If you can take it, you can make it! Passed CISSP 1st attempt :) 14/1/15
If you can take it, you can make it! If you put the hours to study and focus when you study, you can pass the exam. I'll start by saying that i found the exam exhausting mentally and physically, at some point i just wanted the thing to end and was losing confidence. I kept pushing though 1 question at a time.
Background:
Bachelors degree in Computer Science and have worked in IT for many years, climbing from the lowest level.
Field tech for 1 year.
Helpdesk tech for 2 years.
Security admin/user account admin for 5 years.
All my years in IT and Security have been with the Banking industry and have worked for a US based bank and a big international bank.
The experience from the banking industry helped me with the BCP/ DRP and compliance regulations and helped me understand the domains a little easier. Also, as part of the security team i was directly involved with the BCP/ DRP efforts and testing. My second position helped with the cryptography domain. Setting up tokens, digital access cards, digital certificates and the like.
Study material:
-Shon Harris AIO 6th Edition (Read it page to page,answered all questions and kept track of score in each domain, in the end i have a 76% over all)
-Eric Conrad 11th Hour ( Read 8 domains and answered all questions)
Watched the CBT nuggets from Keith Baker on CISSP and IPV4 for the networking part of the CISSP exam.
Took a 1 week seminar paid from my company
Took the Transcender exams basically every 2-3 days.
Took a full simulation Transcender exam at home which i failed with a 64 or something along those lines.
Studied a lot during work hours and over the weekends about 5-6 hours. Total time of studying was about 1 year but continuous was about 5 months or so.
Was going to schedule the exam before Christmas but didn't find a spot and was still not comfortable taking it then so i scheduled in for January.
Last 2 weeks of December was studying non stop, took 2 weeks off from work.
As i was reading the material, i would find myself coming up with questions and did a lot of research on Wikipedia and Google searches.
I would wake up at night and just check my phone and search stuff, the exam was stressing me up and couldn't sleep if i didn't look up the things that would come to my mind.
Before the exam:
I didn't sleep very well at night, woke up at around 1am and didn't go back to bed until 3-4. Exam was scheduled for 1:45pm. I left my house around 11 or so and was pumping up myself with positive energy. On the way there, i made an incorrect turn on a 1 way street! Went to get some snacks and water and headed to the test center. One block away from the test center i see a spot that was quickly taken by someone else, i go to the next block and find another spot to park, the parking spot had someones dog poop! I was thinking to myself, this might be a shitty day the way its going lol. I stay at my car for about 30 minutes. Didn't do any reading because i didn't want to sabotage myself thinking about last minute stuff. I went to the test center maybe about 1 hour earlier and said to myself "this is it, was you know, you know." I sit to take the test and it started easy, about half way in, the questions were getting harder and harder. Some things i was not prepared for, like cloud questions but i have done some research on my own and at work we always talk about new technologies so i answered some questions based on common sense. 150 questions in and i couldn't do it any more, i took a 5 minutes break. Had some water and some chocolate and went back in. Going back for the next 100 questions and told myself, " read the questions carefully, the key is the wording of the question". With 150 minutes left and 70-80 questions left i had about 2 minutes per question so i took my time. I might have spend a good 4-5 minutes reading over and over some of the questions. With 30 minutes left and 5 hours and 30 minutes gone already i find myself reviewing 16 marked questions. I look at the first question and no one answered seemed better that the one i had picked, i leave it as is and went to the next, i was facing the same dilemma again, so i went to the next and then the next. After checking 4 questions out of the 16, i thinking to myself "this is ******* me off, all these answers look the same! I was already a bit frustrated because at some point it was really hot in the room and then someone must have complained because i found myself feeling cold. At that point i had enough and just ended the exam and called the TA over.
After the test.
I went to get my stuff from the locker while the TA went to get the print out. He hands me printout and I see him smile a bit but he didn't say anything. I look away and fold the print out without looking at it. I go to my car and leave the print out at the passenger's seat and quickly cover it with something else. I arrive at my parents house and on the way there my sister is trying to persuade me to look at the paper. I go home and put it in my jacket and went to relax and talk to my parents. I receive a text from a friend of mine which happen to be taking a FINRA exam and i ask her if she passed. She tells me yes and asks me if i passed. I tell her that i haven't looked at it yet and that i was afraid because the exam was difficult. She insists and i look at the print out. My first thought was to find something that said that i failed, but the Congratulations quickly caught my eye and i was so so relived and excited you guys have no idea of the feeling you get after passing this exam. Well some of you do lol and some of you will find out.
