CISSP Exam on 12April:Need advice

sbilal

Hi
My exam is scheduled on 12th April and I am priet tense these days as to how to approach the exam in these last day. I request you all who has passed the exam to provide me with full tips. Also which books and notes to refer in these days. I have completed CCcure paid one with 72% average score.Also Mc-Graw Hills CISSP exam I completed and I was scoring 80%. I have read shon harris 5th edition as main reference and I am also referring 11th Hour and CISSP complete Notes.
I need an advice from you all. I want to pass this exam before the changes take effect.

Thanks.

jonwinterburn

In the last 2 days before my exam, I read Eric Conrad's 11th Hour guide. This helped to cement my study. However, I did study for 6 months leading up to the exam, reading the AIO and the Sybex guide, as well as other resources.

No one can tell you how to pass - it all depends on you, how much effort you put in to your studies and what your experience is in InfoSec.

I'd advise you read any of the posts in this forum which mention passing the exam, they provide lots of advice and tips.

philz1982

Jon's right everyone is different my plan to cram for a few days and pass works for some and not for others. Noone here can tell you how to pass.

Chuzpah

I think some of the best advise I've heard (in addition to studying and knowing the material) is to try to think like a manager and not like a techie. This is going to be my biggest hurdle, I think the McGraw Hill practice exams do this the best.

sbilal

Thanks to all for replying my post. I did't wanted any one to violate the ethics of CISSP but just wanted to know how should I approach to CISSP in these last days so that my chances to pass the exam becomes maximum.
CISSP has a huge information in all domains and to remember each of the domain bit by bit is making my crazy and I am not understanding how should I remember all this information as my exam is reaching closer.

Spin Lock

sbilal wrote: »

...CISSP has a huge information in all domains and to remember each of the domain bit by bit is making my crazy and I am not understanding how should I remember all this information as my exam is reaching closer.

If you think the proper way to study for this test is to try to remember every fact in all 10 domains, then you will fail. The (ISC)2 has an army of very smart test writers and they have been modifying and perfecting this exam since 1992. So there is nothing about this exam that the test developers haven't thought through - and that includes the number of domains and the amount of information each domain covers. In other words, the (ISC)2 knows it isn't possible to memorize all the facts about every topic. This, in my humble opinion, was intentionally done.

I think one of the skills you will have develop to pass this test will be to realize you can't memorize everything and so you will have to think about how deep you will go in each domain.

So don't get frustrated and don't waste time memorizing every list and procedure. Be smart about how you spend your time studying. If you are studying enterprise architecture frameworks - know their names, know why they were created, when to use them and how they are different. That's important. But maybe you don't want to spend your time memorizing the steps for each framework.

Keep asking yourself - "what is the key concept"? If you're studying HMAC, it's important to understand how it works but don't forget to ask yourself "Why did they come with HMAC if they already had CRC and normal hashing algorithms? What make HMAC different? What will it do that CRC, Parity and unkeyed hashing won't?

My personal strategy is to first acknowledge that there is a finite amount of data I can memorize for this test. There is more data than I can cram in my brain. So, how am I going to best utilize my memory? The approach I took is to make multiple passes or iterations over all 10 domains. I'm making sure I cover all the high level and important concepts in each domain and I'm making sure I understand them conceptually. Then, I go back and make a second and third pass, going a little deeper each time.

This is what works for me, maybe it's not best for you. But trust me, don't get bogged down going too deep in any single domain.

Good luck.

sbilal

Hi Spin Lock

Thanks for the great advice. I am now doing the same think and my approach is to understand important points but remember them well conceptually. I think I will take the same approach till my test. I have made my own notes and I am also referring 11th Hour and CISSP complete notes these days. I have Shon Harris CISSP practice exam also and I have started it also.

I think I should be confident also as exam approaches. I have done the hardwork now rest is up to Al Mighty.

Appreciate your advice.

Thanks

TheFORCE

Leave Al Mighty out of this, he wants no part of happens next.

-Riddick

klowe007

I'm testing on 10 April and I have most of the same tools. Although, I have the Shon Harris 6th Ed. I will spend the final week carefully reviewing the 11th Hour again. Good Luck!

Mentality

Good luck man.

I have booked my exam on 14th (Yes, just 1 day before the new blueprint is effective)

What I am studying/have studied:

- CBT Nuggets CISSP training
- Cybrary's video training by Kelly Handerhan

Both are very great, very to-the-point and very dynamic.
Shon Harris' video training is a miserable failure, sorry but that's the truth. She might be a good CISSP, but definitely not a good trainer, BIG difference there.
The book is somewhat ok, but still is way too loaded with useless info.
I don't think ISC2 cares if you know RAM and CPU registers, or every single ISO number or RFC number. That's just too much and very distracting.

I also have a few PDFs of combined notes/definitions, I am saving those to the end.

Oh and Google is your best friend, remember that.

Robertf969

I just used the 11th hour as a pillow and absorbed it all through osmosis. Okay kidding. I spent about 14 hours a day for 2 weeks studying the Sybex book, Eric Conrads books, and the CBK. I also drilled every single practice question available through trancender until I was averaging 90% or better in every domain. I also have about 7 years experience in 3 of the 10 domains, so that probably helped. Good luck on your exam and keep us posted on the results!