Passed CISSP with limited study schedule
Hello All,
Like others I wanted to thank everyone in this forum for their experience and suggestions. I found it really beneficial for developing my study strategy under tight timelines.
I came back from a long personal time off (rode a motorcycle from Canada to end of South America) in March I had received a CISSP Exam voucher from my work last year and intended on scheduling the exam for end of July. However, my exam voucher expired at the end of May so I decided to give it a shot instead of wasting the voucher so the exam was scheduled.
About me:
I am a security consultant with 5 years of experience mostly around risk and governance, risk and regulations, access control, security ops. I had no real experience in sec arch, telecom and network, crypto, and very limited experience with SDLC, physical, BCP/DR.
Study/Timeline:
Due to work and other personal time constraints, I started reading the Shon Harris AIO 6th Ed. 11 weeks from the exam. Progress was slow, I did not do the 2-3 hours/per night that I intended and fell rather far behind on my reading. I did not finish reading Telecom and Network (from AIO) until the beginning of the final week. Crypto wasn't too bad with my education background but by the point I was on my final domain (SDLC) I was rather sick of Shon Harris' AIO so I switched to Eric Conrad which was much more succinct. On the other hand, it was not as granular as Shon Harris AIO so I did go back to check on key points and her description of some points that I needed clarification. I finished reading all domains and the chapter test day before the exam.
Test/Prep:
I read the Shon Harris AIO until the final week. I took the week of the exam off from work and dedicated the full days to reading/reviewing/taking end of chapter tests. In the final week, I started quickly reading Eric Conrad's book for a quick refresher of the domains and started writing down notes of what I had to memorize and differences (what are the pros/cons, some key mechanics between diff technologies/processes). I also went through each of the two quizzes per domain on the McGraw-Hill website which I really liked but was getting upper 70s. I also went through the domain quizzes from the official ISC2 book (terrible study material) which were rather discouraging due to their usage of "best" scenarios and getting a taste of how difficult it can be to pick 2-3 good answers. The day before my exam, I started doing full practice exams. I went through two full practice Total Tester (getting 80%) which made me confident. I then went through Shon Harris AIO's end of the book test which was quite tough with scenario questions and scoring ~60%. This was my final preparation and I was rather discouraged at that point at 3am the day of my final exam taking place at 8am.
Exam Taking:
Got up at 6am (3 hrs sleep), ate breakfast, had coffee, showered, arrived at test centre 30 mins before. My first pass through the exam I marked 90 of 250 for reviews and quite a few times I was shaking my head by how many had 2 that were really the best answers according to study materials and real world industry experience. There were also a few questions that I knew it was impossible for anyone to have gotten it unless they read 4 study books and then did further research on every topic. I finished my first pass of 250 at the 4 hour mark (targeting 1 question per min) and went to use the washroom dispirited and thinking that I had a 60% chance that I'm going to fail this exam. I had some water and returned to review my marked questions with 2 hours left. I spent a bit more time on each questions (which I usually marked down to 2 best answers). I re-checked my two answers, approached the question differently substituting words and changing the order of the question. I also went through different logic scenarios to support and blow away the answer. Fortunately, I was able to figure out a lot more answers and also accepted that I would not get everything and mark a best answer to my abilities. By the time I finished reviewing and unflagging my 90 questions I felt a lot more confident. With 50 mins left I went through the entire exam quickly and mostly accepted what I had answered. There might've been 2-3 that I took a second look and switched but not too many. With 30 mins left I submitted feeling rather confident and hopeful that I passed. Thankfully, I received the "Congratulations" letter when I exited. I had a few drag and drops (no more difficult than usual multiple choice)
Summary:
Study Materials - Use Shon Harris for deep/granular content that you have little knowledge of and cross reference with Eric Conrad's or other sources like Sybex.
Study Focus - Really pay attention to the differences between different technology/processes (pros/cons) rather than how they work. These will be key for the scenario questions.
