Hey guys! 840/900 this morning... Before I make my
little rant, I have to say thanks! Thank you to all the people that participate in this community. It's always nice to hear others's opinions on what worked for them to get through the test. I took suggestions from the majority of you on what books to read, practice tests to take, etc. The Tech-Notes didn't "teach" me much, but they were a great re-cap right before the test.
I'm sure that many of you are wanting to know what I used to study, what areas I focused on, etc. so here:
-Exam Cram 2 (read entirely)
-Sybex (2006 deluxe ed - read majority)
-Fastpass (briefly perused book)
-Syngress All-In-One (read first half)
Practice tests
-Transcender
-Measure-up CD that came with Sybex book
Out of all the material, I'd have to say the Syngress book was by far the best book (even if it's a little old). The Transcender website was a great indicator of where I stood... I think it's pretty overkill, but I'd much rather be over-prepared!
If I had to do it again, I'd get the Exam Cram 2 book and the Sygress books only, and study the heck out of them!
Breakdown (
very approx):
- 20-25% Access Control
- 20% IDS
- <5% Port #s
- 15-20% Attacks (type/how to mitigate)
- 10-15% Policies/Procedures
- <5% Fire Suppression systems (types/when to use/where to use/etc)
- 10% Email Security
- 10% Auditing/Logging
All in all, very happy it's done. I'm pretty dissappointed though... I know the information inside and out, and I don't feel that this test is nearly about how much you know the material/can apply it, so much as it is a test on how to decipher their questions! Anyone that says the test doesn't have an abnormally large number of terribly worded questions is either smoking crack, or was very lucky with the test they recieved. There were numerous questions on subjects that I fully understood, but did not have any idea how to answer them without any context to base my answer on...
Whatever, time to get drunk.
