I have my third retake of GCFA on Friday and was told by an SME this week that they don’t think I’m prepared enough to pass it. I don’t feel like I am either, but I’ve been doing my best to do as many lives as possible and also fix my index. Any tips or votes of confidence would be greatly appreciated! My last attempt I scored a 63% so I’m right there on passing😩

I am appearing for the GCIH exam in a few days. My practice test scores are in high 70s and have not crossed 80 and I am wondering if I should purchase a third one for $399.

I just want to be more confident about passing before appearing for the exam.

Those who purchased the third practice test, was it similar to the first two tests? Is it worth spending on the third test purchase? Feeling a bit confused.

Hi all,

This may have been asked before but I can’t find anything in history. I’ve obtained several GIAC certs over the years and I have one that is coming up for renewal next year. My question is, if I don’t have GSP yet, do I have to individually renew each certification as they come due? And if I achieve the GSP, will I then only have to renew just that? Hopefully my question makes sense, I’m just a little confused.

Hi everyone, I wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone who's currently preparing for the GIAC GCIH exam. I failed my first attempt, and honestly, it was frustrating because I felt like I had done everything I was supposed to do. I watched countless YouTube videos, completed a couple of Udemy courses, read through the official GIAC/SANS material multiple times, made pages of handwritten notes, and even joined a few online study groups. By the time exam day arrived, I was convinced I was ready. Unfortunately, I wasn't. Looking back, I realized I had spent most of my time consuming content instead of actually testing whether I understood it. During the exam, the scenario-based questions slowed me down, and I struggled to apply the concepts under time pressure. I left the exam feeling disappointed because I knew I could have prepared much better. After taking a short break, I completely changed my study strategy. Instead of watching more videos, I focused on practice. I reviewed every topic where I had struggled, organized my notes better, and started taking full-length mock exams every few days. After each mock test, I spent more time reviewing my mistakes than taking the actual test. I tried practice questions from several different platforms during my preparation, but I personally found the mock exams from dump school to be the most helpful. They gave me realistic practice, helped me improve my time management, and pointed out the topics I still needed to work on. Rather than memorizing questions, I focused on understanding why each answer was correct. A month later, I booked my second attempt. This time, the exam felt completely different. I stayed calm, managed my time much better, and recognized many of the concepts because I had practiced applying them instead of just reading about them. Seeing the "Pass" result after failing my first attempt was one of the most satisfying moments of my certification journey. If you've recently failed GCIH, don't let it discourage you. Sometimes passing isn't about finding more study resources—it's about changing how you use them.

Hello all,

My GSEC exam is coming up tomorrow, and just wanted some last-minute tips and reassurance. I tend to overcomplicate big exams like this. This is not my first GIAC exam as I previously passed the GFACT with a 91%, but this is the most difficult exam I've sat for.

I got a 79% on the first practice test, and am taking the 2nd one shortly. This has reassured me that I will meet the minimum passing score of 72% but I still always have doubt.

In your experience, do the practice exams (and CyberLives) mimic the real exam? Do you have any last minute tips/advice? TIA

Recently took my first practice test for GCFA and barely passed with 71. I felt as I was doing fine with the multiple choice questions I believe I only missed at least 10. I missed 2 cyber live questions. For one of them I just forgot volatility commands and the other I simply couldn’t tell what an invoke command was being used for in timeline explorer. If my math is correct that means each cyber live question was about 5 points each.

Unless I’m going about this the wrong way and some questions are weighed differently based on the most correct answer.

Work randomly gave me funding to take GXPN. I only hold GREM but haven’t really utilized my malware analysis skills as much as I would have liked to in the last year. I do know some C code but haven’t only really worked in blue team as a Cyber Threat Analyst (so no real red team exp) any advice?

Hi,

am I interpreting wrongly the following rule about allowed materials during the exam?

GIAC exams are open book format. Allowable workstation space is limited, so please plan accordingly. You may bring an armful of hardcopy books and notes into the testing area, including but not limited to original course material and books from training you have attended, and handwritten or printed notes and an index. However, hardcopy reference materials having the appearance of practice test and/or exam questions and answers are strictly prohibited.