Over all, i think the exam is very much geared towards understanding the concepts and applying them in a theoretical level. In many questions, i found myself picking answers not based from real world experience or scenarios but based on best answer for the given scenario and that's what matters. I was going against my instincts that's a hard thing to do for some of us. Also, English is my second language even though i have been in the US for more than 15 years now I found myself reading questions over and over because the wording was very very weird! Glad it was over and onto the endorsement now!
PS: Try and be confident going into the exam. I found myself retaining a lot more information from watching videos. Watch youtube videos and cbt nuggets, anything that you can get your hands on. The CISSP is a security exam but you wont be able to pass it if you don't know how the technologies work and are implement and what you need to secure.
PS 2: The CISSP that was in my company left a few months back and now there is only an SSCP. Can the SSCP endorse a CISSP? Does anyone know?
Thank you all for posting here and for answering everyone's questions. This forum was a great help.
Background:
Bachelors degree in Computer Science and have worked in IT for many years, climbing from the lowest level.
Field tech for 1 year.
Helpdesk tech for 2 years.
Security admin/user account admin for 5 years.
All my years in IT and Security have been with the Banking industry and have worked for a US based bank and a big international bank.
The experience from the banking industry helped me with the BCP/ DRP and compliance regulations and helped me understand the domains a little easier. Also, as part of the security team i was directly involved with the BCP/ DRP efforts and testing. My second position helped with the cryptography domain. Setting up tokens, digital access cards, digital certificates and the like.
Study material:
-Shon Harris AIO 6th Edition (Read it page to page,answered all questions and kept track of score in each domain, in the end i have a 76% over all)
-Eric Conrad 11th Hour ( Read 8 domains and answered all questions)
Watched the CBT nuggets from Keith Baker on CISSP and IPV4 for the networking part of the CISSP exam.
Took a 1 week seminar paid from my company
Took the Transcender exams basically every 2-3 days.
Took a full simulation Transcender exam at home which i failed with a 64 or something along those lines.
Studied a lot during work hours and over the weekends about 5-6 hours. Total time of studying was about 1 year but continuous was about 5 months or so.
Was going to schedule the exam before Christmas but didn't find a spot and was still not comfortable taking it then so i scheduled in for January.
Last 2 weeks of December was studying non stop, took 2 weeks off from work.
As i was reading the material, i would find myself coming up with questions and did a lot of research on Wikipedia and Google searches.
I would wake up at night and just check my phone and search stuff, the exam was stressing me up and couldn't sleep if i didn't look up the things that would come to my mind.
Before the exam:
I didn't sleep very well at night, woke up at around 1am and didn't go back to bed until 3-4. Exam was scheduled for 1:45pm. I left my house around 11 or so and was pumping up myself with positive energy. On the way there, i made an incorrect turn on a 1 way street! Went to get some snacks and water and headed to the test center. One block away from the test center i see a spot that was quickly taken by someone else, i go to the next block and find another spot to park, the parking spot had someones dog poop! I was thinking to myself, this might be a shitty day the way its going lol. I stay at my car for about 30 minutes. Didn't do any reading because i didn't want to sabotage myself thinking about last minute stuff. I went to the test center maybe about 1 hour earlier and said to myself "this is it, was you know, you know." I sit to take the test and it started easy, about half way in, the questions were getting harder and harder. Some things i was not prepared for, like cloud questions but i have done some research on my own and at work we always talk about new technologies so i answered some questions based on common sense. 150 questions in and i couldn't do it any more, i took a 5 minutes break. Had some water and some chocolate and went back in. Going back for the next 100 questions and told myself, " read the questions carefully, the key is the wording of the question". With 150 minutes left and 70-80 questions left i had about 2 minutes per question so i took my time. I might have spend a good 4-5 minutes reading over and over some of the questions. With 30 minutes left and 5 hours and 30 minutes gone already i find myself reviewing 16 marked questions. I look at the first question and no one answered seemed better that the one i had picked, i leave it as is and went to the next, i was facing the same dilemma again, so i went to the next and then the next. After checking 4 questions out of the 16, i thinking to myself "this is ******* me off, all these answers look the same! I was already a bit frustrated because at some point it was really hot in the room and then someone must have complained because i found myself feeling cold. At that point i had enough and just ended the exam and called the TA over.