Exam Practice - ISC2 for most similar to CISSP. Total Tester is 2nd best, McGraw-Hill domain quizzes are great too. I heard GISP is good but didn't have time or money for that. Reading comprehension is really key rather than memorizing every single thing. Don't be discouraged during the exam and be disciplined with time (move on after 1 min, come back later and you might have triggered something and realize the answer or different perspective). Accept that certain questions you will never get (hopefully they are test questions).
As others have also said, the priority is: Human life, legal/regulations, best business answer, best technical...
Best of luck everyone and thanks again for the help.
Like others I wanted to thank everyone in this forum for their experience and suggestions. I found it really beneficial for developing my study strategy under tight timelines.
I came back from a long personal time off (rode a motorcycle from Canada to end of South America) in March I had received a CISSP Exam voucher from my work last year and intended on scheduling the exam for end of July. However, my exam voucher expired at the end of May so I decided to give it a shot instead of wasting the voucher so the exam was scheduled.
About me:
I am a security consultant with 5 years of experience mostly around risk and governance, risk and regulations, access control, security ops. I had no real experience in sec arch, telecom and network, crypto, and very limited experience with SDLC, physical, BCP/DR.
Study/Timeline:
Due to work and other personal time constraints, I started reading the Shon Harris AIO 6th Ed. 11 weeks from the exam. Progress was slow, I did not do the 2-3 hours/per night that I intended and fell rather far behind on my reading. I did not finish reading Telecom and Network (from AIO) until the beginning of the final week. Crypto wasn't too bad with my education background but by the point I was on my final domain (SDLC) I was rather sick of Shon Harris' AIO so I switched to Eric Conrad which was much more succinct. On the other hand, it was not as granular as Shon Harris AIO so I did go back to check on key points and her description of some points that I needed clarification. I finished reading all domains and the chapter test day before the exam.
Test/Prep:
I read the Shon Harris AIO until the final week. I took the week of the exam off from work and dedicated the full days to reading/reviewing/taking end of chapter tests. In the final week, I started quickly reading Eric Conrad's book for a quick refresher of the domains and started writing down notes of what I had to memorize and differences (what are the pros/cons, some key mechanics between diff technologies/processes). I also went through each of the two quizzes per domain on the McGraw-Hill website which I really liked but was getting upper 70s. I also went through the domain quizzes from the official ISC2 book (terrible study material) which were rather discouraging due to their usage of "best" scenarios and getting a taste of how difficult it can be to pick 2-3 good answers. The day before my exam, I started doing full practice exams. I went through two full practice Total Tester (getting 80%) which made me confident. I then went through Shon Harris AIO's end of the book test which was quite tough with scenario questions and scoring ~60%. This was my final preparation and I was rather discouraged at that point at 3am the day of my final exam taking place at 8am.
Exam Taking:
Got up at 6am (3 hrs sleep), ate breakfast, had coffee, showered, arrived at test centre 30 mins before. My first pass through the exam I marked 90 of 250 for reviews and quite a few times I was shaking my head by how many had 2 that were really the best answers according to study materials and real world industry experience. There were also a few questions that I knew it was impossible for anyone to have gotten it unless they read 4 study books and then did further research on every topic. I finished my first pass of 250 at the 4 hour mark (targeting 1 question per min) and went to use the washroom dispirited and thinking that I had a 60% chance that I'm going to fail this exam. I had some water and returned to review my marked questions with 2 hours left. I spent a bit more time on each questions (which I usually marked down to 2 best answers). I re-checked my two answers, approached the question differently substituting words and changing the order of the question. I also went through different logic scenarios to support and blow away the answer. Fortunately, I was able to figure out a lot more answers and also accepted that I would not get everything and mark a best answer to my abilities. By the time I finished reviewing and unflagging my 90 questions I felt a lot more confident. With 50 mins left I went through the entire exam quickly and mostly accepted what I had answered. There might've been 2-3 that I took a second look and switched but not too many. With 30 mins left I submitted feeling rather confident and hopeful that I passed. Thankfully, I received the "Congratulations" letter when I exited. I had a few drag and drops (no more difficult than usual multiple choice)
Summary:
Study Materials - Use Shon Harris for deep/granular content that you have little knowledge of and cross reference with Eric Conrad's or other sources like Sybex.