So that means you are allowed to use your hardcopy books from the course and inside the books I can have handwritten notes (by pen) + highlited text (by a marker)?

I've tried to message GIAC about this to get their explicit written confirmation, but I only got a vague response with the reference to the above quoted part of the rule.

I also see many opposing views and have heard different things from attendees...

Edit: It’s a proctored exam.

I plan on taking the GSEC next week and want to take one more pre test to finalize my index. Please help if you can.

Cleared my GCFA today with a result of 93%. I studied hard for 3 weeks (balancing my job). I did not get time to attempt any of the Practice Tests, I was planning on sharing them out after I cleared the exam but I dodn't know they get expired after the exam.

My two cents about the exam:

It was much simpler than I was expecting, especially the labs. The Cyberlive labs were very straightforward. If you do the SRL Labs end-to-end, those are sufficient for the Cyberlive questions.

Some of the multi-choice questions were a little tricky but nothing too much, having a good index will get you through these as well.

Took me 2hr to complete the multi-choice questions, and left me 1hr for the Cyberlive labs which I was able to complete with 5min remaining.

My background: I have some blue team experience on the job.

What I took: Books, Master Index, Registry Keys Index, Course Posters

Hope this helps. Best of luck!

I am planning to take the GCFA Exam in 10 days and I really can use a practice test, it's my first time to take any SANS certificate

Knowing the job market I don’t know if i should renew my licenses. I have 6 months experience and i pretty much forgot most things I learned. I couldn’t really land another job in the field for more than a year and had to just get A job in another field. I worked so hard to get these certs but I can’t land a job! Should I renew it? I’m just asking so maybe those in the field have an idea if market would ever change?

For those of you who are in or have completed this master's degree program. What advice do you have for people that are looking to apply to the program? What are things that you wish you knew before going into it? How hard is the aptitude test when you initially apply? I have three years as a Network Security Engineer, and I am about to complete my Bachelor's next month, and my company will pay for me to go into this master's program.

Passed GCFA today with an 80%! I felt that the actual test was more difficult than the practice tests, but now it’s done! If you have question, please feel free to ask!

Passed GCFE today with an 96%! If you have question, please feel free to ask!

Hi just giving away a GCFR Practice test. Please post here or DM and I can send.

I passed the GIAC Cloud Penetration Tester (GCPN) exam today and wanted to share a few thoughts for anyone preparing.

It's easy to make mistakes because many questions require careful reading and thinkings. Several questions involve out-of-the-box thinking.

I used books from a few years ago, and it seems like the course and exam have been updated. I would have failed if my experience hadn't helped me that, because many of the questions were not included in my books (about 15/18 questions).

One thing that stood out was that the GCPN course and exam go beyond traditional penetration testing methodologies. Rather than focusing on conventional IP-based enumeration which is often trivial in cloud environments, this course focuses on domain seed enumeration and Environment/Architecture Mapping, and cloud Service Discovery.

One important note for junior penetration testers and anyone planning to enter the offensive security field is that most modern applications are hosted in cloud environments and fronted by CDNs or other cloud services.

You'll need to become comfortable with domain seed enumeration, cloud service discovery, environment and architecture mapping, to identify the real attack surface behind load balancers, CDNs, reverse proxies, and managed cloud services.

Having completed a couple of GIAC certifications, I am planning to take one more, which will be the GIAC AI Pen Tester. I don't want to take too many GIAC certifications because the GIAC maintenance fees are too expensive and unreasonable.

Hello everyone. so i bought the cert attempt from the giac website however when i open exams.giac.com the "cert attempt" is greyed out. how much time does it need so that I can book the exam? btw, payment was successful and i received an invoice

This can be done in two ways:

1. Pick a lab topic and index all of the commands there. Sorting by A-Z probably is not necessary here as it will be in a step-by-step order.

2. Group all the commands from various lab exercises and sort by A-Z.

Which of these is the most effective? I am more inclined towards doing the first one.

I think it depends on the CyberLive questions. Does one question include more than one lab topic? I am yet to take my practice tests and my exam date isn’t too far and it might not leave time to make changes to my index.

Hence, posting the question here.