CISSP Passed First Time, 1/14: Summary and Writeup
Hi everyone, long time reader here and I found this forum incredibly helpful in understanding how to best prepare and pass the CISSP. I figured I'd do a quick writeup to see if my experience could also help others that are preparing.
Looking back, I overstudied but going into it, I didnt want to take a chance I would fail and used the following for preparation:
Books Used:
-Sybex 6th Edition (read cover to cover)
-Eric Conrad (read cover to cover)
-Shon Harris AIO 6th Edition (Read 7/10 Domains)
-Eric Conrad 11th Hour (read each domain 2x week before exam)
Practice Questions:
-Total Tester (Solved once)
-McGraw Hill Questions (Solved Twice)
-Shon Harris Practice Question Book 2nd Edition (Solved 7/10 domains)
-Shon Harris AIO chapter and end of book questions
-Sybex Book Chapter Questions
-Conrad Book Chapter Questions
Full length Practice Exams:
-Transcender (Completed the 3 standard practice tests)
-Sybex online Practice Exams (Finished the 3 exams 2x)
-Eric Conrad online Practice Exam (Completed the first practice test)
My background is mainly in physical security and cryptography so I only had 1-2 years in the rest of the domains, the books helped fill in the blank spaces. I completed my first pass in 3 hours, did a second pass reviewing my flagged questions and a third pass going through every question to make sure I didnt misread the question or choices. I submitted the exam around the 5 hour mark.
The exam itself was much easier than a lot of the practice material. Reading this forum, I was concerned each question might be a 3-4 liner scenario but most were straightforward and you could easily eliminate two choices. The last two choices were often very tricky though and there were a lot of those and although I felt like I passed when I finished, I definitely wasnt sure and still nervous.
For study material, I feel the Eric Conrad and Sybex book and their accompanying exams would have been enough to pass. The Shon Harris practice question book, I felt, was the most challenging of all the practice material and much harder than the actual test. It wasnt needed but still good information to have. The Transcender and McGraw Hill questions were much deeper technically than what I encountered but were good practice in preparing to understand how to answer exam questions.
I'm off to bed now! Best wishes to everyone here and this forum is a great resource. I'll be focusing on GCIH next.
Looking back, I overstudied but going into it, I didnt want to take a chance I would fail and used the following for preparation:
Books Used:
-Sybex 6th Edition (read cover to cover)
-Eric Conrad (read cover to cover)
-Shon Harris AIO 6th Edition (Read 7/10 Domains)
-Eric Conrad 11th Hour (read each domain 2x week before exam)
Practice Questions:
-Total Tester (Solved once)
-McGraw Hill Questions (Solved Twice)
-Shon Harris Practice Question Book 2nd Edition (Solved 7/10 domains)
-Shon Harris AIO chapter and end of book questions
-Sybex Book Chapter Questions
-Conrad Book Chapter Questions
Full length Practice Exams:
-Transcender (Completed the 3 standard practice tests)
-Sybex online Practice Exams (Finished the 3 exams 2x)
-Eric Conrad online Practice Exam (Completed the first practice test)
My background is mainly in physical security and cryptography so I only had 1-2 years in the rest of the domains, the books helped fill in the blank spaces. I completed my first pass in 3 hours, did a second pass reviewing my flagged questions and a third pass going through every question to make sure I didnt misread the question or choices. I submitted the exam around the 5 hour mark.
The exam itself was much easier than a lot of the practice material. Reading this forum, I was concerned each question might be a 3-4 liner scenario but most were straightforward and you could easily eliminate two choices. The last two choices were often very tricky though and there were a lot of those and although I felt like I passed when I finished, I definitely wasnt sure and still nervous.
For study material, I feel the Eric Conrad and Sybex book and their accompanying exams would have been enough to pass. The Shon Harris practice question book, I felt, was the most challenging of all the practice material and much harder than the actual test. It wasnt needed but still good information to have. The Transcender and McGraw Hill questions were much deeper technically than what I encountered but were good practice in preparing to understand how to answer exam questions.
I'm off to bed now! Best wishes to everyone here and this forum is a great resource. I'll be focusing on GCIH next.
Comments
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Itrimble
Member Posts: 221
Congrats and excellent write up !Goals for 2015 : Finish BS Network Administration at WGU
Become CCNA, CISSP, CEH, VCP5-10 Certified
Possible Start Masters in Information Security -
itsgonnahappen
Member Posts: 95 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats on the pass!
How did you the find the difference in challenge between the online Eric Conrad practice exam in comparison to the actual exam? -
Spin Lock
Member Posts: 142
Congrats on passing.
Your post at the beginning of this thread was very thorough and detailed, thank you for putting the effort into helping the rest of us! -
aftereffector
Member Posts: 525 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congratulations! Good luck with GCIH
CCIE Security - this one might take a while... -
LR0926
Member Posts: 28 ■□□□□□□□□□
Thanks for the congrats everyone!itsgonnahappen wrote: »Congrats on the pass!
How did you the find the difference in challenge between the online Eric Conrad practice exam in comparison to the actual exam?
I felt the Eric Conrad practice tests were at the right level of technical detail but the questions were asked in a straightforward manner and out of the answers provided, the best one easily stood out. The McGraw Hill questions were more technical than what I saw but the questions were asked in a way that made you think about how to best choose between two answers that are right, but one more so than the other. -
papadoc
Member Posts: 154
Thanks for the congrats everyone!
I felt the Eric Conrad practice tests were at the right level of technical detail but the questions were asked in a straightforward manner and out of the answers provided, the best one easily stood out. The McGraw Hill questions were more technical than what I saw but the questions were asked in a way that made you think about how to best choose between two answers that are right, but one more so than the other.
I can tell you this. The McGraw hill questions are extremely technical to me and in some areas, where I was getting an 83% on Access Control with Transcender for example, I was scoring a 68.7% with McGraw Hill question bank, because I didn't study to that level of memorization on some really obscure things. -
twodogs62
Member Posts: 393 ■■■□□□□□□□
Awesome and congrats!!!
thanks for your list of prep materials.
