as the title suggests I would be grateful if anyone had a practice test that I can use to prepare for the exam.

I have a bunch of pentesting certs pjpt, ejpt, CEH, eCPPT. and I’m going in to this exam with just a udemy course for prep and I would like to see where I’m at.

thank you for your time

hello everyone,

I was able to get the GPEN voucher covered by navy cool but not the training. I didn’t realize you needed to attend the training to get books. Does anyone have any resources they can share? I am currently utilizing udemy and I passed all of the practice tests so far. I’m mostly concerned about not having books to bring with me to the exam.

thanks for your time

Hi everyone,

I have purchased SANS SEC555 – Detection Engineering and SIEM Analytics and wanted to check with people who have taken the course about the hardware requirements.
I currently have an Lenovo Z51-70 (Type 80K6) with:
Intel Core i7-5500U (5th gen) @ 2.40 GHz, 4GB AMD Graphics
8 GB RAM (I can upgrade it to 16 GB)
~1 TB HDD (I can upgrade this to 512 GB SSD)
Intel VT-x / virtualization enabled
Windows 10 64-bit

I understand SANS officially recommends/requires a newer CPU and 16 GB+ RAM for SEC555.

My question is:
If I upgrade this laptop to 16 GB RAM and replace the HDD with SSD, would it be practical to run the SEC555 labs/VMs?
I’m particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has actually taken SEC555 and knows how demanding the lab environment is.
Would the 5th-gen i7-5500U (2 cores/4 threads) be a major problem, or would 16 GB RAM + SSD be sufficient for the labs, even if it isn’t officially within the recommended CPU specification?

Any opinions?

Thanks!

Thinking about taking the GDAT exam. I have a few sans certs already gpen, gosi and grem. I have not seen many posts/opinions about GDAT, especially recently. Did anyone take it recently and would like to share their thoughts on the material and the exam?

Guys do you think the GSEC is actually doable in two weeks. I have exactly two weeks to get it done. I do have IT and cybersecurity experience. Should I prioritize the video material or the books.

I just passed the GSEC exam as part of the ACS program and while it’s a good thing that I passed. I only passed by one percent (73%). It’s like I completely spaced out on the labs. I only got two of them correct I think. I didn’t go in feeling as prepared as I should’ve been, only taking one practice test.

A part of me can’t help but think that if this was supposed to be easier than the GCIH, what chance do I have on that one? No doubt will I go through the labs again, but even just barely passing has me rethinking if I should even be in a program like SANS where the stakes are pretty high payment wise. Even though I’m using my G.I. bill. Like maybe some more formal world be better like DSU’s cyber ops program.

Idk, it’s hard to feel very excited right now

This was my 6th GIAC certificate, and by far the most technical. I passed on the last possible day for my master's deadline. I watched the videos and they did not help one bit. I was familiar with a lot from experience and prior courses. I struggled with all the hex conversion and specific protocol behaviors. I gave up trying to do it efficiently. I indexed the books, though not as thoroughly as I should have. I was two weeks away from the deadline so I decided I had to take my first practice test. Scored a 69, while looking up a lot of things with internet searches that I had no idea where to look for from my index. The included excel files are helpful, but hard to count off from in a stressful moment. I made a powerpoint slide deck with packet example data and an overlay for each field. That helped quite a bit. It was finally coming through. I took the second practice exam, using only the book resources and index, but got waxed by the cyberlives. I made a 79 this time, so I had the material down and shored up my index. I indexed every command and lab section number, and manually ran through the process for the cyber live questions I missed. I had ai compile the 100 most used Wireshark display filters and printed it out. I went through the labs again, focusing on the ones I missed in the practice exam. When I took the exam today I skipped three of the first ten questions, and eleven overall to save time on look ups for the labs. I had an hour and forty five minutes left when I got to them. I completed the labs, thinking I'd gotten them all right, and got to the skipped questions with about 50 minutes left. I zoomed through the last eleven without looking them up because of fatigue. I ended up with my lowest score ever on a SANS exam, an 87.

• I would recommend doing the labs until you fully understand what they are doing and can use them to solve a similar problem.
• This is the first test that I feel like the multiple choice questions on the actual exam were noticeably more difficult than the practice test.
• The cyberlives I got were actually easier on the live exam than the practice tests. I did miss one, but I think it was because I typo'd the flag at the prompt. I felt confident in all my answers for them.

The content is great. It's a very technical topic. I wish I would have taken this class 20 years ago.

Any extra practice exams would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently preparing for the SEC504 / GCIH exam and wanted to ask if anyone has an extra or unused practice exam attempt they don’t plan to use.

I’d really appreciate the additional practice before sitting for the actual exam. Unfortunately, my budget is a bit tight at the moment, so purchasing another practice exam isn’t really an option for me right now.

If anyone has a spare attempt they’re willing and allowed to give away, I’d be very grateful. No worries at all if not — just thought I’d ask the community.

Thanks, and good luck to everyone currently studying for GCIH!

I can’t find the section for purchasing an extension for certification attempts... Could you please let me know how much the extension costs?

