The more you 'll learn before the more you'll be prepared 

Last January I decided I was going to start PWB roughly in April (this year) so I decided to try and get some experience in developing exploits to try and get me up to speed before starting the course.

When I started the course in April, I realised that I'd already done probably about 80% of the course material on my own for several years and felt that I was at an advantage on the course material, but the lab time is really where the course pays for itself.

With the exploit development module, try to make sure that you know before hand about the CPU registers on the x86 architecture before you start the course and even try developing some exploits.

If you need some help with this I am happy to assist or alternatively you can view the video and write-up hosted on my website at http://www.thexero.co.uk/exploit-development/ or on SecurityTube.net here http://www.securitytube.net/video/2377

Good luck with pwb

Regards,
TheXero

Exploit development is just a tiny part of PWB. OSCE on the other hand is 90% exploit dev.

There really isn't too much you can do do prepare yourself for the lab, but I would definitely familiarize yourself with the syllabus http://www.offensive-security.com/documentation/penetration-testing-with-backtrack.pdf

You'll get ideas on the content of the course there and possibly begin researching based on that.

I would agree 100%.  Just be ready to learn everything they teach you and more.  The only thing you can do to prepare is open up Backtrack and take a look at every tool that is there.  Get familiar with most of the tools and look over the PDF.  Also, figure out the best way for you to take notes.  I never knew how important the note taking process would be in a pentest till I took that course.  Lastly, prepare the family. You might be missing sleep some nights. My 2 cents.  Oh yeah, and have fun!

You might want to beef up your Linux skills and learn a bit of Python first. You can always purchase more lab time if you feel like you need it, and you can schedule the test whenever you're ready. There's really no harm in starting the course when you feel like you're close to being where you need to be, even if you may not be prepared for everything.

Hello,

It is possible make the lab and exam with virtual machine backtrack ? Or you guys recommend to install backtrack on the same physical PC.

Which book would you recommend for reading before the OSCP training?

Would it be enough to just learn from whatever course material Offensive Security give you? Or is a lot of outside reading required? (aside from programming skills)