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Passed CISSP on the 6th!

eatthemuffineatthemuffin Member Posts: 5 ■□□□□□□□□□
Hello all

Just a lurker reporting his results on the CISSP exam. First off this community was very helpful with their many preparation guides and willingness to help. I have been in the general IT field for almost seven years now. Not specific to infosec but I'm not new at it either.

Preparation:

Eric Conrad, 2nd Ed. (I only read the first two chapters. Got bored/overwhelmed). It did seem to be very useful if you have little knowledge of security.

I took the whole week off of work to study, but as I mentioned above the book bored me and I also felt a bit overwhelmed since I kinda waited to the last minute to study.

Details:

I passed on my very first attempt which shocked me. It took me about 4 hours and 15 minutes. The proctor said that the exam would prompt me for scheduled breaks which I thought was wrong since the CIB from ISC2 only said that you could take untimed breaks whenever. After the second hour and being over 50% done and no prompt I asked the proctor if it was fine to take a break. Thankfully he was fine with it, I think he was just confused a bit. I have taken other test at that location but none that allowed for breaks.

The test was...hard and easy. I think if I had fully read the book I would have been finished sooner. Very few questions felt unfair and I wasn't hit with unending paragraphs like I thought I would be. It's kinda you know it or you don't. Even if you don't it wasn't too difficult to eliminate the wrong choices. I got a couple of diagram questions which wasn't difficult but I wasn't expecting them. They were good questions and the test was really trying to see if you could grasp the concept of Information Security.

Advice:

If you can pass Security + (and understand WHY you picked the answers you picked. I.E not using exam collection) you will understand the technical aspect of this exam.

Also you need to have a firm grasp of the language you're taking the test in(I'll assume English for most of the people here). The text BOLD AND CAPITALIZES words like: MUST, SHALL, NOT, BEST, etc. Which is helpful and as most people know those are key words to look out for when taking test. However, you still need to read the ENTIRE question including being able to define all words present and try to relate them to IT. This is especially important if you are unsure and under-prepared.

The advice I think that that helped the most is "Think like a manager".

Closing:

Good luck to everyone pursuing the certification. If you browse /r/CISSP you'll see a repeat post like this. Feel free to comment. Now to get my enforcement!

Comments

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    impelseimpelse Member Posts: 1,237 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Congrats, the proctor told me the same about the brake until she went to read the information.
    Stop RDP Brute Force Attack with our RDP Firewall : http://www.thehost1.com
    It is your personal IPS to stop the attack.

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    cyberguyprcyberguypr Mod Posts: 6,928 Mod
    Congrats on the pass!
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    cmitchell_00cmitchell_00 Member Posts: 251 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Congrats on the pass.
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    ccnpninjaccnpninja Member Posts: 1,010 ■■■□□□□□□□
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    Spin LockSpin Lock Member Posts: 142
    Congrats on passing!
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    dustervoicedustervoice Member Posts: 877 ■■■■□□□□□□
    congrats....well done.
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    H3||scr3amH3||scr3am Member Posts: 564 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Congratulations on passing your CISSP! Welcome to the club!
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    jvrlopezjvrlopez Member Posts: 913 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Congrats and hopefully the endorsement process goes smoothly!

    That's odd what the proctor mentioned about the breaks. Glad to see they were understanding.

    Sounded like a great way to start the weekend last Friday!
    And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high. ~Ayrton Senna
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    Security2014Security2014 Member Posts: 34 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Congrats! so what book did you used for that whole week of study? any advice on practice tests?
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