Passed on 5 May with first attempt

charleshmlee

Dear all,

I have taken the exam on 5 May and passed!!!


First of all, let me thank to all the people in this CISSP forums who have make comments on the study and tips. I have been following to their advice to study.


I have been in the I.T. network field for about 15 years and simultaneously in the security field for 3 years. I have no background on software development.


This February I have passed the CISA exam, and with the mind set of using the CISA knowledge while still staying on my head I attended the CISSP exam 2 days ago.


I would like to share my study with my background to those people pursuing the CISSP like me.


My Books
- Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK, 3rd Edition by Steven Hernandez
- All-in-One CISSP Exam Guide, 6th Edition by Shon Harris


My Multiple Choice Practice
- CISSP Exam Prep Questions, Answers & Explanations: 1000+ CISSP Practice Questions with Detailed Solutions by SSI
- CCCure.org PAID License practice exams for the CISSP
- Total Tester with the AIO Shon Harris and book exercise at the back of each chapter
- McGraw-Hill Education CISSP Practice Exams


Others
- no formal training
- no video to watch


First of all, the 2 books I have are the most important material to study. I spent 1.5 month's time to complete reading both, in a degree that I miss no unknown terms in each 10 topics(to me paticularly the software development where my weakest point is.)
Learning both technical knowledge and management perspective towards it are the way of study. These 2 books are equally important but AIO is more technical in details. good books.


Second of all, Don't try too many practicing questions. There is no need to use so many practice sources like me. The CISSP Exam Prep by SSI is fairly OK to recommend because it gets you used to the scenario based question like the real exam. I believe I have done too many practice questions(I think I had tried 2000 questions), my performance % diminishes after 1000, I recommend challenging new question only, dont try too many questions and repeated questions.

CISSP exam requires time and patience, I spend 2-3 hours a day for the study.

Good Luck,
Charles.

smoten

Hi Charleshmlee,

Many Congratulation for aching another milestone, no doubt its an great exam and you get it in 1st attempted, anyhow I am also targeting my exam in 1st week of June and I need you valuable guideline and advice for that specifically practice question till now I used the following study material

- Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK, 3rd Edition by Steven Hernandez
- CCCure.org PAID License practice exams for the CISSP
- Total Tester with the AIO Shon Harris and book exercise at the back of each chapter
- McGraw-Hill Education CISSP Practice Exams

kindly let me know is it worth it to study Shon Harris AIO and need your input regarding SSI CISSP Exam Prep Questions.

your valuable advice will enable to get preparation into right direction.

AverageJoe

Congrats, Charles! How does CISSP compare to CISA? I have the CISM and recently passed the CISSP, but I'm not familiar with CISA. Is it a whole other world or do you think what I've learned for the other two tests would help me in preparing for CISA?

joneno

Congratulations on the big achievement.

charleshmlee

Dear all,
Thanks for the compliments.

To Smoten,
If you have short history of being an IT engineer, Shon Harris is definitely the book you should read through. Even if you are well experienced one I still recommend it to refresh your IT knoweledge.

On the SSI CISSP Exam Prep book, it has a lot of questions based on situation and scenarios, which I personally think it's very similar to the real CISSP questions, combining practice with your list of AIO exercise, total tester and McGraw-Hill exams, I think it is more than enough you should practise.

To AverageJoe,
I thin CISA is the same as CISSP, testing on your audit management perspective towards IT security more than technical/how-to aspect. questions are the same kind with even more with scenario based questions. It all the same needs your judgement based on the 5 modules of review material. What you need is to study well from the CISA Review manual and the practice question database.


I wish you guys good luck with the coming exam.

Thanks
Charles.