Passed GCIA (Whew!)

Wow I'm so glad that's done! I facilitated SEC503 with Mike Poor at SANS Virginia Beach 2015 last August. I definitely recommend taking the course with Mike because he makes a very tedious, difficult subject very engaging and easier to absorb and understand. My biggest mistake was not diving right into studies after the course as I had intended to. I was able to essentially cram for the GSEC since most of it was review, and you can reference everything from the index/books if need to. You CANNOT do that during the GCIA. You have to understand the material on the exam, and know what you're looking at when presented with pcaps, commands, etc.

My study started after Thanksgiving, and really picked up the last two weeks. A mistake I made was leaving the indexing until time to study for the exam. For the next SANS course I take, I will index IMMEDIATELY after getting home from the class. It seems to take me a while to throughly index. Since I was crunched for time for the GCIA, I opted to just use a heading with term, book, and page. I ended up with 13 pages and 1 for Wireshark commands/filters. I also had to cut down on my reading of the material and started only reading the slide portions. It was all around a bad time to be studying with Christmas week, New Years week, and then my daughters birthday this past weekend. The amount of effort I put into studying for this was nowhere near what I needed it to be, but that's my fault for running up against the 120 day On-demand time limit.

So all of that led up to the exam. I was not very confident going into it, but felt that I studied enough to pass, even if just barely. I ended up with a 70, needing a 67 to pass. I feel that's about where I deserved to be based on my studying and practice exam. I'm just glad to have this done. This is definitely not an area that I'm interested in for my career, but it's good knowledge to have.

I also have one of the practice tests to give away so if you're pursuing the GCIA, I'll be glad to send it on.

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Comments

chanakyajupudi

Congratulations!

This is a paper I have been interested in but had not found the opportunity to get into a work study yet.

Robicus

Woot! That is awesome. Congratulations!

Well done dude!

Awesome, Congrats!

Congrats!!

Congrats. And +1 on indexing right after the class. That stuff fades quickly.

impelse

Congrats. Man I tried several times to do work/stady with SANS and I never got eligible. Congrats again.

j.petrov

Congrats, that class and test is a BEAST. I also fully recommend taking that class with Mike Poor

E Double U

Congratulations!

I want to take SEC503 this year so I would love to have your practice exam.

stephens316

congrads on GCIA

bjthajokesta

Congratulations on recently passing your GCIA, I hear that its a tough one. I'm recently new to this forum and have been a watcher as of lately trying to gain tips on certifications I should take to strengthen my security resume and knowledge.

I recently attended Cyber Defense Initiative in D.C that was instructed by Mike Poor and I loved it! I am currently studying to sit for the GCIA in February/March. I haven't picked the exact date just yet. With my test attempt around the corner, is there anything that you would recommend?

Also, with you having an extra practice test left, I would greatly appreciate it if I can use it to help me during my studies. My SANS account email is 3210617 and email bradlyjoseph@gmail.com. Thank you in advance for your input and help.

UnixGuy

Very good job mate! Inspired by you I think I need to get into the SANS wagon myself, hopefully when I get a new job.

GCIA is an awesome cert, well done

cgrimaldo

Congrats! I'm due to take the exam in about 2 months...I'll be sending you a pm soon

JoJoCal19

Thanks everyone! It was nice to wake up this morning and not have anything to study for.

bjthajokesta wrote: »

With my test attempt around the corner, is there anything that you would recommend?

I would recommend being very familiar with the filter syntax, command options, and display filters for the tools such as tcpdump, bro, snort, Wireshark. Also pay heavy attention to the book/sections that show what various attack traffic looks like. And finally, know how to very quickly decode packets. You need to know quickly how to tell what imbedded protocols are, and what the payload is.

rudegeek

Congrats

OSCP next??

JoJoCal19

@rudegeek Not yet. I am 100% going for the CISM in June since I've had to bump it the past year and a half. I don't need to start studying for it until April so I'm trying to knock out something beforehand. I'm thinking either challenging the GCIH or doing my PMP. I can't decide which.

rudegeek

Ahh, I see. What's the reason CISM is next?

Is your end goal a SANS GSE? I know mine is!

Fynn

Great job!

JoJoCal19

rudegeek wrote: »

Ahh, I see. What's the reason CISM is next?

Is your end goal a SANS GSE? I know mine is!

Management is my goal. Right now I have the experience needed for, and will be going to a new job that will utilize the CISM concepts.

I had had thought last year the GSE would be nice to get, but not so sure. I'll probably revisit my thoughts on it next year.

rudegeek

Hey, you can always be the ultra-tech savvy manager! Good luck, in what ever route you choose!

Brain-D

Congrats!!! Great job!

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!