Passed in first attempt, 6 weeks of prep. If I can, then you can too.
shoaibfaruqi
Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
in SSCP
I sat for the exam on the 15th of June in Richmond, VA, and passed it. This was my first attempt. I studied for 6 weeks in total.
My work experience:
- 9 years of total experience, primarily telecom and mobile messaging
- Out of the 9, 4 years in Customer Support and Operations, 3 years in Deployments and about 2 years in Solutions Design, Devops, Architecting solutions etc.
- I currently work as a Cloud Architect for my company. (I am not your regular techie. My technical knowledge is only functional and barely sufficient)
- I have worked indirectly and directly within the realm of InfoSec throughout the last 6 years. Its not what I have done primarily, but its something that has been a part of the work I do.
My study resources:
- Cybrary videos by Kelly H
- CCCure CISSP questions (did about 3000 in total, including the new 2015 ones)
- Mcgraw hills questions
- 11th Hour by Eric conrad (read it once about 10 days before the exam)
- Practice exams on Syngress
- I listened to the Shon Harris audios everytime I was driving. I went through the whole course audios once. The NYC trip about 13 hours of driving back and forth was a good time to listen to this.
Study Plan:
- Watched the video of a domain once to quickly grasp the concepts, then watched again pausing and making notes.
- After completion of a domain I did the domain questions from mcgraw hill once while making notes and then revising the notes and doing it again. I always failed the practice test in the first attempt but passed it after revision.
- Once I completed all the domains using the videos and mcgraw hill questions I started doing the CCCure paid questions of the CISSP domains
- Started off doing 25 questions per domain (250 a day). Then moved to 50 per domain, and eventually did 100 questions per domain (once). I made notes (handwritten) for all the questions I got wrong and also those that I found complicated. I also read about 40% of the explanations for the answers to the questions. Sometimes I would copy paste the stuff in a word doc to read it later and get going with the questions.
- Once I had done the CCCure 100 questions per domain I read the Enric Conrad 11th Hour once (this was about 10 days before the exam).
- I did the 2 full length practice exams by syngress in the last week. And also did around 700 more questions from CCCure with the 2015 domains and revised my notes. (The last week was my slowest week in the prep, and I'll tell you why later).
- Although I was sitting for the new 2015 exam format I still used the 10 domain prep material. I feel the change is transparent to the test taker.
- I listened to Shon Harris audios whilst driving
How I did it:
I've read a few blogs here and there on this website and I found some of them really helpful. But most of the experiences written here didn't apply to me, for several reasons. Firstly, I am someone who has a very limited attention span, I lose focus quickly and get distracted while studying, so reading one of those big massive books was not doable for me. I want to go on the record and say that I did not buy or use any of the study books for the CISSP course. I did read 11th hour once, but the book itself was borrowed from a friend. Secondly, I had to complete this exam in 6 weeks times because this was the only time I could manage study with a busy work and personal life. I am writing this blog for those people who are short of time right now and like me are actively searching for a blog that gives them hope. In the last week of my prep I had to goto New York to attend a work conference and could manage to study only a couple of hours everyday. I came back from NYC with 2 days to spare and had big revision plans, little did I know that things would go south from there. A day before the exam I became sick with diarrhea (probably something I had in NYC and the fatigue from the 7 hour drive back) and at 3 am (around 12 hours before the exam) I was pretty sick and dehydrated. Fortunately a trip to the pharmacy and a few imodium pills helped me stabilize. So with about 2 hours of sleep, no revision and a weak body and mind I decided to sit for the exam. I used every minute of the 6 hours because I had to take a restroom break every hour. The exam itself, though long, didn't seem difficult. I personally feel that the CCCure questions really helped me through the exam. The exam does test your ability to think like a manager and its not as technical as the prep material is.
