MS:ISA begins June 1

I recently applied to WGU for the MS:ISA program, and barring an issue with the last bit of paperwork, I am all set up to begin the courses on June 1.

I know the program has its goods and bads, but I needed something to take up some of my time while I look for a job. Every time I finish studying for a cert and take the test, I'm bored out of my mind the next week so I start anew. I graduated last December, and since then I've gotten a new cert every month (except for May as I prepare for WGU).

I've also applied to the Georgia Tech OMSCS program, and my goal is to eventually complete both programs.

I know it is still a ways away from June, but I'm looking forward to the journey.

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xeruan

novovictus wrote: »

If you ever move this way let me know!

I certainly will, my current goal is looking for employment around the St. Louis, MO area. I have a potential offer to work for a dream company of mine once I've gained another 6 months to 1 years experience, so if I can find some temporary work in the St. Louis area now, I wouldn't have to worry with moving later when I switch jobs.

This also happens to be one of the best parts about both of my Masters degree programs, I can complete them wherever I am at the time so relocating will never be an issue.

xeruan

Weekly Student Mentor Call #3

Finished my third weekly student mentor call just now, and everything is continuing to progress smoothly. VLT2 Security Policies and Standards Tasks 1 and 2 are currently in the queue at 17 and 55, respectively. I've also completed JIT2 Risk Management Tasks 1a and 1b, but must wait until I've completed 1c before I'll be able to submit the task, with my current goal being to submit the sole task for JIT2 Risk Management on Thursday or Friday of this week. My hope is that I can submit VLT2 Security Policies Task 3 or 4 this weekend, and the last remaining Task on July 1 or 2 before the weekend holiday.

The only question my student mentor wasn't able to address today was if I can discover who my capstone mentor is prior to enrolling in the course. I'm currently on pace to have completed 12 (or potentially 15) competency units within my first month of enrollment, and as with all of the other courses I've taken this far, I'd like to be able to plan ahead. He's going to discuss with some of the other student mentors and supervisors about the possibility of me being able to brainstorm capstone ideas with my capstone mentor earlier than normal due to the pace I'm working through the program. I should get an email tomorrow, and I'll edit the post to update the results of that.

colemic

My mentor was Jerry Mooney. Total stud and worked with me, even when I went to Afghanistan for a year. Couldn't have been happier with him.

xeruan

Power went out for a bit last night, and since I had printed out one of my returned tasks, I was able to make some changes and get a little further than I would have had I just played games. Soon, I'll finish the revision and re-submit.

Using the initiative from last night, I was also able to finish the last section of the JIT2 Risk Management Task 1 this morning, and I just submitted it for the originality report. In my mind, that was one of the most difficult tasks/courses so far - not really for the content as I felt comfortable with it, but more with the quantity. Unlike other courses where I was able to submit each individual task for review, checking off a box if one passed or making quick revisions if another didn't, this single task for the course could potentially require a lot of revision across multiple documents. Either way, it will soon be submitted for evaluation, and I'm one step closer to being done.

I still don't have my truck, so I'm deciding if I should begin working on very last performance assessment based course FXT2 Disaster Recovery Planning after I finish up the last few hours of FNV2 Ethical Hacking videos or if I should just hope that it'll be fixed in the next few days (the replacement part is supposed to come in tomorrow) and just plan to start reviewing so I can take the Certified Ethical Hacker exam at the first opportunity. I may just get bored and decide to work on both simultaneously like I have for everything else so far.

I'm just a little behind my (admittedly absurd) goal of completing 15 competency units within the first month, but I'll only be 1 or 2 tasks off so I feel like I'll be able to make it back up next month, by completing all of the remaining courses in my degree plan during July (save, the capstone).

JoJoCal19

cyberguypr wrote: »

Yes, MSISA. Lavender Boyles.

I love having Lavender as my mentor. She lets me just do my thing and on our calls just asks is there is any way she can help me.

cyberguypr

Glad to hear that. She completely changed my perception of WGU.

xeruan

I hope JIT2 Risk Management is graded by a different department or something. I thought getting put at 80-120 was my tasks was bad, I just submitted my JIT2 Risk Management Task 1 and am now 234 in the queue. $:\$

Edit*: I'm not sure what department evaluates for JIT2 Risk Management, but they have my appreciation. In the time that it took for my VLT2 Security Policies and Standards Task 2 to go from 11 to 5 in the queue (~6 hours), my JIT2 Risk Management Task 1 went from 234 to completely evaluated. I'm not even upset about needing to make revisions with a turnaround like that.

novovictus

xeruan, I am curious how you handled a course, if you can remember back as far as LOT2

I just completed TFT2 the other day, and have LOT2 Task 1 submitted. I started looking at task 2, and the paper seems to be exactly what I already wrote for task 1. Any pointers on how you handled that?

xeruan

novovictus wrote: »

xeruan, I have LOT2 Task 1 submitted. I started looking at task 2, Any pointers on how you handled that?

