Passed CASP today!

Whew, what a relief. My history with this exam:

*Took up the Sybex CASP book in late April 2012, after passing Security+. After a quick readthrough, I could determine that I wasn't ready to take the exam. I didn't know proper escalation behavior, how to distinguish between all those policies, guidelines, procedures, standards, baselines etc or how to write and apply access lists to interfaces on a router.

*Established a plan to learn what I didn't know: First, take ITIL Foundations to get a grasp of the management bit. Then, take Cisco CCNA to get to know routers/ACLs better.

*Took up the book on ITIL Foundation (v3) in August and passed it in November 2012 (the subject matter was so boring I didn't get through more than 4-10 pages per day on the bus to and from work)

*Took up Lammle's book on Cisco CCNA after that, read through the whole thing and decided - just as I did previously with my first go at CASP - that no, I'm not ready for this. Also, just when I was about done reading the book, Cisco announced the overhaul of CCNA with the new exams coming out September 1st 2013, so I decided not to take this test yet but rather chop it up in 3 parts (CCENT, ICND1, ICND2) when the new version comes out.

*Read the CASP book a second time and found everything much more coherent and logical.
*Booked the test about a week ago, took it today and passed

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Comments

sigsoldier

LaduLaser wrote: »

Also, just when I was about done reading the book, Cisco announced the overhaul of CCNA with the new exams coming out September 1st 2013, so I decided not to take this test yet but rather chop it up in 2 parts (CCENT/ICND1(Same test), ICND2) when the new version comes out.

Fixed

LaduLaser wrote: »

*Booked the test about a week ago, took it today and passed

Congrats on the pass! That is very similar to what my approach was.

Snow.bros

congratulation on pass!!

How difficult are these CASP exams specifically the one you have taken because everyone who wrote these exams are telling me that the CASP exams are rocket science, is that true or not?

cyberguypr

Congrats!

da_vato

Congrats on the pass and I think you had an excellent approach, thanks for sharing it, I am sure someone will find it useful.

Snow.bros wrote: »

congratulation on pass!! How difficult are these CASP exams specifically the one you have taken because everyone who wrote these exams are telling me that the CASP exams are rocket science, is that true or not?

Its not rocket science but I will tell you that it is definitely more dificult than most people think. I originally went in with the mindset that "it's a CompTIA test." After the third simulation I knew I was in for a rough ride. I felt the level knowledge/experience needed was fairly close to the CISSP but the test itself was no where near as hard.

If anyone is interested in taking this exam and doesn't have the "recommended" 10 yrs experience I suggest following LaduLaser's study plan. The books that are currently out there for this exam are not that great so you will need multiple sources.

LaduLaser

Snow.bros wrote: »

congratulation on pass!! How difficult are these CASP exams specifically the one you have taken because everyone who wrote these exams are telling me that the CASP exams are rocket science, is that true or not?

Thanks! I thought it was... More challenging than Sec+ but also way more fun. The scenarios sounded overwhelming at first when I read about the tasks I was asked to perform. I thought "What, do I need a CCNA before I can do this exam?", but it turned out they had very simplified interfaces for the devices in the drawn network (vendor neutrality, you know...). Almost every plain-text question is scenario-based and asks you to apply your best judgement to resolve a given situation. As someone else who had posted here noted, you won't pass if you're a slow reader. I would like to add "or have no experience with CompTIA tests so you can't sense what they really want to know after asking you a disambiguous question". I was given 30 mins extra because English isn't my primary language, so a total of 3 hours. I used 2h 24min.

LaduLaser

sigsoldier wrote: »

Fixed
Really? I might have misinterpreted... But as I understood it, CCENT will become a prerequisite to take CCNA, and CCNA can then still be taken either as a composite or as ICND1+2. I guess the municipality I work for won't really complain if I have to take one exam less, considering public budgets these days

holysheetman

I have a voucher to use before Dec 31st and wondering if I should read through that Sybex book to prepare. hmmm

geno1904

congrats

LaduLaser

holysheetman wrote: »

I have a voucher to use before Dec 31st and wondering if I should read through that Sybex book to prepare. hmmm

Well, if you already have the CISSP level of InfoSec understanding, the A+/N+/Sec+ certs for understanding of CompTIA questions, and want some more fluff for your future job applications, I can't see why you shouldn't.

JDMurray

Congratulations!

With CASP now on DoDD 8570.01 it becomes a much more prized cert than it would have been otherwise. The same thing has happened with the the CEH.

LaduLaser

JDMurray wrote: »

Congratulations!

With CASP now on DoDD 8570.01 it becomes a much more prized cert than it would have been otherwise. The same thing has happened with the the CEH.

Thank you

DoD tables hardly help me as a Swede out though. We don't even have SOX or FISMA equivalents over here, so information security is not an easy field to get into, workwise. As far as I've seen in job ads it's only banks and the federal level of government that concerns itself with having an InfoSec team. Ah well, moving on to the CEH in December when they release version 8.

McGintyDM

I also have a CASP voucher I need to use before November 1st and unsure what I need to study. I just recently passed CISSP and that knowledge is fresh in my brain. Any good places to practice the CASP SIMs?

da_vato

I don't know that there is anywhere to practice the sims but since you just passed the CISSP you should go take the exam right away, the material is the same just asked in a different manner (more grounded in my opinion).

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats on the pass