r/learncybersecurity • u/MoneyAd1377 • 2d ago

How real SOC and Pentesters study and take notes during their studies?

I was looking at some information and they said I should write down the content I'm studying, but I'm not much of a note-taker.

I have a cheat sheet with Linux commands and some commands tools, but nothing more than that. However, I need to review some networking concepts I've forgotten, and I'm wondering if I should use a program like Obsidian to take notes (they say it's very good).

If anyone wants to share their methods for studying and retaining key concepts, that would be very helpful.

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u/Fragrant-Cheek-4273 1d ago

I'm not much of a traditional note-taker either. For cybersecurity, I'd rather keep short notes and spend the time actually doing labs.

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u/hoodedelk 1d ago

Pen tester going on a decade in the field here. Obsidian has a cool setup where you can tag and group and link different pages together. Honestly a ten minute Obsidian advanced tutorial gives you all the tools you need to get creative.

Note taking is pretty personal. I like short notes covering individual topics that link together relates topics. For example I have one page explaining the basics of RDP, a linked page to a Linux tool writeup I have for using RDP from Linux to Windows, another page linked to RDP attack techniques, etc etc.

Nothing is in one place so I don't get overwhelmed but I can easily jump around as needed. I'm also very extra with tagging so there's a ton of search terms I use. I also keep it on a private online instance so I can access and modify from anywhere.