Gsec

I'm debating whether or not I should tackle this one before starting at a new job next Monday. If the schedule allows me to, I believe I will go for it before the end of the week.

I got the GCIA coming up on April 1st, so I am sure I will have my hands full for the next month or so. Although I have completed the OnDemand material, I still have to go through the books and take some notes, especially on tcpdump filters.

GSEC on the other hand not be too difficult, and from what I have seen I should be familiar with most of the stuff it covers. I'll see if I can pull this one off, as I normally hate taking time off when starting at a new job.

If everything goes well, I should be taking both practice exams tomorrow night and should be taking the GSEC Thursday morning. Let's just hope I am able to review Encryption + IPSec + Linux Security tonight, as I have reviewed everything else last week.

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Bl8ckr0uter

Good luck!

May I ask why you want to do it? Are you going for GSE?

ipchain

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Good luck!

May I ask why you want to do it? Are you going for GSE?

Thanks and you're correct - I am going for the GSE. Going for it makes a lot more sense to me now, especially since I was finally given the title of Sr. Security Systems Engineer at my current job. Although I will be relocating to a new department next Monday, I am still with the same organization.

Bl8ckr0uter

ipchain wrote: »

Thanks and you're correct - I am going for the GSE. Going for it makes a lot more sense to me now, especially since I was finally given the title of Sr. Security Systems Engineer at my current job. Although I will be relocating to a new department next Monday, I am still with the same organization.

Awesome. Congrats on the promotion! Are you responsibilities changing significantly?

ipchain

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Awesome. Congrats on the promotion! Are you responsibilities changing significantly?

Thank you! My responsibilities are changing, but not significantly. I will certainly get my hands on a lot of new toys, for example, I primarily worked with Cisco ASA 5510s and 5540s, Cisco AIM-IPS-K9 and NME-IPS-K9 IDS/IPS modules in my current position, and I will now be working with checkpoint firewalls, nitro security appliances, etc.

Bl8ckr0uter

ipchain wrote: »

Thank you! My responsibilities are changing, but not significantly. I will certainly get my hands on a lot of new toys, for example, I primarily worked with Cisco ASA 5510s and 5540s, Cisco AIM-IPS-K9 and NME-IPS-K9 IDS/IPS modules in my current position, and I will now be working with checkpoint firewalls, nitro security appliances, etc.

Sounds pretty cool. Are you making policy or are you purely in implementation?

ipchain

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Sounds pretty cool. Are you making policy or are you purely in implementation?

I believe it will be a combination of policy creation, design and implementation. I haven't even gotten there yet and the director is already saying he has got a few things lined up for me. It'll be very exciting - that's for sure!

On a different note, it looks like I won't be able to get the GSEC done on Thursday. My co-workers (managers included) are taking me out for lunch that day, so I am aiming for Friday now. The good part is I have an extra day for review.

ipchain

Turns out I will be taking the GSEC on Saturday...wasn't able to get it done before then. To my surprise, all testing centers in Miami have either closed or are relocating. With that said, I will have a 4 hour drive to Orlando so I can take this bad boy. The good news is that my wife was able to get me a suite at a hotel over there for FREE, since she is in the hospitality business.

ayesecurity

Please where can I get practice questions for the GSEC exam?

Thank you.

kriscamaro68

ayesecurity wrote: »

Please where can I get practice questions for the GSEC exam?

Thank you.

This is pretty much the only resource out there for practice questions: Exam Practice Test

beads

Here is a link to the GIAC FAQ page (registration required)

https://exams.giac.org/pages/faq

Basically, you get two practice exams to work through with GIAC based tests. Generally, these practice test mimic, quite well, the actual exams themselves though with questions that have been deprecated and no longer in use.

GIAC exams are open book but don't let that fool you for a second. You should know 33-50% of the questions or your going to be stuck thumbing through 5-6 books which just eats up your time and will lower your score. Just completed my fourth yesterday and still feel like a truck hit me.

Most exams are four hours in length 250 questions. If I remember correctly, GSEC is/was 5 hours in length. So you have some 10 hours of practice exams to wade through as your practice. You could also check Ucertify for more practice. Not considered a brain **** by usually a bit out of date. Good testing engine though.

- beads

ipchain

So I passed the GSEC with 82%. Not what I would have liked, but I will take it. To make the story short, I did not have a chance to study for this exam and I went into the testing center with only 2 hours of sleep since I had to drive to Orlando (a 5+ hour drive) for me.

The exam was quite long and once I knew I had passed I quite frankly did not care anymore and started clicking at will - all I wanted was to get back home to get some sleep.

The good news is that I got (2) practice exams to give away, since I did not take either one of them for the GSEC. What does that mean to you ? Well, if you're interested in challenging this one in the future, I will be more than happy to give the practice exams away to (2) of you. Let me know via pm if you're interested - first come first serve.

I gotta focus on GCIA now, which I will be sitting on April 1st. I obviously care about this one, so I will probably score a bit better on it.

Bl8ckr0uter

ipchain wrote: »

So I passed the GSEC with 82%. Not what I would have liked, but I will take it. To make the story short, I did not have a chance to study for this exam and I went into the testing center with only 2 hours of sleep since I had to drive to Orlando (a 5+ hour drive) for me.

The exam was quite long and once I knew I had passed I quite frankly did not care anymore and started clicking at will - all I wanted was to get back home to get some sleep.

The good news is that I got (2) practice exams to give away, since I did not take either one of them for the GSEC. What does that mean to you ? Well, if you're interested in challenging this one in the futurehttp://www.techexams.net/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=506822, I will be more than happy to give the practice exams away to (2) of you. Let me know via pm if you're interested - first come first serve.

I gotta focus on GCIA now, which I will be sitting on April 1st. I obviously care about this one, so I will probably score a bit better on it.

Congrats. PM sent

rwmidl

ipchain wrote: »

So I passed the GSEC with 82%. Not what I would have liked, but I will take it. To make the story short, I did not have a chance to study for this exam and I went into the testing center with only 2 hours of sleep since I had to drive to Orlando (a 5+ hour drive) for me.

The exam was quite long and once I knew I had passed I quite frankly did not care anymore and started clicking at will - all I wanted was to get back home to get some sleep.

The good news is that I got (2) practice exams to give away, since I did not take either one of them for the GSEC. What does that mean to you ? Well, if you're interested in challenging this one in the future, I will be more than happy to give the practice exams away to (2) of you. Let me know via pm if you're interested - first come first serve.

I gotta focus on GCIA now, which I will be sitting on April 1st. I obviously care about this one, so I will probably score a bit better on it.

Congrats on the pass. I think it is somewhat common (unless you are trying to get a "gold level" score) for people pretty much to click at will once they hit their passing score.

iVictor

Congrats Ipchain. Pm sent.