Here's how I think you can pass the exam:
- Find a reason to pass the exam, the more the merrier. I found my reason 3 weeks into the prep when my wife told me that it was the 3 of us taking this exam (me, my wife and my kid). For the 6 weeks of my prep I did not once have to go to the grocery store or cook a meal for myself. I used to study at work after hours and would come back home sometimes around 10 in the night. I went to the office to study over the weekends as well because at home I would lose focus and start playing with my kid. I did all of this because I didn't want to disappoint them and I saw that they were strugglinh harder for this than I was. I could not let them down. And if this meant sleeping less, overdozing on coffee and pushing hard, I was up for it. I could not have passed this exam without the support of my wife. Period.
- See yourself succeed even before you start the prep. Throughout the prep, I used to imagine myself coming out of the examination with a pass and looking at the happy faces of my wife and son. And eventually it did happen. You have to believe in something other than yourself, because believing in yourself will not take you the whole nine yards. Right before the exam I was physically and emotionally torn and believing in my capabilities was just not possible. I believe in God, but whatever that is you believe in, karma, luck or whatever, let it give you hope and let it realize your dreams when there is nothing left in you. If you don't want this really bad, you will not get it. Never lose hope, not even when you all the odds are against you.
- The prep material I used is sufficient to pass the exam, because it helped me pass. But I did it really well, for example I did the videos three times in total, did the mcgraw hill questions twice etc. I made about a 100 pages of handwritten notes and revised them a little bit everyday. Just writing things down can help you remember. The exam is really just an inch deep don't overkill by going too deep. If however you have more time by all means use other resources. In my opinion it is very hard to retain all the information for too long, so don't test goals too out in the future. 6-8 weeks is realistic and doable.
- Work hard when you are at it. If this means turning off your cellphone, not socializing for a while, not caring a dime about what's on the news and on the TV, by all means do it. You will not die because of working hard for this exam.
- If you hit a wall during the prep know that you are not the only one, I did too. I lost focus during my prep because it was too much for me to handle, my days were too long and I was burning out. But I got back up immediately because I wasn't doing this for myself, I was now doing it for my family and I could not let them down.
- For the test know that the correct answer is usually the one which fixes the root cause, and not the usually the problem at hand. Techies will fix problems on the fly, managers follow processes to fix problems and this requires looking at the bigger picture, going for the root cause and always keeping the value of business in mind.
- You don't necessarily need to be a native english speaker to pass the exam neither do you need to be a manager or have read tons of books, certainly those of who have read more will have more knowledge but if you are sitting for the exam and don't have much time you can live without it.
Good luck!
My work experience:
- 9 years of total experience, primarily telecom and mobile messaging
- Out of the 9, 4 years in Customer Support and Operations, 3 years in Deployments and about 2 years in Solutions Design, Devops, Architecting solutions etc.
- I currently work as a Cloud Architect for my company. (I am not your regular techie. My technical knowledge is only functional and barely sufficient)
- I have worked indirectly and directly within the realm of InfoSec throughout the last 6 years. Its not what I have done primarily, but its something that has been a part of the work I do.
My study resources:
- Cybrary videos by Kelly H
- CCCure CISSP questions (did about 3000 in total, including the new 2015 ones)
- Mcgraw hills questions
- 11th Hour by Eric conrad (read it once about 10 days before the exam)
- Practice exams on Syngress
- I listened to the Shon Harris audios everytime I was driving. I went through the whole course audios once. The NYC trip about 13 hours of driving back and forth was a good time to listen to this.
Study Plan:
- Watched the video of a domain once to quickly grasp the concepts, then watched again pausing and making notes.
- After completion of a domain I did the domain questions from mcgraw hill once while making notes and then revising the notes and doing it again. I always failed the practice test in the first attempt but passed it after revision.
- Once I completed all the domains using the videos and mcgraw hill questions I started doing the CCCure paid questions of the CISSP domains
- Started off doing 25 questions per domain (250 a day). Then moved to 50 per domain, and eventually did 100 questions per domain (once). I made notes (handwritten) for all the questions I got wrong and also those that I found complicated. I also read about 40% of the explanations for the answers to the questions. Sometimes I would copy paste the stuff in a word doc to read it later and get going with the questions.
