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I have just finished the CWSP study guide (the first edition). I took a practice test online today and was a little dismayed at my results. I thought I really understood the material, but there were questions on there which I don't remember the book covering. I still managed to obtain what would be considered a passing grade on the real exam, but I am wondering whether or not the practice tests are now based off of the new exam, or if they are still based off of the old exam?

For anyone who has recently taken the CWSP exam based on the first edition book, were the test questions in line with the practice test questions as far as material and difficulty?

Are the questions in the book in line with the questions on the exam in terms of material and difficulty?

Current CWSP study guide, practice exam, and certification exam all map to the same objectives, which are the current objectives.

Everything will change on Jan 2, 2006.

Thanks for the response. How many questions are on the CWSP exam and how long do you have to complete it?

http://www.cwnp.com/exams/pw0200.html

egable,

I recently took and passed the CWSP exam. I too was dismayed at my results on the first practice exam (and the second). While taking the practice exam I marked on a sheet of paper every exam question about which I had a question. This was so that even if I got the answer correct I could still research anything that I wasn't a 100% clear about. I did the same on the second practice exam.

I reviewed the CWSP guide again and researched other sources (white papers, rfcs, product data sheets).
After a couple of weeks I re-took the practice exams and scored much higher.

Prior to answering each question I went through a checklist in my head to make sure I understood what the question was asking.

For questions about attacks I determined if the attack was against availability, integrity, or confidentiality. I made sure I knew the mitigations for each type of attack.

For questions about security I made sure I understood whether the question was about authentication, encryption, or encapsulation.

For questions about authentication I was sure to understand whether the question or possible answer was talking about one-way authentication or mutual authentication.

For questions about solutions I categorized each piece of the solution by the OSI layer- layer 1, 2, 3 or 7 and by security solution type- authentication, encryption, encapsulation and by authentication type- one-way, mutual, password, password hash, certificate.

By asking myself these kinds of questions prior to answering I hoped to eliminate incorrect answers caused by jumping to a conclusion too soon.

I felt that the CWSP exam was more like its associated practice exams than the CWNAv3 exam was to its associated exams.

Based on the seemingly change in difficulty between CWNAv2 and CWNAv3 I expect that the next version of CWSP (coming on Jan 2) will be more difficult. While I didn't take the CWNAv2, I did practice from its exams prior to July and there seemed to be a jump in the level of difficulty.

Good skill and luck,

moe