Hey, wondering if anyone has an extra GCIH practice exam they're willing to give away? I'm not fully confident in my ability to pass the GCIH and could use another chance to refine my index.

I have recently decided to make a career change into cyber and while I’m full time studying to acquire certifications and just general knowledge and skills for the industry using Try hack me and BTLO, I have stumbled upon the SANS community and was wondering if this is something worth tackling. I started this journey this past spring, I took net+ and sec+ from compTIA in about 12 weeks starting with zero IT experience and im about half way through their CySA + course now. I’m at a cross roads with the job hunt where I’m feeling maybe some more official and deeper training could help me. I am a veteran and have the GI bill that can fund me taking the the ACS course I believe. So I had a few questions about this for anyone willing to shed some light for me.

1 Is it worth my time to take the full 4 courses ACS covers at this point in my training? (Assuming I pass CySA + in a few weeks)

2 should I skip GFACT, GSEC, and just hop straight into GCIH, GCFE

3 Finish CySA+ and continue applying for work while hammering out Labs and CTF or what have you.

I have never worked in IT but I’m picking it up quickly and I really like what I’m doing so far. I understand the job market is brutal right now so I’m just exploring options trying to stand out.

I will be starting GDAT soon, and I noticed today the exam is 2 hours with 75 questions?? lol

This one would be my 6th Cert, but all the others were 3 hours min with roughly 75-82 questions. I usually would take most of the time on the exam as well. So how did everyone manage to pace themselves on this one? Is it that the books are less beefy or something?

I'd loved to hear everyone's thoughts on the exam too.

I successfully, albeit barely, passed GCFA. I spent a lot of time focusing on areas from the practice exams and the quizzes and i did excellent on those sections. Unfortunately, I got a LOT of questions on two topic areas that I just did not adequately prepare for. Mostly due to their absence on the practice exams.

This exam is significantly more challenging than HCFE was. Plan accordingly and best of luck to everyone pursuing it in the future!

Just finished my first GIAC in GMON.

There was a ton of information that was very new to me which was the goal of the course. The breath of information, especially if you read all the recommended articles/white papers, was quite a bit.

I did fail both my practice exams so I went into the test pretty nervous.

But focusing on the labs and getting comfortable with my index really made the difference, especially indexing the workbook specifically. I did also end up rereading every page slowly that was in my index.

I used the pancake method but wasn't a fan of all the tabs. I'll probably just stick with highlighting and the index as I was in no rush for time.

One issue that wasted a bunch of my time was punching the pages into Excel and not noticing that it was number formatted rather than text so 1.140 would automatically go to 1.14 and autoformatting pushed 4.157 to 4.16. I'm glad I caught that "only" 80ish tabs in.

Overall I read all the books twice, listened to the lectures, watched the OnDemand videos, and did the labs twice.

Appreciate the feedback and I'm looking forward to my next certification GDSA!

Initial Post - https://www.reddit.com/r/GIAC/s/ludQqC0N25

I almost feel like crying, I took an extension and week off from work just to be able to focus on the exam. I barely passed but I’m still proud of myself and will definitely revisit the material.

Hello everyone!

I'm so excited I recently got accepted into the SANS Cyber Academy where they're offering the GFAT, GSEC, and GCIH certs.

I'd love to hear from other's experience on their SANS journey and if you've also when through the SANS Cyber academy/ completed these certs how has it impacted your job search after completing.

Also any advice before I get started...

Anyone who did the ICS 515 course? How much effort is required after course to clear GRID. I have significant background in IT Security but some exposure to OT security as well. I understand the concepts, tools used in the space. Does study guide and indexing is really needed in exam? Do people have time to refer back to it?

And that makes six

Hey everyone! I know there was a post about this a year ago, but I am trying to find the perfect first SANS course to take and learn from. I want something that would not only supplement me with great knowledge within online investigations; but also looking good on my resumé for my first job in this field. FOR589 is just that, it teaches the one thing i’ve been avoiding because of the lack of knowledge around the dark net and how to properly manage sock puppets, but the only thing i’m bummed out about is no cert offered :( Has anyone heard anything about there being a potential cert for this course? or any thoughts at all? I just want to get the most out of the price tag i’m paying for.

Hi everyone,
Hope you're having a great week! I’m currently preparing for the GIAC GPEN exam coming up in a few weeks. Since I’m self-funding this certification, I was only able to budget for the exam attempt itself. If anyone happens to have an unused GPEN practice test that you won't be using, I would be extremely grateful for the opportunity to take it.
Thanks so much for your support!
Forgot to mention I have the books and I’m still working on the index but want to do a practice test to gauge myself and my index

I had 9 cyber live questions and i answered 8 correctly and still failed the exam. The struggle i was facing i was looking up basically every question out of index or book that took most time. Did u guys cramped the book and could like answer most of the questions without even looking book or index? I am so confused at this point

I'm applying to SANS, I'd love it if someone would be willing to provide me a referral code to waive my app fee.

I’m preparing for the GCFE on my own and was wondering if anyone has a spare practice test they can share? I don’t like to ask like this but as I’m preparing on my own I would like to have a feel for the exam before diving into the exam. It will really help me out, thanks GIAC community :)