Looking back over my submissions, I'm not quite certain where I had read it (I think it was one of the Task Tips documents), but it had mentioned that Task 1 was a non-technical look about countering DoS attacks, and Task 2 was a document that was more technical in nature because it would be given to the technical staff.

Overall though, there is a lot of overlap between the two, (in my opinion) Task 2 just goes more in-depth into the specifics of the internal DoS attack. And, as always make sure to relate your best practices guide to the situations in the scenario.

By the way, congrats on finishing TFT2, I was glad to put that course behind me.

novovictus

xeruan wrote: »

By the way, congrats on finishing TFT2, I was glad to put that course behind me.

Thanks! Actually, tasks 1 and 2 for me passed on the first attempt. Task 3 was pretty tough, I submitted three times total. Task 4 got kicked back on the last two sections, but I usually trail off near the end of a paper so that was my bad.

LOT2 task 1 just came back with meets requirements, so Ill see if I can pound task 2 out today. That will leave me with task 3, foot printing, for the weekend.

xeruan

novovictus wrote: »

That will leave me with task 3, foot printing, for the weekend.

I enjoyed Task 3, and I made certain to only perform passive footprinting.

I just talked to the course mentor for JIT2 Risk Management and talked about the 2 subsections that needed revision for Task 1. Overall, the phone call lasted about 6 minutes, and I was able to get some ideas, quickly adding a few extra paragraphs to the sections, and am currently waiting for the originality report before I submit. I'm hoping that it returns with a pass so I can have another course completed.

In other news, the part for my truck came in today, and it has been repaired. Once JIT2 Risk Management is passed, I'll only be enrolled in VLT2 Security Policies and Standards, and I've already submitted Tasks 1 and 2, with both needing minor revisions that I plan to make over the next few days.

Now that I have a vehicle, I'm going to get back to studying for the Certified Ethical Hacker exam, and will be enrolling in the FNV2 Ethical Hacking course in the next day or so, and I am hoping to schedule the exam for the 8th or 9th of July. I would do it sooner, but I wouldn't want to take the exam until later next week, and since it's the 4th of July holiday weekend, I thought I'd wait a few extra days. Since the 8th/9th are two weeks away, I may break up my time by working on the FXT2 Disaster Recovery Planning, even though I don't plan on enrolling in the course until I pass the CEH exam.

novovictus

xeruan wrote: »

I'm hoping that it returns with a pass so I can have another course completed.

How did you make out on JIT2?

I am curious how in depth you were for the presenter notes on the LOT2 Task 2 PowerPoint?

xeruan

novovictus wrote: »

How did you make out on JIT2? I am curious how in depth you were for the presenter notes on the LOT2 Task 2 PowerPoint?

Just checked my task evaluation and JIT2 Risk Management Task 1 met requirements, and as it is the only task in the course, I've now passed JIT2 Risk Management, putting me at 12 passed competency units in the month of June.

For the LOT2 Hacking Countermeasures and Techniques Task 2 powerpoint, I didn't go too in-depth. I would classify my work as straddling between the line of technical and non-technical, and I typed about 2-3 paragraphs for the 7 slides that I included.

Edit*: I'll now be enrolling in FNV2 Ethical Hacking along with my current VLT2 Security Policies and Standards. I'll be taking the exam either July 8th or July 9th, which will give me time to study and work through the practice exams that I have available.

I thought about holding off, but by enrolling in FNV2 Ethical Hacking, I'll be less likely to get distracted by one of my other courses, and will focus on it first before finishing VLT2 Security Policies.

xeruan

I've finally received the evaluation for my re-submission of VLT2 Task 1. I am taking a break from VLT2 Security Policies and Standards in order to study for the FNV2 Ethical Hacking exam that I'll be taking in just under two weeks. It'll slow down my course completion rate, but as this is for an actual certification, I want to dedicate a little more time to it than I have for all of my other courses.

I recently took one of the Boson practice tests for the CEH exam, and got an 81%. WGU would like for me to score a 90% before I schedule, so I'll work on reading the Matt Walker AIO book this week before I attempt another practice test to see how I do. Overall, I feel comfortable with the material, but some of the specifics regarding policy organizations and tool commands threw me for a loop, so I need to focus on those.

