My First OSCP Exam Attempt
My First OSCP Exam Attempt
This past week I had my first OSCP exam attempt, TL;DR I failed. This post is going to dive into what I’ve learned from this experience that I think others can benefit from.
Time Management
I feel like one of the most KEY parts of the exam is managing your time. If you cannot manage your time properly you will fail. You only have 24 hours to break into all 5 machines, you have to try and figure how much time you should dedicate to each each little thing. You have no time to spare, you need to be able to do what you do quickly and efficiently.
Sleep
When you only have 24 hours to complete a exam you might decide to forget sleep and go for the full 24 hours, If you do this you will just end up staring at a screen for hours half awake not thinking. Taking time to sleep is very important.
Recording your Screen/Reporting
During my exam I decided to record my screen using OBS(10fps, no audio, 1080p), I found this very helpful during my reporting process as it let me go back and grab screenshots or see information that I might've forgot to note down during the exam. (Quick note about this: make sure you secure your recording as if your recording leaks out or anyone else sees in your in big crap. I have mine stored on a veracrypted USB in a locked safe.)
UPDATE As Of 2020/02/15 You are NOT Allowed to record your screen during the exam
During my exam I also kept brief but detailed notes on what I was doing, this helped a lot during my reporting and helped when I woke up to get right back on track. Remember, Its the report that will make or break you.
Taking your Time
One of the things I had to learn the hard way was to take your time, If you try and rush to get things done due to the tight timeline you can make mistakes and that will cost you more time. Do things right the first time instead of having to go back when you missed something or when something doesn’t work the way it should
Conclusion
Last note, Keep a backup of kali don’t be like me and have it break mid exam. I hope whoever reading this has learned something from this. Lastly Good luck to all of the OSCP students out there, Good luck on your try harder journey. My next exam is 30/11/2019 @ 0:30, ill have a another update then :)
Update
I passed my attempt on 30/11/2019, However i dont think I am going to do another blog post on directly my 2nd attempt as this post holds true, stay tuned for another OSCP related post however.