Passed GPEN and GCIH
I successfully passed the GPEN (passed on May 26) and GCIH (passed on June 19) within a month of each other.
Due to the pandemic, I was able to schedule both of my exams through Proctor-U, which was a smooth process and had no issues with the remote proctor.
Below was my study plan for the GPEN/GCIH
- Wrote a 250 page index for GPEN, and a 225 page index for GCIH.
- Studied an hour per day for 4 weeks for GPEN and GCIH.
- Practiced each lab up to 10 times.
- Passed the 4 practice tests.
- Attended the elearnsecurity's ECCPT course (practiced each lab 10 times) and exploited 30 machines in hackthebox.
- Reviewed EC-Councils ECSA book.
- Reviewed EC-Councils C.E.H. book.
- Read Hacking Exposed 7.
- Read Basic Security Testing with Kali Linux 2.
Do not listen to anyone that said these were easy exams because I felt like they were the hardest certifications open book exams that I have taken even with a detailed index.
I am going to take a break before tackling the following certifications: AWS Certified Solutions Architect, AWS Cloud Practitioner, CCSK
Comments
As GPEN / GCIH material is quite similar, did you attend both SANS class? Can someone be able to do GCIH without their books (or with GPEN book and a few other documentation?
I chose Sec560, because I thought it was more fun.. but I am wondering if my next class will be GCIH or another one.
What other open book exams have you taken? If I had to rank my GIAC credentials from least to most difficult based on exam scores it would be GDSA (87%), GCCC (79%), GPEN (77%), GCIH (76%), GCIA (72%). I personally wouldn't call GCIH or GPEN easy, but they were definitely easier for me than GCIA and not as easy some others. Of course the difficulty level experienced during the exam depends on one's level of real-world experience in combination with exam preparation.
2022 goal(s): CRISC, land a new job
"You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try." - Homer Simpson
@Jove wow on the 225-250 page indexes! I know everyone does them differently but what sort of format did you use that they were that long? I put a lot of detail in the comments of each line I put in there but even then I don't think I've done one over 3 exams that has been longer than 20 pages so I'm curious how you're doing them.
wow, impressive. you said you did the labs each 10 times, does that mean consecutive or go through each lab once repeated 10 times or do each lab 10 times before moving on to the next?, and how do you overvome the boredom of labbing the same topic 10 times?