Tested 5/26/2015 - fail

I've been lurking on this page for the last couple of months. I decided I would post since I just completed the new exam. I failed the exam after taking a Bootcamp in December and intermittently studying for 5 months and then constantly for the last month. These are the items I used
Shon Harris 6th
E- Learning (Air force training portal)
The new 4th ed CBK
Mhprofessionals practice tests
Shon Harris practice tests
CISSP for dummie practice tests
11th hour
CISSP Mega Guide
Old 3rd ed CBK
Learning Tree Bootcamp

I studied for the 10 domains mainly until the last three weeks.
I scored a 546 you need a 700 to pass.

Where I messed up I think you need to study for six months but not off and on do it on a consistent schedule. I also think I needed less of a gap between the exam and Bootcamp
I took breaks and used five of the six alotted hours
I have 13 years in IT and my degree is information security and i am department of defense so I deal with security on the regular but I think not enough definitely need to study more. The test for me was hard and tiring.

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Comments

kshahin

I feel very sorry for you about the CISSP exam as I am studying; I know how hard it is to get the time to constantly studying 6 months. (Wife, Work, Kids and .....)

I believe it is achievable to pass CISSP as lot of people pass the exam. Stick (adhere) into it. I think if you could do group study with other CISSP candidate will help quickly grasp the content.

Thanks
Shahin

mokaz

Sitting today behind loads of multiple choice exams i think that what makes one fail such an exam is a lack of quizzing. It might sound stupid but it helps a lot just to constantly quizz.. During my time at preparing for CISSP i've compiled every single book questions / tryout exam etc i could find; been doing piles of huge personal .VCE files in order to quizz myself constantly. I also think that this develop your ability at dumping two rubbish answers out of four in a matter of seconds...

So keep at it, quizz quizz quizz and read as much as you can. Last but not least i've got to drive to go to customers and CISSP audio while driving helped me on subjects i disliked...

riyan

TS has done theoretically everything to pass the cissp exam. But i cannot establish with 13 years in which IT industry. Could you please elaborate it? I am not sure what is lacking practical knowledge or theoretical. You need a fine balance between these two.

renacido

Sorry to hear that you didn't pass but keep in mind:

- Lots of people fail this exam, some more than once
- Now you know what to expect and can be better prepared for the 2nd attempt
- If you have GI Bill you can be reimbursed the cost of the exam once you pass
- You have the result already and aren't waiting in limbo not knowing whether to continue studying or not like those of us who tested between April 15 and May 22ish. I took the exam weeks ago and am stuck in limbo. If it turns out that I failed, I would love to have known weeks ago so I could reschedule and get ready.

There is no failure, only feedback.

Cyberscum

There is no timeframe you can put on studying. I studied for 3 weeks and passed and there are others on this forum that studied even less. Its all about how you approach the test.

My advice is to study to the point that you can explain the concepts to someone not familiar with the domains. Once you feel comfortable with this start to pick apart the test and develop a test taking strategy.

If you approach the test as a "standardized test" and nothing more you will pass. You need to understand "how" ISC is testing you more than "what" they are testing you on in my opinion.

beads

This is very similar to what Kalkan999 went through years ago, describing having a Government background with plenty of years of experience but difficulty passing the exam due to overspecialization or lack of broader experience. I feel as though he may be the best person to shed some light on the above.

- b/eads

Beautifie

riyan wrote: »

TS has done theoretically everything to pass the cissp exam. But i cannot establish with 13 years in which IT industry. Could you please elaborate it? I am not sure what is lacking practical knowledge or theoretical. You need a fine balance between these two.

I worked on a military base in every section of the communications area everything from help desk to on site support to information assurance(security) and network infrastructure.

I definitely feel like I wasnt grasping the information like I should've so for me personally I think I needed more time spent on studying. And thank you beads I may need to ask that person about their experience.

I am not posting for sympathy just posting my personal experience I noticed a lot of people post when they pass hardly ever post when they fail so I wanted to let people know it happens! I am going to study and try again!

Also, I am extremely thankful to get my results I couldn't imagine how you feel waiting

mjsinhsv

Sounds like you have the experience and education...but you aren't grasping the concepts.
It's not just knowing the material..it's knowing how to apply the material.

Study harder and take it again.

I'm a DA and I passed, you can too.

!nf0s3cure

mjsinhsv wrote: »

Sounds like you have the experience and education...but you aren't grasping the concepts.
It's not just knowing the material..it's knowing how to apply the material.

Study harder and take it again.

I'm a DA and I passed, you can too.

