4 hours, 24 minutes, and a few seconds. That was my Thursday, 2 Thursdays ago. It was the second longest Thursday I can recall, and the single longest exam I’ve ever taken, until yesterday.
Remember back in August, that little training event I went to? Well, the training was to prepare me for the GIAC General Security Essentials Certificate. The GSEC. A “bachelors degree in computer security”. After class, I was given 4 months to study for and take the exam.
As things often go, when I went back to normal life after the training event, I became busy living. Work, family, blankly staring at the wall while drooling. These things take time. So I hadn’t spent the time studying like I should.
That changed rather quickly. You see, work had planned on sending me to a CISSP Boot Camp some time in 2009. If the GSEC is the Bachelor’s Degree, then the CISSP is the Master’s. “Mile wide and inch deep”. It covers many, many things in the IT Security world, just not as in depth as the GSEC. But it is the premiere certificate in IT Security. The Holy Grail.
I found out about 2 weeks before I took my GSEC that an opportunity opened up for me to attend a CISSP boot camp. Initially, I was weary. I hadn’t taken the GSEC yet, and I wasn’t sure I was fully ready. But the opportunity came up. It would be silly for me to pass on it. Plus, when senior management suggests you go, then you go. Its just that simple (don’t bite the hand that feeds).
Thinking it would be best to get all this GSEC stuff out of my head before going after another cert, we decided I need to study. The first night I studied, it was over at Oz’s on a weeknight, while she was at our house hangin out with C+dd. That worked out nicely, but I needed somewhere more isolated. Somewhere without distraction.
Thankfully, Oz has access to a building that has 2 rooms: 1 really swanky conference room, and 1 less swanky back room. Said back room consisted of a desk, a table, an unplugged fridge, 2 doors and a window. That’s it. No phone. No internet. Barely any cell reception. Perfect.
So I locked myself in that room, mostly cut off from the outside world, for an entire weekend. Well, 16 to 20 hours of the weekend. 6 books, 2 laptops, an iPod; a small galaxy of multicolored post-its, highlighters and pens. Just me, 4 walls and 2 spiders.
The time in my box, plus the time at various other places, paid off. I needed a 70% inside of the 5 hours allotted. It took me 4 hours, 24 minutes and change. I scored an 89.44%, missing 19 of the 180 questions. Half of those missed were in the last hour, when fatigue and malnutirition kicked in. Longest exam ever. But, that score was high enough to be invited to become a SANS Mentor. How cool is that?
It will be 4 years ago Thanksgiving that I started working at the Help Desk. My, how things have changed.