Passed CISSP

magician300

Hello to everyone!

I've frequented this forum for a while but never signed up until now. I wanted to say thank you to the posters on here for sharing their experiences and information as it helped me pass the CISSP exam today on my 3rd try!

Thanks again!

Expect

congrats!

Doyen

Congratulations Third times the charm!

cyberguypr

Congrats on the pass.

Spin Lock

Congratulations on passing. If you found this forum helpful, a good way to give back is share your experiences with the forum. Totally optional of course, but just as you probably benefits from reading who other people prepped for the exam, there's lots of us that would be interested in hearing about your experiences.

What advice would you pass along to those of us preparing for the exam?

magician300

Spin Lock wrote: »

Congratulations on passing. If you found this forum helpful, a good way to give back is share your experiences with the forum. Totally optional of course, but just as you probably benefits from reading who other people prepped for the exam, there's lots of us that would be interested in hearing about your experiences.

What advice would you pass along to those of us preparing for the exam?

Absolutely.

About three years ago I was laid off from my job and offered an opportunity through a local workforce development program to take online classes and then become certified with my A+, Net+, Sec+ and CISSP. The university would pay for me to take the exams and cover the cost, if I failed and re-took it then of course it was on me. The CompTIA exams were a breeze for the most part and I passed them all successfully on the first try. After passing the Sec+ exam I then began preparing for the CISSP exam: truthfully I didn't even know what CISSP stood for at this time or had any idea what it entailed.

I began studying for it and was able to take a 2-week boot camp class for it which I found really helpful. The instructor I had was very thorough with the type of information that was expected to be seen on the exam and on how to approach the exam itself. I certainly didn't think about it at first but part of all of this is just gearing yourself up to take a 6-hour exam. It is a lot!

The first time I took the exam (early 2014) I scored a 633. I realized that I just wasn't fully prepared for what I encountered and being that I didn't pay for it I chalked it up to a positive learning experience of what to expect and prepare for the 2nd time around. I took it again in May of this year and scored a 684; close but no cigar. I continued to beef up on the material I had and sought out more study materials before finally taking it this past weekend and passing.

All of the following I used in some form or another to help me pass this exam but I've listed them in order of what I feel personally helped me the most to the least:


-- AIO, Shon Harris 6th Edition book

-- Security Hotel "Mind Maps" (Credit to Andrey Shishkin for this wealth of information. Found on LinkedIn CISSP Study Groups)

-- SANS webcast on how to pass the CISSP exam (unfortunately I cannot find it any longer on their website!)

-- Sunflower PDF

-- Eric Conrad Practice Exams (Elsevier: conrad: CISSP Study Guide Certification)

-- CCCure.org

-- Transcender and Boson test engines



I will say that regarding the Eric Conrad exams, CCCure.org and the Transcender/Boson test engines: they were helpful in their own way but don't expect to see questions at all like that on the test. I think I had maybe 5-7 direct "definition" type questions. Everything else is really questions that you need to read, re-read and then process for a moment and really think about what they're asking.

The Sunflower PDF gives a great high-level understanding of many types of topics you'll see on the exam. The mind maps personally helped me relate things to one another and better understand how item #1 works with item #2 and so forth. The AIO book to me was the cream of the crop but it is also VERY detailed. I took notes after reading the entire book and just studied those on a continuing basis using the book to reference something I didn't fully understand. Many people have told me they keep the book as as reference point and I plan to do the same.

One big piece of advice I can offer is take breaks when needed. If you feel like you are drifting off even in the slightest bit then take a 5 minute break. Get up, stretch, walk down a hallway, whatever.. do something. It's a grind and you really need to be as focused as you can be throughout the whole test. I personally broke it up in groups of 60/60/60/70 and then came back and did all the questions I flagged but if you need to do it more often than that then do it. It's a mental challenge just as much as it is knowing the material.

Hope this helps!

Spin Lock

Great write-up Magician! Thank you for taking the time to explain how you prepared. Very valuable.

And I hope, that after loosing you were able to land on your feet. I would certainly expect that to be the case considering the time and effort you put into your certs.