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I have passed the CWSP today september 13th with a grade 87% and I must say that after having spent some time preparing the exam I found this one easier than the two practice tests available on the cwnp.com website.

I can give you my receipt on how to succeed for this exam (I do hope it will still be valid for the new version of the CWSP):

- I have attended a very good CWNA/CWSP training done by instructor Bader Azzouqa of NetopsIT in Atlanta GA. This training was excellent : further to the slides and the student guide prepared by Planet 3 the explanations of the instructor were always very interesting and went deep into the details.
But it is also important that you take care not to sleep during the training (a training 9 hours a day may make you feel a little bit tired). You always have to figure out if you understand everything well, if there aren't details that seems not logical to you... that made me ask a lot of questions and write a lot of valuable information on the student guide. You have the opportunity to work in various VPNs environments like SSH and IPSec... take the time to understand it well.

- the labs on the training are very important if you don't have the chance to play with a Wireless protocol analyzer and an AP at Home (or at your office). Playing with a Protocol analyzer will help you a lot for every question you may have concerning Beacon management frames, authentication, association etc. and further to that it will help you a lot preparing the CWSP exam !! Believe me it is a MUST DO.
For the ones who don't attend the training course I strongly suggest to have a very clear view on how the various solutions are implemented (where does the encryption begin, what are the differences, wht is used for point to point and point to multipoint...)
Do not follow the training guide without asking yourself tons of questions : why do they ask me to use DHCP instead of static address, why am I using this setting and not another one... nobody should blame you for asking questions (unless you ask ten times the same one ;o))

- The CWSP guide : This must be your bible !!
Here is what I did. You first read it and write on the book itself very short sentences summarizing each chapter. Highlight important sentences and figures. Understand perfectly what is important in the study guide. Point out the points that aren't clear to you and make your own investigation on the forum or the web.

Then you read it again and you WRITE all the important things in a word document (You can use the pw0-200 exam objectives as the backbone of this ocument). Understand the organisation of the study book and make your own book. Write everything you think you should remember and that is important.

This job will take you some time to complete (about 1 month for a 46 pages document including pictures and authentication framework descriptions found in various books)

- From the word document you can then prepare your own questionnaire. Put blanks in the sentences and test yourself by reading this document over and over.

- By now you will feel more comfortable. You will know your book by heart. 3rd step : do the CWSP Practice test and try to learn from the different questions. You will see that your book is still missing some important information and that you have to avoid tricky questions by clearing out every concept (if necessary go in the forum or search on your favorite search engine)

- By this time you will be hopefully ready and you shouldn't worry for the questions of the CWSP. It is also, of course, a matter of luck but most of the questions are not as tricky as the ones that are on the practice test. For a non english native speaking candidate you may have sometimes to concentrate more on the exact meaning of the questions... time goes very fast during the exam !

As you can see it takes some time but by the end of your CWSP preparation you have your own CWSP preparation book that is easier to use and faster to read than the big study guide and you should pass with a good grade.
Further to that I am now using my book and add other information gathered on the cwnp.com website to keep it up to date.

Once again I would express my gratitude to Bader Azzouqa (as well as the staff from NetopsIT in Atlanta) who helped in a very professional manner during the CWSP and spent a lot of time answering the questions of the students... this guy is really good in doing his job !!

Do hope my advices will help you !!
Regards

Chris

Hi Chris:

Congratulations! /criss

Criss,
Thanks for your word of encouragement... be sure that your several contribution to the CWSP forum helped me a lot preparing the exam !!

Chris

Hi Chris.

So how long from start to finish including the training, did you study for the CWSP?

I passed the CWNA mid Sept. And have now read the CWSP study guide through once. Taking your advise for sure, and wanting to sit for CWSP prior to Dec 31.

I won't be attending a CWSP course, but have the Wildpackets Analyzer and a WLAN switch and thin access points to play with.

Congrats Chris! Way to go!

Joel

Hi JeffersonDavis,
I am glad to give you more information about the CWSP exam preparation.

I have attended the CWSP course on December 15th 2004 and I passed it on beginning september 2005... You can go faster of course if you have enough time to prepare the document I was talking about in my first message.

I must say also that I was a little bit "overprepared" by reading very carrefully the additional documentation I have found on the cwnp library.

Once again :
- Read the CWSP guide and summarize it in your own preparation document. Copy and past the most important parts of the book even if some of them look obvious to you (some questions may be confusing in the test.. you must remember the basic points of some questions by heart // for instance : what are the ways to prevent a DoS attack ?)

- Consider spending more time reading WLAN security documents that will bring some more details that are not included in the book itself.
On the top list I would with no doubt put the Cisco documents available for free on the net. The SAFE method document is a MUST !! This is a very good methodology for implementing WLAN in a secure way and it will make you think about every possible attacks this architecture prevents.
The basic security document is also very good in showing you (thanks to very good schemas) how the TKIP key is built up, how a hacker can do a bit flipping attack and so on... I made a point in being able to make these pictures by myself again. You will then master it and there shouldn't be any question that would disturb you too much.

- Regarding the labs : It is better to have an idea on how protocols exchange are working even though you can take the advantage of the description made in the book about some protocols (Kerberos for instance... eventhough I wouldn't suggest you to go to much in details on this part... the CWSP book was too complex on some points). In this way using airopeek and ethereal is a very good thing.

If you can manage to capture traces and read them carrefully some times it will help for sure. I have made a point to see how a frame was built with the SSH protocol... it makes you understand what a hacker can see and do from what he may capture.
No need however to go to much in details... you are not preparing for the CWAP.

Regarding the WLAN switch, what you have to master is in the book itself or in the practice test. Make a list of all the characteristics of the WLAN switches... be sure to know it.

Once again : 99% of what I had to know was in my personal document... report everything you may find important inside this document.

So, if you want to attend the test in December I would suggest you to be really focused on the exam and to begin the redaction of your own study book right now. You may consider buying the CWSP guide in pdf format to do copy/paste faster (this will take you at least 2 weeks... I wrote a bout 10 versions of this document).
When it is done I would suggest you to to the practice tests during 2 weeks prior to doing the test. It will allow you to improve your study guide and to understand very well the way the questions are supposed to be understood/read. Of course you will fail on some questions mainly because some of them are tricky and you may make some errors because of the stress.

After all that period of time I guess you will feel a little bit stressed (the document I wrote was more than 40 pages long and I had to read it over and over to be sure I don't forget anything) but I am pretty sure that you will find the test easier than the practice tests (that's my point of view).

I do hope it will help you. Keep us informed when you pass the exam !!

Good luck

Chris
PS : thanks for your encouragements and congrats... will always be glad to help you