Since I know I won't be completing any courses or any more tasks (aside from the 1 already submitted), I thought I'd give an update on my progress for my first month in the program, which I feel was productive. I have to admit, with all of the performance assessment-based courses I've already completed, it's weird thinking I only have (at most) 6 more tasks to complete for my remaining courses (not counting the capstone). I'm not sure of my course plans for after I pass the FNV2 Ethical Hacking course, I'll just have to wait until I get there. Either way, my plan is still to finish the rest of my courses (minus the capstone) by the end of July, so that I can have ~3.5 months (if necessary) to complete my capstone.

End of June Report - WGU MS:ISA (began June 1, 2015)

Course Code - Competency Credits/Assessment Type - Course Name
Completed
LYT2 - 3/P - Current and Emerging Technology
TFT2 - 3/P - Cyberlaw, Regulations, and Compliance
LOT2 - 2/P - Hacking Countermeasures and Techniques
VUT2 - 2/P - Vulnerability Assessment
JIT2 - 2/P - Risk Management

In-Progress
VLT2 - 3/P - Security Policies and Standards (1 task passed, 1 of remaining 3 submitted)
FNV2 - 3/O - Ethical Hacking

Remaining
FMV2 - 3/O - Forensics and Network Intrusion
UVC2 - 3/O - Cryptography
FXT2 - 2/P - Disaster Recovery Planning, Prevention, and Response
LQT2 - 4/P - Information Security and Assurance Capstone

xeruan

Weekly Call #4
Just finished my fourth weekly call with my Student Mentor. Not much to discuss this week so the call was fairly short, I'm mostly just waiting for a couple of answers my mentor is still working to get resolved from last week.

I'm now working through the Matt Walker AiO book, and finishing up the last of the CEH iClass videos. I'm hoping to take a practice exam on Thursday before scheduling the test for July 10 (next Friday). I feel by scheduling for the 10th, I'll have a full week to work on practice tests and revisit any material that I am uncertain on.

Overall, this means that my course completion will drastically slow down, but I feel that only studying for 3-weeks is a quick turnaround for the CEH exam. During my weekly call next week, I will discuss which courses I will enroll in next.

Edit*: My student mentor had mentioned that I should try to email the default capstone course mentor email and that I may receive an answer quicker. Turns out, I received a phone call ~30 minutes after sending the email and talked with a capstone course mentor who has now emailed me all of the necessary information, as well as giving me the ability as I work through my other courses to email them with any questions or progress made with the capstone to retain my accelerated pace.

xeruan

Weekly Call #5
Finished my fifth weekly call earlier with my Student Mentor. I apologize for the lack of updates over the course of the last week, with the 4th of July weekend and a birthday, I haven't had too much to add.

Over the weekend, I completed the Matt Walker AiO CEH book, and took a Boson practice test, scoring a 93%. I feel fairly confident on the material, but I am planning to finish the remaining CEH iClass videos over the week. I was approved to take the test, so I am currently waiting for a response from the Assessment Team so that I can schedule my exam for next Monday (13th).

While we didn't discuss my future plans, presuming I pass the CEH exam on Monday, I will plan to enroll in UVC2 Cryptography as I had done fairly well on the pre-assessment exam and I feel that I can quickly study and knock out that course. I'm still in VLT2 Security Policies and Standards, but haven't done anything regarding the class in the last week and a half due to my focus on the FNV2 Ethical Hacking and CEH exam, but I do plan on attending a webinar tonight for some tips for when I do plan on working on the course again. After Cryptography is passed, I will be enrolling in FXT2 Disaster Recovery Planning, and will focus on the last two performance assessment-based courses before moving on.

I feel that I am on pace to complete every course minus the capstone before the end of the first week in August.

NotHackingYou

Wow, this is tremendous progress!

Nyblizzard

Keep at it! It's fantastic to follow your journey

xeruan

I appreciate the support, and hope that this can provide inspiration for others who want to pursue the program as well.

After a slight hiccup with not receiving my Pearson VUE voucher for the CEHv8 exam, I called Assessment Services and quickly got it taken care of, with the email being resent. I'm now scheduled to take the CEHv8 exam at 10:30am on Monday, July 13. I plan to watch some videos, re-read some chapters that I feel I could use a little more help in, and then work through a few practice tests over the weekend to ensure that I am as ready as possible for the exam on Monday.

GreaterNinja

xeruan wrote: »

I appreciate the support, and hope that this can provide inspiration for others who want to pursue the program as well.

