Passed GCIA!

Long time lurker, first time poster. I just passed my GCIA and this was my first SANS exam and I have to say, while its open notes they DEFINITELY don't make it easy! I didn't get the score I wanted, but it was still above 80% which was my low end target.

The exam was pretty straightforward and pretty much just like the practice exams they gave you. I've been studying for it on and off for about 5 months since "life" happens. I finally took my first practice exam and scored a 83% and figured that was good enough to give the real thing a go. The practice exams are very similar, in fact, I want to say that maybe 3 or 4 questions on my real exam were from the practice exam, either word for word or worded very similarly. Either way, I had a deja vu moment when reading the questions. While the practice exam does help with preparing and testing where your knowledge is, it seemed like the real exam questions were about 1.5x harder than the practice questions. That threw me off slightly, but all of the questions on the real exam were reasonable. The difficulty increase was only something I noticed and thought I'd mention, since taking the practice exam may give a false sense of confidence. I only used one of my practice exams so if anyone is looking for an extra one, let me know and I can send it to you (first come first serve).

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cyberguypr

Congrats and thanks for the feedback.

danny069

Awesome! Congrats! Thanks for the review too. How much open book material did you bring with you?

clintonia

Looks like my review was a bit too specific on the exam contents (sorry about that). I did try to be vague without giving out exact questions that I saw.

In regards to material, packet header printouts, all books that you used to study, and tcpdump man page.

bjthajokesta

Congrats on passing your GCIA. Im studying to take the GCIA at the end of this month. Its a bit nerve wrecking because I don't really know what to expect while studying and indexing. Do you have any tips that I can use as I get ready for the test?

Also, since you do have one test left, I'd love to use it during my studies. I'd greatly appreciate it! my SANS account is 3210617. Thanks for your input and help in advance.

domo arigato

Congrats!!
Yikes though, do you really think the questions are 1.5 times harder on the real exam?
That's the first time I have heard that, most say 'about the same' in comparison to the practic exams.
I hope not becsue you are right, that does give a false sense of confidence.

clintonia

bjthajokesta wrote: »

Congrats on passing your GCIA. Im studying to take the GCIA at the end of this month. Its a bit nerve wrecking because I don't really know what to expect while studying and indexing. Do you have any tips that I can use as I get ready for the test?

Also, since you do have one test left, I'd love to use it during my studies. I'd greatly appreciate it! my SANS account is 3210617. Thanks for your input and help in advance.

Hey just sent you the practice test.

I can't give out too much information about what you should study or be familiar with, but in terms of tips, take the practice exam and treat it like the real thing. I felt the same as you a bit and the practice exam lifted a weight off my shoulder and let me know that I had a pretty good grasp of everything.

Seclude yourself in a room and take the practice exam and take note of the topics where you answered picked the wrong answer. At the end of the exam, it gives you feedback on what your weak domains are (ex. Wireshark, DNS, IPv6, etc) so you can focus on your weak areas. The practice exam also helps with pacing. If you finish the practice exam with an hour or two left but only scored a 75%, then you'll know you need to slow down and reference your material more for a higher grade. Also if you find yourself spending more than 2 minutes or so looking for a specific paragraph or something like that, that's a sign that your index needs to be a bit more detailed.

clintonia

domo arigato wrote: »

Congrats!!
Yikes though, do you really think the questions are 1.5 times harder on the real exam?
That's the first time I have heard that, most say 'about the same' in comparison to the practic exams.
I hope not becsue you are right, that does give a false sense of confidence.

Well to expand a bit on what I mean by "harder", I mean that on my practice exam, there were questions that I could answer in 10 or 20 seconds by just looking at the packet **** and if you know what you're looking for, there's only one correct answer and some of the other choices are obviously incorrect.

However on the real thing, the question may be asking for more detail so it takes a little bit longer to get the answer and there may be two choices that are similar, so it tests your deeper level understanding.

domo arigato

Thanks for the context. That kinda sucks though.....was really hoping practice tests were about the same level of detail, as I did not ace them but did pass.
Oh well, I test tomorrow so we'll see!

bjthajokesta

Thank you for the practice exam and tips.

Brain-D

Congrats!!!

jones551

Congrats

clintonia

domo arigato wrote: »

Thanks for the context. That kinda sucks though.....was really hoping practice tests were about the same level of detail, as I did not ace them but did pass.
Oh well, I test tomorrow so we'll see!

Sorry, didn't mean to provide a scare or anything. For the most part, the practice does do a good job of preparing you for the exam, and there's only a select few questions that are "harder" in the way that I described. Just eat a good breakfast before and decompress a bit and you'll do well man. Good luck tomorrow!

mehmin

Congrats on passing.

Does anyone suggest which of the GIAC certs to start out with first? I'm working on NET+ now. I don't have a particular plan of where to go, but I thought SEC+ then MS desktop support cert and then a GIAC. But the site didn't seem to specify which you should consider as your first.

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

clintonia

mehmin wrote: »

Congrats on passing.

Does anyone suggest which of the GIAC certs to start out with first? I'm working on NET+ now. I don't have a particular plan of where to go, but I thought SEC+ then MS desktop support cert and then a GIAC. But the site didn't seem to specify which you should consider as your first.

Well the GCIA requires that you know a bit about network as well as how to do hex math as well as bit -> byte conversion, so it may be something that would be a bit difficult to grasp until you cover those sections in N+

In terms of which GIAC cert go for first, I'd definitely suggest the GSEC or if you can't find a company to sponsor you, the CompTIA Sec+ is the next best cheaper thing. You may also want to look into the SSCP however that usually doesn't hit as many HR filters as the Security+ will.

domo arigato

I passed, yippee! You were right, a few questions were harder and more in-depth. I still did a bit better than on my last practice though. Thanks for your insight!

clintonia

domo arigato wrote: »

I passed, yippee! You were right, a few questions were harder and more in-depth. I still did a bit better than on my last practice though. Thanks for your insight!

Awesome man, congrats! Glad I could help

Robicus

Great job, clintonia! Congratulations!

UnixGuy

Congrats!

Did you guys attend a class room training or the online on-demand training?

clintonia

UnixGuy wrote: »

Congrats!

Did you guys attend a class room training or the online on-demand training?

I read your post over in the IT Jobs section about wanting SANS training. The best bet would be to try their work study program - https://www.sans.org/work-study/ . I've never tried it so I can't personally recommend it though there are many people here who have done it. You can also check SANS page on the cert you want and see if you have enough knowledge through experience to pass (aka challenge the exam) or buy a practice exam for the cert to see if you know enough before buying a test voucher. The practice exams are very similar in nature to the real exam, so if you can pass the practice with a 75% or above, it will give you a good idea of what you need to work to pass.

UnixGuy

@clintonia: i keep applying to the work study program and get rejected. thanks for the suggestion

clintonia

UnixGuy wrote: »

@clintonia: i keep applying to the work study program and get rejected. thanks for the suggestion

Damn that sucks...Hmmm, I see you have your Sec+, are you working in any infosec roles right now? That may be one reason why they're denying you. Or another route is that you can see if you can find an employer that will pay for you to attend the training. I know that's easier said than done, but its a common way to get SANS training.

UnixGuy

clintonia wrote: »

Damn that sucks...Hmmm, I see you have your Sec+, are you working in any infosec roles right now? That may be one reason why they're denying you. Or another route is that you can see if you can find an employer that will pay for you to attend the training. I know that's easier said than done, but its a common way to get SANS training.

yes I am working in an infosec role now (but with little actual infosec exposure, unfortunately). I'll keep trying to get a training and find a new job with better exposure.