GCIA

WhiteMilk

Hello, 

I hope everyone is doing spectacular!

For those who have taken the GCIA + lab portion (pass or fail):

1. I've seen on more than one site, that an individual or two has failed the practice exam and passed the real GCIA exam. I've personally failed a GIAC practice exam and passed a real exam. People have passed the practice test and failed the real thing. How do you compare the GCIA  practice test to the real thing?

2. I am on my third practice test and all do the upmost respect, the questions (not so much the labs), start to repeat themselves. How can you gauge your understanding of a question/topics that you've seen before? If you've seen a question before, the accuracy of your score can negatively impact your individual assumption of exam readiness. I kind of wish the pool of questions were larger. That tells me something, but I am not going to say it. 

3. Labs - Some of them are common sense. Some of them you can find the answer just by glancing at Wireshark tabs. Some of them I feel are time consuming. My personal issue is, the amount of time I have remaining once I get to the labs. What I prefer (which doesn't matter to GIAC), is the labs at the beginning of the exam not at the end. It's 110% more easier to go through questions quickly, than it is to open up a lab, then go to the command prompt, then enter in some command, then finally do some filtering.  That is my only complaint. 

- If this was some other exam, I'd probably just go for it. Truth be told, I am going to buy another practice exam or two just to work on my time  management. 

TechGromit

1. I've seen on more than one site, that an individual or two has failed the practice exam and passed the real GCIA exam. I've personally failed a GIAC practice exam and passed a real exam. People have passed the practice test and failed the real thing. How do you compare the GCIA  practice test to the real thing?

They are very close, pretty much any Practice Exam could easily be interchanged with the real exam in my opinion. I wrote about this before, one practice exam might probe your knowledge on more heavily on Cars one exam, the 2nd The practice exam more focused on Trucks and the actual exam more on SUV's. The are all in the automotive field of questions, just more heavily in one area or another. Another important point is not to study the exams, but the topics they are probing your knowledge on. Rarely have i seen questions about the same specific topics the on the exam as the practice tests, but I've seen one or two that were similar.

2. I am on my third practice test and all do the upmost respect, the questions (not so much the labs), start to repeat themselves. How can you gauge your understanding of a question/topics that you've seen before? If you've seen a question before, the accuracy of your score can negatively impact your individual assumption of exam readiness. I kind of wish the pool of questions were larger. That tells me something, but I am not going to say it. 

It's my belief that the are a limited number pool of practice questions, so 3rd or even 4th practice exams will yield lower results gauging as to your preparedness. Since you likely to see the same questions the more practice exams you take.

3. Labs - Some of them are common sense. Some of them you can find the answer just by glancing at Wireshark tabs. Some of them I feel are time consuming. My personal issue is, the amount of time I have remaining once I get to the labs

If you know the material well, you can answer the easier questions pretty quickly, leaving more time for labs or the more difficult questions you need to look up.

Truth be told, I am going to buy another practice exam or two just to work on my time  management. 

I really don't think extra practice exams are worth the investment. You far better off prepping for the first two practice exams you get as if you were taking the real thing.