What Actually Helped Me Pass OSCP+

I don't come from a tech background. I built myself to this point. What I come with is curiosity and stubbornness. Honestly? I think it's an awesome mix- refusing to let go of something until it clicks. My therapist won't agree, but that's mostly about my personal life lol.

This is everything I wish someone told me before I started.

My First Month Was a Disaster

I began my prep like every student does- checking online blogs of people who gave the exam and shared their advice. Medium, Hashnode, LinkedIn, even Instagram.

And suddenly I got very, very overwhelmed by the amount of information and advice out there.

That first month was the hardest. I questioned my decisions. I wasted a ridiculous amount of time just planning and planning. What I was really doing was searching for a perfect plan, a "fastest way" to get there.

Newsflash: there isn't one.

Slowly I got a hang of it. I realised I just need to move first. Stop planning. Start doing.

The Thing That Saved Me: IppSec

A great friend of mine suggested something that I now highly vouch for to anyone prepping today. It literally saved me in my actual exam.

IppSec.

The way I watched his Linux, Windows, and AD videos on repeat, and then side by side while solving boxes and learning techniques, can only be called insane.

Here's what I did:

Watch his Linux playlist once- make notes, take my time
Then on one screen play a video, and on the other screen solve it alongside him
Repeat for Windows and AD

That built concepts. You know how after a while you don't need to look at the keyboard to type your name? Your fingers are just familiar? Yeah, IppSec builds muscle memory for hacking.

He has this site ippsec.rocks where anything- a method, tool, system- can be searched and it points to the exact video where he taught it. Absolute game-changer. For example

HackSmarter for Active Directory

From IppSec it's apparent I was knee-deep into HTB, but I built a lot of my AD base from HackSmarter as well. His Active Directory content is amazing.

How amazing? One of the machines I got on exam day was so structurally similar to what I practiced that I was able to get root on it pretty soon. ANDDD I am talking AD. 40 points bro.

Resources, Lists, and the Mistake Everyone Makes

The OSCP A, B, and C labs? Cannot be missed. They're the closest you'll get to the real exam.

And yes, like everyone, I followed TJ Null's list- but I mixed it with LainKusanagi's list to get broader exposure.

Now here's the mistake I made in my first month and a half, and I need to put this in everyone's head:

There is no right way. And you cannot remember everything.

That overwhelming feeling of oh my god this is too much, so much syllabus, so many boxes, all the techniques I gotta know- that feeling became refined once I stopped trying to find the perfect path and just… started. Yeah I know everyone says it but yk why they say drink a lot of water everyday? because it WORKSS! Annoying really.

Pick a list- TJ Null or someone else, get to know the basics and DO IT. You will reach somewhere and it will be better than just watching tutorials and tutorials.

**Start. Break things. Get stuck. Learn. (**yeah equivalent to Fuck around and find out)

The Three Pillars: Linux → Windows → AD

Don't try to learn everything at once. There are only 3 things: Linux, Windows, and AD. Tackle them one by one.

Start with Linux- it's easier. Watch IppSec, solve HTB or THM (whatever you prefer). Do them with walkthroughs first, then without.
Move to Windows- same approach. Understand permissions, services, enumeration.
Then Active Directory- practice on HackSmarter, HTB, Proving Grounds. AD will make or break your exam. It's not inherently hard, just a few techniques and a couple of tools. But you need repetition.

The "Don't Memorize" Rule

Understand the techniques. Don't memorize the syntax or anything.

Just know how something can be done. For the rest, there are excellent sites:

HackTricks
The Hacker Recipes
PayloadsAllTheThings
revshells.com
GTFOBins- I think everyone just knows this by now
Orange Cyberdefense OCD Mindmaps- excellent for seeing the bigger picture of AD

There's so much more out there. GitHub has an insane amount of quality notes that are genuinely helpful.

Make Notes (Seriously, Do It)

For all your practice machines, make notes. In sections. It will be messy and that's fine. Later, take all your practice notes and throw them into Gemini or Claude and get them refined into something clean and usable.

Surviving Exam Day

Okay, real talk on the exam:

Before You Start

Duplicate your machine- Snapshot your VM because things break during the exam. Tools don't work sometimes. You won't have enough time to reconfigure or troubleshoot mid-exam.
Look at your notes, observe what tools you run most frequently, and update them beforehand. I am paranoid about this, and rightly so. When my Ligolo tunnel suddenly hung during the exam, it scared me enough that I had to take a 20-minute break just to breathe.

Strategy

There are 3 standalone machines (1 Linux, 2 Windows) and 1 AD set. Run Nmap on all of them first.
Don't jump directly into AD- Find one easy standalone machine, solve it. That early win gives you confidence.
Use a stopwatch- This was the only thing that saved me from staying stuck on one thing. There will be rabbit holes, and your curiosity will get the best of you. If you're making zero progress after an hour, pivot.
Practice AD as much as possible- It's not hard, just a few techniques and a couple of tools. But AD will break or make your exam.

When You Get Stuck

Remember: nobody is judging you. Open YouTube, watch a method you got stuck on, and implement it. Look like a noob. Nobody cares. Use GitHub. Google is your best friend. That Ligolo situation I mentioned? I re-installed it and configured it again watching a 20 min youtube video in middle of the exam, oh yes sir, I DID.

Take Care of Yourself

Don't be stupid. Take breaks every 2-3 hours. Drink tea. Rest your back. Mine almost killed me by the end.

Documentation During the Exam

Take screenshots of every step that worked and the result it yielded
Paste them in your notes app of choice (I like Notion)
Copy the exact commands you used, it will save you hours during report writing
Focus on passing that 70/100 first, then dive into rabbit holes that might or might not yield flags. PLEASEEEE. NOBODY GONNA THINK YOU ARE A HERO FOR COMPLETING 3 FULL MACHINES if you don't pass by 10 points.

Writing the Report

Make your report clear. No fancy wording. Nobody cares about prose, no Shakespeare stuff. They just want to know if the exploit can be reproduced. Write it for a tired person.

Final Words

Build basics one by one and practice. It doesn't matter what platform, what path, which list.

Make notes. Yes, practice machines too.

Rest. Everything will work out.