Passed CISSP on 4/14/2015 (first try)
I originally scheduled the exam for the end of March but chickened out and rescheduled for the 14th. The only problem was that all of the testing centers were full in Southern California so I found a nice center in downtown Portland, OR. Since I have relatives in the area I had a duel purpose for booking in Portland. I spent last weekend hanging out with relatives I had not seen in 15 years and having a great time. I felt guilty not studying the whole time but I did sneak some time with some of my study materials at night (just before bedtime). I booked a hotel room 3 blocks from the testing center a couple of days before my exam. Spent the last night studying until 11PM.
Woke up at 6AM feeling refreshed and had some breakfast and got wet on the way to the testing center due to a storm. I was thinking of domain 10 as I was getting soaked.
I got to the test center about 7:31 (one minute after they opened the doors) and there was 7 people in front of me already!
Found the exam to be grueling (because of the length) but not overly difficult. However, I did find a log of ambiguous language in some of the questions. I took 2 breaks to use the rest room enjoyed my banana that I brought to the testing center right around lunch time so I would not chew my arm off during the last 50 questions. I reviewed only my marked questions (about 30 or so) and changed one answer. The only time I felt nervous was during the review process. I hit submit and the guy handed me only 1 sheet of paper and I felt a surge of relief.
I have been studying for this exam since the beginning of the year. I had purchased some of my study materials years ago and used them for the exam. I averaged about 8 to 10 hours of study time a week for the last 5 to 6 weeks or so, before that I was only studying sporadically.
Edit: Forgot to include my professional background so I will add it here. I have 4 years of InfoSec experience primarily in forensics and physical security. I'm planning on relying on the 1 year wavier because I hold a Master's Degree. I have a total of 25 years of IT experience.
Used the following study materials
Books:
Anyway, at the airport now and relaxing with a nice Cabernet. Looking forward to spending more time with my family after this experience.
I would like to thank all of the members that have posted their stories and encouraged me over the past few months.
Woke up at 6AM feeling refreshed and had some breakfast and got wet on the way to the testing center due to a storm. I was thinking of domain 10 as I was getting soaked.
I got to the test center about 7:31 (one minute after they opened the doors) and there was 7 people in front of me already!Found the exam to be grueling (because of the length) but not overly difficult. However, I did find a log of ambiguous language in some of the questions. I took 2 breaks to use the rest room enjoyed my banana that I brought to the testing center right around lunch time so I would not chew my arm off during the last 50 questions. I reviewed only my marked questions (about 30 or so) and changed one answer. The only time I felt nervous was during the review process. I hit submit and the guy handed me only 1 sheet of paper and I felt a surge of relief.
I have been studying for this exam since the beginning of the year. I had purchased some of my study materials years ago and used them for the exam. I averaged about 8 to 10 hours of study time a week for the last 5 to 6 weeks or so, before that I was only studying sporadically.
Edit: Forgot to include my professional background so I will add it here. I have 4 years of InfoSec experience primarily in forensics and physical security. I'm planning on relying on the 1 year wavier because I hold a Master's Degree. I have a total of 25 years of IT experience.
Used the following study materials
Books:
- CISSP Exam Passport (Mike Myers/Shon Harris edition from 2002)
- CISSP AIO 5th edition
- 11th Hour Kindle book - Used the last couple of weeks
- ISC2 Third edition boat anchor book - this book is dense but contains a lot of good info
- CISSP Practice Questions Book (Kindle 3rd edition)
- CBT Nuggets Videos - Very good introduction but does not go deep enough
- ITProTV Videos - Outstanding instruction, goes deep into a lot of the material and are entertaining
- Cyberry IT CISSP Videos - Excellent but not as comprehensive as what I would like
- SANS CISSP Demo - Excellent, I wish I had the 5 grand to attend this course in person, Dr. Eric Cole ROCKS
- Any other CISSP related video I could find on YouTube
- Sunflower PDF - Having been using for the past several weeks, even have it on my phone. Excellent!
- Shon Harris MP3s that came with the question book
- Transcender - took about 500 questions, they are good but not great
- CCCure (PAID version), I they challenged me more than transcender but are in the good category
- Official Studiscope tests - paid for 100 questions and bought several on my iOS device (same questions as Studiscope - big rip off)
- Total Tester with came with some book I bought - these are a total fail, I had several repeated questions throughout the practice which skewed my final score.
Anyway, at the airport now and relaxing with a nice Cabernet. Looking forward to spending more time with my family after this experience.
I would like to thank all of the members that have posted their stories and encouraged me over the past few months.
Comments
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Codyy
Member Posts: 223 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congratulations, it's definitely a great feeling and a relief. I don't think it's completely hit me yet that I passed. -
harrym1
Member Posts: 27 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats and thanks for the write up!
Is sans cissp mp3 are free? -
Chuzpah
Member Posts: 68 ■■■□□□□□□□
Thanks everyone!
The SANS course was a demo of one of the domains (Security Architecture), it covered only 45 slides but they are very good. The MP3s came with the Shon Harris book.