DA???? glossary please! I could be a DA as well:)

TheFORCE

!nf0s3cure wrote: »

DA???? glossary please! I could be a DA as well:)

Deans Assistant?
Demoralized Architect? maybe :P

NetworkNewb

Data Architect
Database Administrator
Desktop Assistant
Devil's Advocate
Dan Aykroyd??

mjsinhsv

Data Aggregator

seigex

dumb [4th point of contact]

!nf0s3cure

Data Aggregator?..Humm .............. on which side

zxbane

Sorry to hear about the fail. I feel like a 6 month timeline is a very long timeline that would allow for the forgetting of information as you are learning it. You could of easily forgot concepts and terms you studied 4-5 months ago by the time test time came. I pursued a more aggressive 60 day timeline and I feel like because of that, a lot of the information was fresh when I tested. At least now you know what to expect from the exam too.

kiki162

Beautifie - it took my 3rd attempt to pass the exam, and I think the same for Kalkan999. The 2nd time I took the exam, that was a real kick in the pants. So I had to step back, and decided to take the SSCP instead. Once I passed that, I was ready to take the CISSP again. This time my approach was different. I used all of my notes, along with different testing engines. I added Transcender, CCCure, and TT in the Shon Harris book.

It was a great learning experience for me. Are you looking to get into another position at some point once you pass and get your endorsement?

Beautifie

kiki162 wrote: »

Beautifie - it took my 3rd attempt to pass the exam, and I think the same for Kalkan999. The 2nd time I took the exam, that was a real kick in the pants. So I had to step back, and decided to take the SSCP instead. Once I passed that, I was ready to take the CISSP again. This time my approach was different. I used all of my notes, along with different testing engines. I added Transcender, CCCure, and TT in the Shon Harris book.

It was a great learning experience for me. Are you looking to get into another position at some point once you pass and get your endorsement?

Yes kiki162, I am currently staying in the position I am in because I am able to take classes and certifications while working. I plan to progress further in my career and find something that challenges me a bit more within the next couple of years. Although, I am not solely trying to obtain this certification to find a job, I am doing it because I actually love EVERYTHING security. I was looking at the SSCP but it is not offered to me through the training company my job has purchased classes for. Thank you for your response it really does help!

zxbane, I think that six months is probably to long of a time to consistently study for most people. I think probably even for me.

I have signed up for another class end of June and plan to re-take the exam end of July.

the_Grinch

Watch the Cybrary videos and do at least 500 test questions (250 in a sitting) then you should be good to go. I did about 60 days of studying (basically consecutively), but do know people who have taken two bootcamps and studied for a year.

RuleOf3

CCCure and Transcender practice questions. And the Eric Conrad online tests (2 test exams @250 questions per).

I have no doubt that going through thousands of canned test questions made the difference for me. Without that familiarity with the weirdness of the question/answer wording, I would have been lost on the exam.

I see you listed practice questions as part of your study regimen, and I'm sorry I have no experience with the practice tests you listed, but I think CCCure is a very realistic test environment with similarly-worded questions and answers. Most are not quite the same difficulty level (some are though) but they get you conditioned to just pick the least-crappy answer and move on.

Your study plan looks super solid. I would venture a guess that, just as you pointed out, going to an on/off study schedule for a few months probably was less than helpful for knowledge retention. I did something similar in December/January and had to do major catch-up in the months before my exam. Live and learn, right?

kalkan999

Kalkan999 here. Yes, B/eads is correct. I went through the same thing years ago. Others who are in Information Assurance for the DoD did better than me, but I will say that I know a lot more IA people who struggle with this exam versus those in the private sector who struggle less. Being 'over-specialized' in DoD alone is a part of why I tanked the test the first two tries. To be honest, I wish i'd scored a 546 or something similar versus scoring as high as I did and still failing. With a 546, I think you can probably more accurately gauge where you were weakest in your domains, whereas I sat there wasting time cursing the gods because I missed the mark by just a few points the previous attempts.

As I stated in previous posts, I would CRUSH this test now, because I've been in the private sector for three years solid. I agree with B/eads that nothing beats experience when it comes to taking this test. I2 years plus for me in IA did not equal all the required security experience required to understand all ten --now eight--domains. Terminology tripped me up A LOT, meaning I was trying to decipher the private sector (ISC)2 term versus the military/Department of State term. Here's a trick that helped me: Any time you see a term that you know is the same but uses a different word or wording for ISC versus IA, make a flash card for it using (ISC)2 and push the IA term out of your head.