- Once I had done the CCCure 100 questions per domain I read the Enric Conrad 11th Hour once (this was about 10 days before the exam).
- I did the 2 full length practice exams by syngress in the last week. And also did around 700 more questions from CCCure with the 2015 domains and revised my notes. (The last week was my slowest week in the prep, and I'll tell you why later).
- Although I was sitting for the new 2015 exam format I still used the 10 domain prep material. I feel the change is transparent to the test taker.
- I listened to Shon Harris audios whilst driving
How I did it:
I've read a few blogs here and there on this website and I found some of them really helpful. But most of the experiences written here didn't apply to me, for several reasons. Firstly, I am someone who has a very limited attention span, I lose focus quickly and get distracted while studying, so reading one of those big massive books was not doable for me. I want to go on the record and say that I did not buy or use any of the study books for the CISSP course. I did read 11th hour once, but the book itself was borrowed from a friend. Secondly, I had to complete this exam in 6 weeks times because this was the only time I could manage study with a busy work and personal life. I am writing this blog for those people who are short of time right now and like me are actively searching for a blog that gives them hope. In the last week of my prep I had to goto New York to attend a work conference and could manage to study only a couple of hours everyday. I came back from NYC with 2 days to spare and had big revision plans, little did I know that things would go south from there. A day before the exam I became sick with diarrhea (probably something I had in NYC and the fatigue from the 7 hour drive back) and at 3 am (around 12 hours before the exam) I was pretty sick and dehydrated. Fortunately a trip to the pharmacy and a few imodium pills helped me stabilize. So with about 2 hours of sleep, no revision and a weak body and mind I decided to sit for the exam. I used every minute of the 6 hours because I had to take a restroom break every hour. The exam itself, though long, didn't seem difficult. I personally feel that the CCCure questions really helped me through the exam. The exam does test your ability to think like a manager and its not as technical as the prep material is.
Here's how I think you can pass the exam:
- Find a reason to pass the exam, the more the merrier. I found my reason 3 weeks into the prep when my wife told me that it was the 3 of us taking this exam (me, my wife and my kid). For the 6 weeks of my prep I did not once have to go to the grocery store or cook a meal for myself. I used to study at work after hours and would come back home sometimes around 10 in the night. I went to the office to study over the weekends as well because at home I would lose focus and start playing with my kid. I did all of this because I didn't want to disappoint them and I saw that they were strugglinh harder for this than I was. I could not let them down. And if this meant sleeping less, overdozing on coffee and pushing hard, I was up for it. I could not have passed this exam without the support of my wife. Period.
- See yourself succeed even before you start the prep. Throughout the prep, I used to imagine myself coming out of the examination with a pass and looking at the happy faces of my wife and son. And eventually it did happen. You have to believe in something other than yourself, because believing in yourself will not take you the whole nine yards. Right before the exam I was physically and emotionally torn and believing in my capabilities was just not possible. I believe in God, but whatever that is you believe in, karma, luck or whatever, let it give you hope and let it realize your dreams when there is nothing left in you. If you don't want this really bad, you will not get it. Never lose hope, not even when you all the odds are against you.
- The prep material I used is sufficient to pass the exam, because it helped me pass. But I did it really well, for example I did the videos three times in total, did the mcgraw hill questions twice etc. I made about a 100 pages of handwritten notes and revised them a little bit everyday. Just writing things down can help you remember. The exam is really just an inch deep don't overkill by going too deep. If however you have more time by all means use other resources. In my opinion it is very hard to retain all the information for too long, so don't test goals too out in the future. 6-8 weeks is realistic and doable.
- Work hard when you are at it. If this means turning off your cellphone, not socializing for a while, not caring a dime about what's on the news and on the TV, by all means do it. You will not die because of working hard for this exam.
