Note Taking and Mind Mapping

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no taking in mind mapping

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are learning objectives in this section And learning about the various mind mapping and note taking applications to understand the strengths and weaknesses of these applications and then determine which tactics work for you when you take notes and you mind map.

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So I mean mind mapping and note taking a very broad sense. I mean when you're taking notes, when you're putting a box in the labs, I mean when you're learning about various techniques, like hopefully you're learning about things now, taking notes in mind mapping could be

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mind mapping your strategies in taking oh SCP or just general strategies

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in hacking or pen testing.

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So an admission I have to make is I'm not very good at taking notes or creating mind maps. I have some friends contact me recently

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on a hacking challenge. They knew I had done this hacking challenge, but it was back in May of last year and they asked me for some advice and I couldn't give him any advice because I hadn't taken any notes. So taking notes is very important.

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I think in the sense of how you take notes, how it also depends on how you learn. People usually fall into three general categories of how, how you learn things. One is auditory listening, you're listening to me teaching this lesson, Hopefully you're learning something. Um, some people are visual learners. I know I'm a visual learner

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and I learned a lot more when I watched videos from Opsec on hack the box

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and other people are kinesthetic learners. I used to be a snowboard instructor many, many years ago and I actually have to like move people's feet to say this is how you do it to a side turn. Could be the same thing here. I know when I was learning python it wasn't until I actually typed out the keys that I started learning more and more and more about python.

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Uh that's to say don't try anything new the day of Os CPU should already have your mind maps. You should already know how you take notes, how you learn. Um Those things should already be down packed by the time you take Euro SCP.

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So mind mapping, not a big strength of mine, I'm a very logical thinker. So my maps are not something that really helped me. Um They do help a lot of other people though. Uh I do know when I was in grad school, I made a mind map for a class, all the other students to make a mind map and we all put our mind maps up on the board.

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And I didn't really understand some of the other students mind maps because I hadn't made it and their thought process is different. So that's to say that

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um you know it might be difficult for other people to understand your mind map if it works for you. That's great.

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I will say that I've seen some great mind maps on linkedin to prepare for O. S. C. P. And I think they do a really great job. They linked concepts like you know, here are all the scanning tools and techniques here are the privilege escalation tools and techniques for Lennox or Windows. Um So that's to say that there are some really great mind maps out there and it does help kind of

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bring complex topics and make them more digestible.

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It's also supposed to improve your recall so hopefully remember this slide and it's supposed to make you more productive. So you know, if I think of all the ways I can scan and enumerate a machine um it helps me become more productive because I have to look at all the different tools and techniques in my tool belt.

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Here's some free software to make mind maps. One is free mind and one is mine master. I chose both of these because they're both free and because they both run on Windows Macs and Lennox, I will say though I upgraded the big Sur on my Mac and free mind won't work for me anymore and mine master. The basic features are fine.

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Do you want some of the fancier features you have to upgrade and it costs you money? So

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you know, if if you are a mind map person, give one of these to try and see if you like it

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for note taking. There's a lot of different ways to take notes. I've seen some great get hud repos on, on notes for SCP. Usually my google searches, I'll search for like Aurora shell and I'll come across a great git hub repo of somebody who has all their nice reverse shells listed out for python or PHP

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right there and they're getting repo it's great for developers if you're used to

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using Git hub, you know, this might come naturally for you, but I do think it it works quite well. Also hierarchical notes. Cherry tree is something that I have seen a lot for L. S. C. P. People have templates for SCP um in Cherry Tree, it's great. You can put in screenshots, you can write text,

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you can write everything out very nicely.

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You can also do that with one note, which is a Microsoft product. I used one note form I E C P P. T. Preparation um when I was actually taking the test and it was really nice. I could lay out all my tabs by which box. Um You know I was hacking um and I could pace my screenshots. I thought it was really great. I really liked one note.

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When I first started taking notes for SCP I did so in a Microsoft word document.

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Not the best way to take notes. Um I just kind of pasted everything. It was kind of like a stream of consciousness, paste it into a word document. Um

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I found the complexity is I would not know which command was the correct one which was the wrong one that I had tried. So you know if you do stick with word documents in your note taking, I would really make sure that there's a logical flow to that.

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Of course if you don't like win or Microsoft products or you don't want to buy Microsoft word

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you can always use liberate office writer.

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So here's some note taking tips.

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You should always take notes in my opinion. Outside of your Cali Vm is already cramped. You know, you're already doing everything in there. That's not to say you shouldn't be organized within your Cali Vm. You should have all your folders set up in a logical fashion. So you can easily find all your exploits or you know, all your scans. So you know, make sure your Cali VM in and of itself

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is organized. But I would take my notes outside of that VM. The thing that could happen is your VM crashes and you lose all your notes. That's also to say your host. Os where you're taking your notes, your host OS crashes, then you lose all your notes there. So I like to back up my notes. So like one drive.

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Um, I think putting things in the cloud is a very wise decision because

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if something happens to you know, your your host, then you always have your cloud to that your documents are backed up onto. I will warn you though when you're doing oh SCP, you can only use the monitors that the Proctor can see. So you can't leave the room and check another computer. Check your phone and look at your notes.

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Everything has to be done in those monitors. That proctor

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that you agree your proctor can look at

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again. Do not use a new application today of SCP. Don't try something new. You should already have your process down well ahead of the test day.

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Also, it's never too early to start taking notes. The worst thing that can happen is you have a shell in a box and you have no idea how you got there. You don't remember which google search you used, you don't remember which pages you found the different commands. So take notes early and take notes often

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also have have a logical flow. Like it talked about in your notes, I I have a whole word document of commands that I like to use. You know, and they're broken out in a, you know, web app attacks, here's wordpress or privilege escalation for Lennox and Windows. So so I can find things easily do something like that for you because test a time is of the essence

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and if your notes are well organized then you'll do things a lot faster.

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Um It's nice to be able to put screenshots in your notes as well as text. I talked about one note being able to do that. That's why like one note because I can put my screen shots in there as well as text.

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So here's our quiz

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which is the best note taking software.

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Is it cloud based? When I saw the video that someone told me is the best for SCP or one I've used in the P W K labs and know very well

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and the answer

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one of using the P W K labs and know very well. Again, you should get your process down. You should be when, when you're owning boxes in the P W K labs, hacked the box, whatever it might be, you should be taking notes so that when it comes to test, you already have your process down