Are there generally no third-party study guides for any of the SANS courses/GIAC exams? I've come across some old stuff that's several years old and probably not too applicable to current tests. Just thought it was kind of weird that there aren't any books out there.

You can take your notes and books into the actual exam? I didn't know that. Although I think you won't succeed at the exam if you have to look up everything as the time is running out but it will surely help for a few questions where you are not sure about.

I haven't found any third-party materials for SANS/ GIAC but from what I have heard the official ones should be very good, although I can't verify this by myself.

Yeah, I thought that was pretty interesting. I believe the thought process is that out in the real world you don't know everything, so some things have to be looked up.

As unsupported mentioned, you don't have time to look up every answer (at least I don't think you do - maybe if you were really quick), so you need to have a good understanding of the material going in.

This relates directly with what Jason posted about studying for GIAC exams

In my opinion, using someone else's notes, while probably not getting flagged at the test center, would most likely be useless to you.  The single best review tool that you have, as the exam must be taken a minimum of 2 weeks after you took the class, is to create an outline of the course material listing page #'s and references.  Going through and generating that table of contents, while it provides you with a quick lookup, is also going to help refresh your knowledge on those tools/skills.  If after having made your own table of contents, you still have to look up everything, then realistically you shouldn't be trying to take the exam.  Almost every certification exam I've taken in general has had questions on it that were so easy that if you don't know the answer, you shouldn't of even attempted certification as well as questions tough enough to provoke thought in experts.  The second of the two types of questions are probably what you will end up needing to look up regardless just to make sure your understanding is correct (if you want a great score instead of just to pass), where making the table of contents helps is it will raise the bar for where your threshold is for having to go back to the book.    Anyway.. just some thoughts.

I'm sure it's different by testing center and how 'shady' you look when you walk in. I just carried the course books in with me and asked the lady if I could bring them in to confirm. I'm sure if you carry in a backpack, they will ask to look in it, or have you pull out what you want to take into the room and hold the bag for you.

all those guides 404 looks fishy to me