:

First of all, New Orleans was beautiful and fun last year. I hope you enjoy the town a bit (Bourbon street is in walking distance).

Second, just make sure you are comfortable with Linux. Otherwise, I think you'll be given lots of material and prep. (Caveat: I have not taken SEC560.)

I am comfortable with Linux. 

I chose New Orleans for 2 reasons.. the timing is great for my work, but the city is so beautiful. I went 2 years ago for VeeamON and I really liked it. You just think to get some rest, because, the night can be very wild in NOLA. 

baghdaddy19

@MrsWilliams pretty much nailed it. Very solid advice. Sounds like it comes from personal experience.

bigdogz

@SteveLavoie
I was in Vegas and I just had my 'eye on the prize!'
The nights are filled with your choice of PenTesting or Forensics. I went to both and hut my head. I did well but I was in it to learn and have fun with some others. SANS only offers wine and beer because I guess there are some folks who were mean drunks in the past. I can see the image of a some coder who is in a drunken state.

If you are in it to pass the exam the same week, you would have to put some serious time in at night to work on your index. The / your index is key to passing the exam. They will show you some samples but you have to be comfortable with your own version. This is how you will grasp the concepts. The exam is open book and you can bring your index in with you. The index is where you can perform a quick lookup on a topic in the case you don't know the answer or are confused.

Good Luck!!!

SteveLavoie

I will not do the exam the same week. I will take a few week to study and build my index. Everytime, I tried to do the exam either while at a event, it's always a failure (often a close failure, like my VCP-DV exam.. 296 on 500, 300 required), so I will be patient

SteveLavoie

I think what excite me the most, is it will be a "geeky vacation". I know I will try to drink from a firehose, but it will be a fun week (disconnected from the office) with time to do lab and just be "geeky".  Too often, I do labs at home late at night with a specific objectives (meet some customer expectation etc..) for the next day.  I will have 1 week to do things I love to do. 

bigdogz

SteveLavoie said:

I think what excite me the most, is it will be a "geeky vacation". I know I will try to drink from a firehose, but it will be a fun week (disconnected from the office) with time to do lab and just be "geeky".  Too often, I do labs at home late at night with a specific objectives (meet some customer expectation etc..) for the next day.  I will have 1 week to do things I love to do. 

That is a huge difference, which makes it more fun!!!

tboe

Good Luck and Rest Up,  just be prepared to soak in all the info.... I will be on demand for this one in about another week or two myself, this will be my 3rd rodeo but first time training solely and directly virtual... 

SteveLavoie

tboe said:

Good Luck and Rest Up,  just be prepared to soak in all the info.... I will be on demand for this one in about another week or two myself, this will be my 3rd rodeo but first time training solely and directly virtual... 

Yeah, I will have to rest and not party all night.. Schedule run from 9AM to 5PM, with some optionnal session at night from 7PM to 9PM. Additionnally, english is my second language (I am french from Quebec) so it add up.