After a slight hiccup with not receiving my Pearson VUE voucher for the CEHv8 exam, I called Assessment Services and quickly got it taken care of, with the email being resent. I'm now scheduled to take the CEHv8 exam at 10:30am on Monday, July 13. I plan to watch some videos, re-read some chapters that I feel I could use a little more help in, and then work through a few practice tests over the weekend to ensure that I am as ready as possible for the exam on Monday.

Wow, nice progress xeruan! Yeah 90% on practice test I hear is good enough to pass the CEH.
@ 93% I'm pretty confident you will pass.

xeruan

GreaterNinja wrote: »

Wow, nice progress xeruan! Yeah 90% on practice test I hear is good enough to pass the CEH.
@ 93% I'm pretty confident you will pass.

Appreciated, and I certainly hope so.

I apologize for the lack of updates and posts over the last week. I've been focusing on studying for the CEH, and there hasn't been much to update. I'm honestly looking forward to getting back to my last two performance-based assessments since I can at least make progress over time, rather than an exam being all at once after studying.

I've been re-watching some videos and re-reading some chapters, and I feel a little more confident about the test. But as I have been with all of my other certification exams as the time draws closer, also getting more nervous/anxious as well. I took the practice test from the AiO book, and scored an 89, but I know 4 of the answers that were counted incorrect were right, just the key had the answers reversed (the explanation stated my answers were correct but had B and C reversed issue). Tomorrow and Sunday I plan on doing the remaining two Boson tests, and I'll print out a ~5-10 page glossary/quick review sheet that I'll take with me to glance over one last time for the exam.

I know the exam gives 4 hours to complete, but I've only been taking 30-45 minutes to finish all of the practice exams. I'll try to slow down on Monday, taking my time, and using the individual breaks as I can, but I don't expect the test to take very long at all.

cyberguypr

Something to keep in mind, I purposely went slow on my CEH and CHFI just to avoid triggering the CRA.

xeruan

cyberguypr wrote: »

Something to keep in mind, I purposely went slow on my CEH and CHFI just to avoid triggering the CRA.

Yea, that's one thing I had been thinking about, after reading many of the threads in the CEH sub-forum. I have just over an hour drive each way for the nearest testing center (it only recently opened, before it had been 1.5 hours one way), so reducing my chance of being audited is a bonus.

xeruan

I've easily re-read the chapters that I needed to work on, but I find myself having issues with re-watching the iClass videos. I understand the argument that EC-Council is an international organization and sometimes words or syntax may be lost in translation, but the way the guy just plows through the content and occasionally mumbles his way through the slides bothers me. Or when he completely misreads what the slide says, pauses, and continues without correcting himself.

I may try to watch another video or two, but I think I'm going to focus on just going through the practice tests a few more times to prepare. I've been scoring 90%+ on the practice tests so far, 2 from Boson and 1 from the Matt Walker AiO book, so I am feeling mostly prepared.

xeruan

Now that I've finished all of my primary studying, I'm slowly working through the tests just to refresh my understanding of the material. My average score is around an 89% percent across the 5 practice tests I've taken, but from reading some comments in various threads on the CEH/CHFI forum, the Boson seems to be slightly more difficult than the real test.

I've also printed off some quick study lists that I'll study tonight and tomorrow immediately before the test. Tomorrow marks the moment of truth, and I'm hoping I can pull off a pass for both the certification and the course to keep my momentum going. I've only been studying the material for ~2.5 weeks so even if I do fail and need to retake, I'll still only have 1 month of studying under my belt which I feel is still a very quick pace for the CEH exam. Either way, tomorrow I'll find out and we'll go from there.

xeruan

Just got back home after a celebratory lunch with a passing score of 84%. The test only truly took me about 35 minutes, but I wasted enough time to have the test take 1 hr and 30 min. I tried waiting for longer, but I got so bored I couldn't help but continue. With less than 3 weeks of studying and preparing, I feel positive about my score, and am looking forward to being able to put the certification on my resume to pass some HR filters.

The test overall wasn't too bad, I felt like the Matt Walker CEH AiO book/practice test and the Boson practice tests were more than enough for me to pass. While I watched the iClass videos, I don't recall anything specifically that I learned from them that I hadn't picked up elsewhere.

Now that I've achieved the Certified Ethical Hacker certification and passed FNV2 Ethical Hacking, I'm going to focus my efforts on a quick pass of UVC2 Cryptography before I move into my last 3 courses.

I'm just going to take a break for the rest of the day, but after my call in the morning with my Student Mentor, I'll begin studying anew.

cyberguypr

Congrats on the pass!

coffeeluvr

Congratulations on the pass!!

GreaterNinja

Congrats man!

HailHogwash

Laser Focus | Congrats!! | Keep it up!