After the test.
I went to get my stuff from the locker while the TA went to get the print out. He hands me printout and I see him smile a bit but he didn't say anything. I look away and fold the print out without looking at it. I go to my car and leave the print out at the passenger's seat and quickly cover it with something else. I arrive at my parents house and on the way there my sister is trying to persuade me to look at the paper. I go home and put it in my jacket and went to relax and talk to my parents. I receive a text from a friend of mine which happen to be taking a FINRA exam and i ask her if she passed. She tells me yes and asks me if i passed. I tell her that i haven't looked at it yet and that i was afraid because the exam was difficult. She insists and i look at the print out. My first thought was to find something that said that i failed, but the Congratulations quickly caught my eye and i was so so relived and excited you guys have no idea of the feeling you get after passing this exam. Well some of you do lol and some of you will find out.
Over all, i think the exam is very much geared towards understanding the concepts and applying them in a theoretical level. In many questions, i found myself picking answers not based from real world experience or scenarios but based on best answer for the given scenario and that's what matters. I was going against my instincts that's a hard thing to do for some of us. Also, English is my second language even though i have been in the US for more than 15 years now I found myself reading questions over and over because the wording was very very weird! Glad it was over and onto the endorsement now!
PS: Try and be confident going into the exam. I found myself retaining a lot more information from watching videos. Watch youtube videos and cbt nuggets, anything that you can get your hands on. The CISSP is a security exam but you wont be able to pass it if you don't know how the technologies work and are implement and what you need to secure.
PS 2: The CISSP that was in my company left a few months back and now there is only an SSCP. Can the SSCP endorse a CISSP? Does anyone know?
Thank you all for posting here and for answering everyone's questions. This forum was a great help.
Comments
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5ekurity
Member Posts: 346 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats on passing!
With regards to your endorsement question, it doesn't state that the ISC2 professional must have the same credential that you achieved - just that they must be in good standing. You can get more information here:
https://www.isc2.org/endorsement/default.aspx -
stryder144
Member Posts: 1,684 ■■■■■■■■□□
Congratulations! Thank you for the write up. Very detailed. Very appreciated.The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position. ~ Leo Buscaglia
Connect With Me || My Blog Site || Follow Me -
novovictus
Member Posts: 192
Congrats on the pass! I am not sure if the SSCP holder can assist with endorsement.... Let me know if you can't find anyone to help out and Ill see if I can lend assistance.Working on: Doctor of Information Technology Information Assurance and Security @ Capella -
bigdogz
Member Posts: 881 ■■■■■■■■□□
Congratulations !!!
Last time I checked the endorser had to be a member of ISC2. I think that your fellow SSCP can endorse you. -
impelse
Member Posts: 1,237 ■■■■□□□□□□
My first thought was to find something that said that i failed, but the Congratulations quickly caught my eye and i was so so relived and excited you guys have no idea of the feeling you get after passing this exam. Well some of you do lol and some of you will find out.
Over all, i think the exam is very much geared towards understanding the concepts and applying them in a theoretical level. In many questions, i found myself picking answers not based from real world experience or scenarios but based on best answer for the given scenario and that's what matters. I was going against my instincts that's a hard thing to do for some of us. Also, English is my second language even though i have been in the US for more than 15 years now I found myself reading questions over and over because the wording was very very weird! Glad it was over and onto the endorsement now!
Yea, we have the same idea the release when you get the pass, specially when you feel you failed after a lot of study, LOL
I was in your same situation last December, I've been 11 years in US and English my second language, after the pass you get good feeling.
Also I did not want to see any monitor after one week after I passed, but anyway I have to work, LOL.Stop RDP Brute Force Attack with our RDP Firewall : http://www.thehost1.com
It is your personal IPS to stop the attack. -
TheFORCE
Member Posts: 2,297 ■■■■■■■■□□
Congratulations !!!
Last time I checked the endorser had to be a member of ISC2. I think that your fellow SSCP can endorse you.
You are correct, i send an email to ISC2 and asked the question. They replied back fairly quickly and said that an ISC2 member can endorse a new member as long as they are in "good standing" so I've already prepared my paperwork and will mail it tomorrow. Also, received the email from ISC2 confirming that i passed the exam and to start the endorsement process
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dannamite
Member Posts: 6 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats man. Getting ready to schedule my test before the newly revised one on April 15th. Thinking will schedule for April 11th.
