GSEC index

Bruinbeer · August 2020

In a couple of months I will be taking GSEC, this will be my first certification exam.

Are there any indexes out there, that could be used as a good starting point for adding my own stuff?

Any other tips for taking this exam?

JDMurray · August 2020

A value of building an index yourself is it helps you learn the GSEC material. There are examples of indexes available, but their page numbering may not match the GSEC books that you have.

catscaps · August 2020

my approach is in Excel, and I have columns for the following-
Book.page | term | description
for example-

3.032 | ARP Spoof | manipulate IP-MAC address mapping, overwrite the arp table in order to intercept traffic. Indicator- gratuitous ARP replies providing the same MAC

with this method I can quickly search for the term, read the brief description that I wrote to see if that helps answer the question, and if not, I know what book (3) and what page number (32) to look at.

I don't think the GSEC has any practical labs (hands on stuff, only multiple choice) but know the labs and the material there, as it may be tested as well.

As everyone will say, building the index will help reinforce the material. Depending on your experience/previous knowledge, it is fair to expect your index to be 10-25 pages.

(edited because of formatting of my paste from Excel)

Danielm7 · August 2020

I use this same method as @catscaps and it's always worked very well for me. Create your index as best you can, take the first practice test with it, take notes of how the index could be improved, wash, rinse, repeat with the 2nd test. At that point you should be solid for the exam.

I've found as part of this process that there are terms I might look up in different ways, so I create different line items for them since you would sort the terms column by alpha. Random example say cross site scripting. You might have

1 - 10 XSS Cross site scripting - details about it
1 - 10 Cross site scripting - XSS - details about it
1 - 10 Web attacks - XSS - details about it

Etc, that way if you get flustered during the test and want to confirm info in your index you aren't going to miss it based upon the different ways you might use to look up the term.

charismaticx · August 2020

All lot of the material can be found in the books. This was my first SANs course as well and the task of creating an index may seem daunting. My approach is to build the index using excel on a specific topic such as the critical security controls and list the book and the page number. There are some topics you’ll need to know for sure like encryption. Don’t worry too much about the time. Once you start panicking it’s hard to calm down during the test. If you have a solid index and use alphabetic dividers then you’re experience won’t be too bad. Building an index really does help reinforce your knowledge on the material.

TechGromit · September 2020

Indexes from others are of limited value, the reference pages will all be different. Want a guaranteed fail, use the index in the book or someone else's. I'll be happy to send you mine, if you want it.

GSEC index

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