I took the practice test. I took the practice test before I finished my SANS index, which in hindsight seems stupid. However, I got an 84%! That is 1% away from that instructor invite, so now I’m even more motivated to continue on. It feels great to have come so close while still in the middle of studying.
Some Initial Take Aways
The 4 hour timeline is really accurate. I am a fairly fast test taker, and don’t really get test anxiety, but I was coming up one 3 hours. A lot of that I think was due to my not having my index finished and trying to use the built-in GCIH index, which does not have nearly enough entries for the test!
Finish the damn index. It is still taking me forever, I am only halfway through book 4, but I feel like my greatest slow down was having to search so much. Having to struggle to find an answer in the books is going to be a huge slow down if I’m not organized.
Do the labs. I was surprised at the end how relevant the labs were to the final portion of the test. They weren’t bit-by-bit copies, but those labs definitely laid the groundwork for how to complete the finals. I do plan on going back through and running through all of the labs one more time.
Take my time. Like I said, I am a fast test taker. If I know the answer, I know the answer and I move on. One of my problems on this practice test, is there were multiple answers that I was only maybe 75% on. If I would have taken the time to go through and find the actual answer in the book I probably would have been close to the 90%, than my current score.
The Break. I have never had a break period on a cert test before, and found it really strange. I ended up using it at about question 85. I was stuck, kind of getting frustrated, and so used my break to go walk around and clear my head a bit. IT HELPED. I wasn’t able to sit back down and know the answer immediately, but just taking a breather was really helpful. I don’t know if I will use it midway through, or just later on at a challenging point like I did. I do know that I will use it.
Guided Security 