Indexing Question

willhi1979

Hey all,

I took the 560 class this summer through the mentor program and am working on getting the index together to take the GPEN Exam. I've been indexing it by page so far and have 128 entries for the first book. I was wondering if that's how others indexed or if it is more granular. I'm trying to walk the line between a good index and something too highly indexed. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

paul78

I used a low-tech indexing method. I wrote on strips of post-it notes and secured them with a piece of scotch tape. No more than 12-15 tabs per book.

docrice

My indexes were about 10 - 20 pages total at 10-point font. Most are just some one-liner notes about a topic, followed by the reference section / page in the appropriate book. If I knew the material well enough, reliance on book look-ups would be minimal. I generally finish GIAC exams in half the allotted time with a 90+ percent passing score.

The ultimate key to passing an open-book GIAC exam is knowing the material. To put it another way, you should be able to pass without needing the books.

GoodBishop

willhi1979 wrote: »

Hey all,

I took the 560 class this summer through the mentor program and am working on getting the index together to take the GPEN Exam. I've been indexing it by page so far and have 128 entries for the first book. I was wondering if that's how others indexed or if it is more granular. I'm trying to walk the line between a good index and something too highly indexed. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

When you index, make sure you have a balanced, diversified portfolio of multiple indexes, and you'll beat 80% of the market!

bryguy

My index consisted of an excel document with topic heading in the first column, page number in the second, and then term/tool in the third column for each book. I then sorted by the topic heading. I agree with the previous posters in saying that you're better off just learning the material and not relying on the index. I found myself second guessing myself, even when I was 99% certain of the answer. I stopped using the books after the first 30 questions. Good luck to you!

JDMurray

I describe my indexing method in this blog article I wrote about SANS SEC 401: My Study Plan for the GIAC GSEC Exam - TechExams.net IT Certification Blogs

willhi1979

Thank you for the comments everyone. I'll probably try to do a combination of the post-its and a large index. Sometimes, it's useful to look up the laws or exact command references.

AlexNguyen

I used multicolored post-it to mark the beginning of each module in the books. I also used SnagIt to capture the questions/answers of the two practice exams, printed it and brought it as reference material.

JDMurray

AlexNguyen wrote: »

I also used SnagIt to capture the questions/answers of the two practice exams, printed it and brought it as reference material.

Did you find that useful in your exam? I thought of copy-n-pasting the two practice exam's Q&A's to a text file and taking a hard copy of it in to my exam, but I figured that would only be useful if it were electronically-searchable, so I didn't bother trying it.

AlexNguyen

I did not spend much time to study for the exam. I scheduled the exam one week before the expiration date. I took the practice exams a few days before the test. So the questions are still fresh in my memory. At the exam, I recognized a few questions that I've already seen on the practice tests. So I searched the answers on my printed practice exam pages instead of the books. Even if it is not indexed, it's still easier to search because it contains less pages than the whole book. By the way, did the admins change something in the forum config ? I can't add line feed anymore on reply or new thread.

AlexNguyen

AlexNguyen wrote: »

By the way, did the admins change something in the forum config ? I can't add line feed anymore on reply or new thread.

I found out that IE10 (Windows disables the line feed while replying or creating a new thread. With Chrome, it works as usual.