Passed GCCC

charismaticx

I just got through taking the GCCC exam and the actual exam was much harder than both practice test. The course itself was a lot better than what I expected. My SANs instructor did an incredible job explaining the importance of each control and how to tie it to any organization. The exam itself is different than most SANs exam in the sense that you have to understand the concept and not just rely on the index. I ended up only using my index about twice for my exam. 

During the week of instruction, I had read all six books and built my index as I went. I’m a huge fan of tabbing out specific sections in my books and I printed out a page with a list of controls. This helped finding the controls so much easier during the exam. If you take the time to read and build your notes tailored to you then you’ll do fine. However, there are some questions that I had no idea as to where they were located in the books. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. 

E Double U

Congratulations! What is next?

Surprised to see you feel there is a difference in difficulty level between practice and actual exams because I found it the same for GCCC. Actually, I felt the practice for all of my GIAC attempts were very similar to the real thing. 

I do disagree on your point about this being different than other GIAC exams when it comes to understanding concepts versus simply using the index. I felt I had to understand the concepts for all of my attempts (GDSA, GCCC, GPEN, GCIH, GCIA). Unless you mean GCCC is less technical than the others so less nitty gritty details to know per question then I guess you are right. GCIA was brutal for me and I relied on my index for every single thing. 

charismaticx

This one is hard to describe in the sense that you’re given a problem with three controls and you have to figure out the root cause of which control. The practice test in my opinion are always similar, but the actual exam itself is always harder. This was my ninth GIAC exam and it was still quite tricky. I think each exam is a little different on how you approach it. GCIA is still by far the most challenging exam that I’ve taken. 

charismaticx

I forgot to answer your question. As for what’s next, I still have my eyes set on the OSCP and the GSE.