Study Focus - Really pay attention to the differences between different technology/processes (pros/cons) rather than how they work. These will be key for the scenario questions.
Exam Practice - ISC2 for most similar to CISSP. Total Tester is 2nd best, McGraw-Hill domain quizzes are great too. I heard GISP is good but didn't have time or money for that. Reading comprehension is really key rather than memorizing every single thing. Don't be discouraged during the exam and be disciplined with time (move on after 1 min, come back later and you might have triggered something and realize the answer or different perspective). Accept that certain questions you will never get (hopefully they are test questions).
As others have also said, the priority is: Human life, legal/regulations, best business answer, best technical...
Best of luck everyone and thanks again for the help.
Comments
-
impelse
Member Posts: 1,237 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats, it is an intense exam.Stop RDP Brute Force Attack with our RDP Firewall : http://www.thehost1.com
It is your personal IPS to stop the attack. -
EasyPeezy
Member Posts: 111 ■■■□□□□□□□
Well done...!!!2015 Goals: ISO27001:Lead Auditor COLOR=#FF0000]Passed[/COLOR...
2016 Goals: M.Sc Cyber Security :study:, ITILF COLOR=#FF0000]Passed[/COLOR, COBIT5 F COLOR=#ff0000]Feb[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000].[/COLOR, CGEITCOLOR=#ff0000]Jun[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000]. ???[/COLOR, CIPMCOLOR=#ff0000]???[/COLOR -
Doyen
Member Posts: 397 ■■■□□□□□□□
I was skeptical with the title, but listing your methodology (studying and test taking) made it seem practical. Thank you for sharing this
Goals for 2016: [] VCP 5.5: ICM (recertifying) , [ ] VMware VCA-NV, [ ] 640-911 DCICN, [ ] 640-916 DCICT, [ ] CCNA: Data Center, [ ] CISSP (Associate), [ ] 300-101 ROUTE, [ ] 300-115 SWITCH, [ ] 300-135 TSHOOT, [ ] CCNP: Route & Switch, [ ] CEHv8, [ ] LX0-103, [ ] LX0-104
Future Goals: WGU MSISA or Capital Technology Univerisity MSCIS Degree Program
Click here to connect with me on LinkedIn! Just mention your are from Techexams.net. -
gooner1
Member Posts: 13 ■■■□□□□□□□
Thanks everyone! I'm still rather happy that I passed and not planning on a re-take.
Getting my resume and endorsement document ready for sending in later this week. Hopefully it won't take too long before I get confirmation from ISC2. -
DavidEthington
Member Posts: 22 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congratulations! But, if you read Shon Harris cover to cover, you probably studied a lot more than you think you did.
-
DavidEthington
Member Posts: 22 ■□□□□□□□□□
Thanks everyone! I'm still rather happy that I passed and not planning on a re-take.
Getting my resume and endorsement document ready for sending in later this week. Hopefully it won't take too long before I get confirmation from ISC2.
I got mine back in just a few weeks. Took nowhere near the six week max. -
gooner1
Member Posts: 13 ■■■□□□□□□□
Good to hear it didn't take all that long. I wouldn't actually claim to have read it cover to cover since I feel like I retained 1/3 of what I read but I got the key concepts. Experience definitely helped a lot and having that management hat on.
-
gooner1
Member Posts: 13 ■■■□□□□□□□
This was my CISSP timeline:
29 May - Passed Exam
7 June - Endorsement paperwork submitted to ISC2
9 June - Received email from ISC2 saying they received paperwork
July 15 - Received official certification email from ISC2 -
gooner1
Member Posts: 13 ■■■□□□□□□□
My final CISSP timeline:
May 29 - Passed Exam
June 7- Endorsement paperwork submitted to ISC2
June 9 - Received email from ISC2 saying they received paperwork
July 15 - Received official certification email from ISC2
August 7 - Received official paper certification from ISC2
