10/4/19
After many, many months of studying, labbing, making a complete inside/outside zone network with OSSIM SIEM and OSSEC, deploying as many of the concept required in the lab I finally passed.
My journey started after the CySA+ and after reaching out to Teresa Varela, (Director of IT Workforce Solutions/Skills Certification) about help with the CASP+, she put me in contact with Patrick Lane.
Patrick Lane (Director of the cybersecurity program), he’s the creator of the cybersecurity program in recent years with the CySA+, PenTest+, and CASP+. He felt inspired by my drive and determination to pass the exam and blessed me with a sponsorship thru the CASP+ certification program.
Patrick hooked me up with study material, CertMaster sims, and the best part, exam vouchers. I felt it was my purpose to live up to his vision of me as a CASP. But along the way, he was right there with me helping me in whatever way he could. He couldn’t really help me cause he made the program. BUT…he did one better…
He put me in contact with a industry leader, Anthony Sequeira, (CCIE No. 15626), who mentored me and helped me get the knowledge gaps that I was having, but in the end I just was determined to pass the exam.
I took the exam, the 1st attempt on June 26th, and I felt confident but the exam was a fail. I felt demoralized, deflated, but I was more determined to pass it. For 3 months I spent more time than I care to admit, my parents saw me less and less, the significant other was getting upset I wasn’t spending time with her, my dog started to rebel, my living space started getting messy, I was only sleeping 5 hours a day in the final weeks; I was utterly determined to pass! – cause I knew this material after reading the entire NIST SP 800 series numerous times.
In the final hour, in the last 3 weeks before the 2nd attempt the ITPro.TV just released an updated CAS-003 video series by Adam Gordon and it was rock solid. I finally understood the content I was missing. I spent over 50+ hours to study for 3 weeks, yes this meant less sleep.
I felt much more confident after doing that video series, and using the CASP Prep App, and lots of practice tests. When I sat the exam on October 2nd I felt much better.
Got to the exam about an hour early and took a nap and then went in 20 minutes earlier and had a good conversation with the proctor who was also a MCSE and then I was off.
I felt the exam was much easier now that I had time to review some weak points, for 3 months, lol. I went to the extent this time to setup a 3 tier PKI, setup a SSO with Federation Services with a token, Setup an inside and outside firewall setup in the home-lab, also setup a SIEM with log monitoring, deploy a Kali Linux box to be used as a penetration testing tool. I went all out…it paid off…
Now I’m going to finish up the MCSE: 2016, move onward into the CompTIA PenTest+, CompTIA Server+ (just so my server knowledge is neutral) then do another VMware VCP, and go for a VMware VCAP. Someplace in there I wanna get my CCNA renewed and then go for my CCNP: R&S to round out the mix. WE don’t use Cisco really, but I want to learn the advanced level networking that Cisco is really good at teaching you. 🙂
If anything this obvious, I WILL get all these, as I have the persistence, motivation, and determination to achieve.
Cheers!
-Trevor
