Today was a very lucrative day for me. I nabbed two more SANS certs
I wasn't surprised by very much on the GSEC and was a good guesser on the questions I wasn't familiar with so that was a very positive experience. I used some home-made windows and linux command references, the SANS Linux and Windows **** sheets referenced in the GCIH, and my GCIH and GCFW material for the exam. I was allotted three hundred minutes for the GSEC but only used 150 minutes. I missed 15 out of 160 and had no way to solve the ones I missed short of guessing.
The GCIH was an entirely different beast. Even with the course material the exam was pretty challenging. I initially thought that it was harder than the GCFW (even told Dynamik that on the phone right after) but in hindsight the GCFW was harder. The GCIH had ZERO PRACTICAL LABS which honestly bothered me since I was told there would be labs on the exam. I didn't go out of my way to prep for them but I was honestly looking forward to them. I did basically six hours of testing and was praying for a break from the monotony of nearly 300 multiple choice questions in one sitting.
Loose ends:
1. The testing center (Adaptive Assessment Services, Inc. 618 Belle Terre Boulevard Suite C, LaPlace, Louisiana 7006
was the nicest testing center I've been to since my favorite one was shut down for cheating. The younger male employee that was working was very personable, helpful, and good at his job.
2. The GSEC was initially VERY slow (30-45 seconds between each question) and he did everything he could to troubleshoot it. Eventually the problem went away after 10 questions. Later, the GCIH wouldn't load because I was still in my GSEC window. It was a problem that Dynamik had when he did multiple SANS exams earlier last month. The proctor took care of it in 15 minutes which was all the time I needed between exams to use the rest room and stretch. I even got in a good 15 minute football game with my wife in the parking lot while I was waiting.
3. The proctor at my testing center told me I was the first multi-GIAC exam on he same day taker he'd ever seen @ that testing center and the lady proctor @ the testing center Dynamik went to said the same about him. Go us, handling that business.
