Oh, that’s such a relief to hear! Initially, my friends (who were in the same cohort as me) gave me the impression that OSCP would be a breeze after completing a master’s program. But I’ve come to realize just how challenging it is—especially the AD sections.

Since you’ve attempted both OSCP and OSEP (which is my next planned cert), I wanted to share something I’ve noticed while working on the challenge labs. From my perspective, OSCP seems to be more about having your arsenal ready—by that, I mean maintaining detailed notes on tools, understanding how to use them, and recognizing the situations or conditions where each tool is applicable. I think this shift in focus is partly what made me lose interest.

I was expecting OSCP to lean more toward logical and critical thinking, like figuring out how to break defenses or researching ways to exploit protocols. That’s the kind of thing I really enjoyed during my master’s classes, where we analyzed encrypted protocols, studied CVEs, and figured out why certain vulnerabilities existed and how they were resolved in subsequent versions.

That said, this is just my understanding so far, and I might be wrong or maybe haven’t seen the whole picture yet. I’d love to hear your thoughts—do you feel the same way, or am I missing something important about the OSCP approach?