Next Up: GCIH

ipchain

Having recently completed my CCNA, I am now ready to tackle the GCIH. I have been configuring IDS/IPS devices for a while now and figured it would make a lot of sense for me to get a few security certs under my belt. Having said that, I already signed up for OnDemand and should be receiving my books today.

I cannot wait to get my hands on those books - they must be awesome! So far OnDemand looks promising and I cannot wait to get past incident handling. I am really excited about this course and should be taking the exam in a few months.

Paul Boz

GCIH is good, though you may want to have gone with the GCIA or GCFW if you have intrusion detection/prevention experience.

Either way you won't be disappointed, I enjoyed the course/exam very much.

rwmidl

GCIH is/was awesome!

ipchain

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I have completed all of the slides/assessments through OnDemand and I am now in the process of highlighting/creating indexes for all of the books. I have proceeded to schedule the exam for Jan 4th, 2011 as I believe I will have plenty of time to prepare until then.

I will keep you posted on my progress. Thanks once again.

Paul - GCIA is something I will definitely tackle in the near future. The reason why I went with GCIH is because I thought it would actually benefit me more, short term.

ipchain

Taking this bad boy on Jan 4th, 2011. I have already highlighted all 5 books and created an index. Overall, I have enjoyed most of the material to the point that I went ahead and ordered the GCIA.

the_Grinch

Good luck! Interested to see how you do and your thoughts on the exam. How did you like the course itself?

rogue2shadow

ipchain wrote: »

Taking this bad boy on Jan 4th, 2011. I have already highlighted all 5 books and created an index. Overall, I have enjoyed most of the material to the point that I went ahead and ordered the GCIA.

Good luck man. Bring us a victory!!!!

Bl8ckr0uter

ipchain wrote: »

Taking this bad boy on Jan 4th, 2011. I have already highlighted all 5 books and created an index. Overall, I have enjoyed most of the material to the point that I went ahead and ordered the GCIA.

Mind sharing how much you paid for GCIA? Congrats on getting through it all btw

ipchain

the_Grinch wrote: »

Good luck! Interested to see how you do and your thoughts on the exam. How did you like the course itself?

I will certainly share my thoughts and experience on the exam once I take it. As for the course, it was incredible. I believe it was worth every cent and I have learned a ton from the course material.

I gotta do some reviewing and take the 2 practice exams that you normally get, so we'll see how that goes. I want to go through all of the books once again and take the 1st practice exam. Once my weak areas have been exposed I intend on going over those sections and taking the 2nd practice exam. With a bit of luck I will be in good shape by Tuesday.

rogue2shadow wrote: »

Good luck man. Bring us a victory!!!!

Thanks man. I will certainly try!

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Mind sharing how much you paid for GCIA? Congrats on getting through it all btw

Sure, I don't mind sharing at all. I believe I paid around 3300 (including the certification attempt) as I took advantage of a special they had. I basically got 20% off the full price. This was 100% out of pocket.

Hopefully work will come through and pay for another SANS course by the end of 2011...at least it's included in the budget, pending approval.

ipchain

So far so good. I took the 1st practice exam yesterday and scored a solid 88% without using any of the books at all. I finished in about 1 hour and 10 minutes so I am feeling very confident right now. I will review book 5 today and try to take the 2nd practice exam as well.

I can't wait for Tuesday to come around to get this one over with so I can start looking at the OnDemand stuff for GCIA while my books arrive.

Update: Just took the 2nd practice exam after reviewing book 5 and got a 96% on it. With that said, I believe I am ready for Tuesday!