Passed CISSP Today

jawinnjawinn Member Posts: 7 ■□□□□□□□□□
in SSCP
Hey everyone,

Long time lurker here, I passed my CISSP today. Here's my after action report. And yes, I got the new drag and drop questions. Don't worry, they're not that bad.

Full disclosure - I've consumed copious amounts of celebratory alcohol, so please excuse any spelling or grammatical mistakes.
  1. Attack the test on all fronts, personal notes, videos, practice tests, cram books.
  2. Forget the Shon Harris book. Good Lord this tome is overrated. This Goliath was the number one thing that slowed me down. I could have passed this test in four weeks, as opposed to four moths if I had known this before I started to study. It is way too in depth for the test. I would not recommend this book to anyone who needs to get this thing in a reasonable amount of time.
  3. Crush CBT Nuggets videos. These are by no means conclusive, but they're a fantastic way to digest the material. Plus, the visual aspect helped me to better digest the material. I ended up watching several videos over and over to grasp core concepts like Access Control. Fire them up when you have to fold laundry or something else mundane.
    1. Pro tip - watch these at 130%. Your brain will quickly adjust and you'll be able to get through material faster.
  4. Practice tests, get Actual Exams and Trancenders. This is a solid combo to measure which domains you need to focus on. Also, these two software programs, have great ways of explaining answers - correct and incorrect.
  5. Live with the sunflower and CISSP Combined notes files. Take them everywhere. You can find them on the forums here. I read them whenever I could. These are solid resources to memorize concepts like Orange Book and TCB.
  6. Know where you're weak. The only way to access this is though practice tests. Focus on your weak domains twice as much as your strong ones.
  7. Write out definitions and processes where you're weak. This helps to absorb the material.
  8. Don't think for a minute you're going to memorize questions and answers, you're got to know the material.
  9. BOOK THE TEST DATE. You'll never scare yourself into learning the material until you're faced with a deadline.
  10. The test is loaded with "select the MOST" appropriate answer and "you're the security specialist and you need to deal with this situation or that situation." These serve to confuse when you are faced with very similar answers, but there is only one "best" or "most" questions. It sucks after you've gone though a ton of black and white questions in test software, and now, during the test, you're faced with two or three answers that might be the "best." More evidence that you need to know and understand the material.
Materials used:
  1. Shon Harris book - worthless. I only read this thing because that's how I always stud for a cert exam. My buddy skipped this thing, studied for three weeks and passed today as well. Make your own decision, but I say skip this thing.
  2. CISSP Practice Exams, by Shon Harris - good stuff, this is a bunch of retired exam questions. It's a solid resource for understanding how the material is presented in the exam
  3. CBT Nuggets - nuff said
  4. Transender Tests - I've never failed a test, and I attribute this to Transenders. They're a great testing software. They have great explanations for incorrect answers.
  5. Actual Tests - Don't let the name fool you, these ARE NOT like the "actual test" I just took, but I've always felt you should have a second testing software.
  6. CISSP Eleventh hour - didn't spend too much time with this one, because I bought it too close to my test date; but there is some good stuff in here.
  7. CISSP Combined Notes and the Sun Flower notes.
Please note that I understand that all people study and retain knowledge differently. The notes above are what worked for me. I hope anyone studying for the test, can take these notes and succeed. Best of luck to anyone taking this monster.

Jason
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