How to leverage open-source Generative-AI to prepare for an exam?
This article is not intended to educate smart prompt language, instead it focuses on how we could leverage cost-free materials to quickly begin with preparing an exam.
Setting up the scene, SANS Institute is one of the most trusted resources for cybersecurity training, certifications and research. To demonstrate the effectiveness I take GIAC Cyber Threat Intelligence (GCTI) and leverage the popular and highly accessible open-source generative-AI tool POE Free Plan ("Assistant" and "Claude-3.5-Sonnet") as illustrative example. I have 2920 points out of 3000 daily limit to begin with and consume for this experimental work.
To begin with, I use "Assistant". It's a general-purpose assistant bot. Obviously you can use other commercial bots or build a cybersecurity-centric model to increase the effectiveness.
Nice! "Assistant" already knows what SANS is to set the bounded context.
Well... the "Assistant" generates generic study guide. But it's expected... the "Assistant" might not have the syllabus information.
Cool... it looks like getting in shape.
I have copied and pasted the syllabus information which is located in SANS official website for FOR578: Cyber Threat Intelligence and instruct to have elaboration on each points. But... let's try harder.
Tried multiple ways... It doesn't work well unfortunately with "Assistant".
Alternatively let's try "Claude-3.5-Sonnet", also free on POE. It's a good start! It can point out examples of SANS certifications.
Similar generic study guide when I provided the same prompt.
Tried harder...
Again I have provided the syllabus and instruct to have elaboration on each points.
Very cool. Obviously it can do much better than "Assistant".
When I asked for more elaboration and reference of these concepts, for examples: Cyber Kill Chain, MITRE ATT&CK, and etc., the bot is able to respond and provide key summary of these concepts.
Lastly the bot was told to generate pages of study notes.
Opss... I can generate Section1 & 2, but I consumed most of my daily limit and only had 2% of my daily limit left.
Here is an open end. I will leave you to evaluate the effectiveness of using GEN-AI to prepare for a study content versus an official training.
In my opinion, it is a 100% study buddy, I'm not against it. It is a go-to checkpoint to verify if a candidate has possessed the basic knowledge of a topic, however, for a beginner, he/she might not fully rely on the study notes while extensive research is required to understand each sub-topics.