Passed CISSP today!!!

CBMiller18

Hello,
After months of studying, I passed the CISSP exam today on the first attempt. So glad to put this exam behind me. Studying for the CISSP has consumed me the last couple of months.

I used the following:
Shon Harris AIO 6th edition - (Only read the end of chapter summaries and the questions after each chapter)
Shon Harris Practice Exams book 2nd edition - Worked all of the questions
Shon Harris MP3 Audio files - Listened to about half of them (ran out of time)
Sunflower PDF
CBK Nuggets
Eric Conrad 11th hour - Read about 3 chapters and then just did all the "5 most difficult questions" for each chapter
Transcender Practice Exam Questions - Did probably close to 1300 questions (These are very good, in my opinion)
This forum (Thank you guys!)

I have 13 years of IT experience and 6 of those years with direct Security experience. I didn't think the exam was that difficult, I really expected it to be much worse. It wasn't a piece of cake by any means, but just expected it to be more difficult. It took me about 4.5 hours to complete. As someone else said, concepts are very important.

I work in the healthcare field and plan to take the ISC2 HCISPP in about 2-3 weeks.

GForce75

Welcome to the club brother! I'm proud of you and knowing that your hard work has paid off. If you need a sample resume, just let me know I can IM you (with your email address) to save time. So what's next on your list of certs to knock out? PMP... haha, my friend who just took it (and has CISSP) said it was just as hard.

jonwinterburn

Great news on the pass! I suspect the reason why you found the exam easier than expected is because of your experience and your study commitment. Those two things together conquer the exam. Good luck on the HCISPP exam. Let us know how you get on.

GForce75

jonwinterburn wrote: »

Great news on the pass! I suspect the reason why you found the exam easier than expected is because of your experience and your study commitment. Those two things together conquer the exam. Good luck on the HCISPP exam. Let us know how you get on.

Very true! That's half the battle!

ccnpninja

Congrats!

mdragon

Congrats CBMiller!!

How was the 11th hour book by Eric Conrad? Was it very helpful in your prep? Also what did you average on your transcender exams? I have the 11th hour and transcender exams for my final 2 weeks of preparing for my exam on April 7. I am averaging about 93 percent on the transcender exams, with of course understanding the concepts behind the answers.

JoJoCal19

Congrats on the pass! Seems like you were able to clear it with minimal reading.

CBMiller18

mdragon wrote: »

Congrats CBMiller!!

How was the 11th hour book by Eric Conrad? Was it very helpful in your prep? Also what did you average on your transcender exams? I have the 11th hour and transcender exams for my final 2 weeks of preparing for my exam on April 7. I am averaging about 93 percent on the transcender exams, with of course understanding the concepts behind the answers.

Thank you! 11th hour book was nice. As mentioned - I only got through about 3 chapters of it, though. I was averaging around 80 percent on the Transcender exams I took. If you are averaging 93 percent you understand the concepts and aren't just memorizing the answers, you should be good to go.

CBMiller18

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

Congrats on the pass! Seems like you were able to clear it with minimal reading.

Minimal book reading, yes. I was fortunate. However, I read all of the Transcender explanations for every question I got wrong. Some of those are wordy, and I felt that really helped me personally. Every person is different.

papadoc

Congrats and welcome to the club. I see you followed a very similar study plan to mine.