- If you hit a wall during the prep know that you are not the only one, I did too. I lost focus during my prep because it was too much for me to handle, my days were too long and I was burning out. But I got back up immediately because I wasn't doing this for myself, I was now doing it for my family and I could not let them down.
- For the test know that the correct answer is usually the one which fixes the root cause, and not the usually the problem at hand. Techies will fix problems on the fly, managers follow processes to fix problems and this requires looking at the bigger picture, going for the root cause and always keeping the value of business in mind.
- You don't necessarily need to be a native english speaker to pass the exam neither do you need to be a manager or have read tons of books, certainly those of who have read more will have more knowledge but if you are sitting for the exam and don't have much time you can live without it.
Good luck!
Comments
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CLICK
Member Posts: 88 ■■■□□□□□□□
Awesome insights..thanks for sharing.. at least i know i'm not the only one with ' very limited attention span' who spazzes out a lot.. hope to sit through this exam by July.. been studying on and off since March already mostly using the resources you mentioned..
Thanks everyone who post here as well, i get a lot of tips and insights and confidence as i prepare.
Congrats and thanks again. -
!nf0s3cure
Member Posts: 161 ■■□□□□□□□□
Ok, I must be missing something I cannot find CCCure free questions. It keeps taking me to the paid version? Has something changed?
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jt2929
Member Posts: 244 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats on the pass and great post! Reading it gave me a little extra motivation!
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pramin
Member Posts: 138 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats on the pass. Awesome writeup. Glad I'm not the only one that gets distracted.
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Sam_aqua
Member Posts: 72 ■■□□□□□□□□
Fantastic post.. you proved when there is a will there is a way
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arghyagoswami
Registered Users Posts: 2 ■□□□□□□□□□
Fantastic post my friend. Yes, I remember when I passed Certified Biometric Professional Exam, my family supported me right through
. I prefer to write things down as I read so by the time I was prepared I had written 5-6 notebooks of notes 
.
Now I have taken a challenge to sit for CISSP, and need to do it very quickly. Your post is really motivating and enjoyable to read. I will also follow the same. -
NetworkNewb
Member Posts: 3,298 ■■■■■■■■■□
Gratz! and thanks for the link to the audio files. Already downloaded them and started listening to them.
Does seem easier to listen to a woman than a man to anyone else? Just doesn't sound as boring, maybe that's just me being weird though! -
@bh!4u
Member Posts: 12 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congratulations and many thanks for the motivational post. Much needed with 8 weeks from exam date
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freedom777
Member Posts: 32 ■■■□□□□□□□
Thank you for your inspiring post. I've read it several times. Studying for the CISSP can be very overwhelming and challenging.
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za3bour
Member Posts: 1,062 ■■■■□□□□□□
Thank you, the post was very motivating for me. I am too planning to take the exam in around 8 weeks. I have a super busy work/personal schedule and I too found it hard to read the books. I borrowed a book from my friend (the official one) and found it to be overwhelming especially that English is not my first language.
I've took many exams before but from reading it seems the CISSP would be the hardest. I am still working on my study plan but your post was very helpful so thanks. -
freedom777
Member Posts: 32 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats on passing your CISSP and thank you for sharing your plan and story.
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justjen
Member Posts: 77 ■■□□□□□□□□
Motivation is key. Congrats on coming up with a plan that worked great for you, in spite of unexpected events.
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roninkai
Member Posts: 307 ■■■■□□□□□□
Way to go in such as short amount of time. Inspiring!浪人 MSISA:WGU
ICP-FDO ▪ CISSP ▪ ECES ▪ CHFI ▪ CNDA ▪ CEH ▪ MCSA/MCITP ▪ MCTS ▪ S+
2020 Level Up Goals: (1) DevSecOps Learning Path (2) OSCP -
cisspuser
Registered Users Posts: 2 ■□□□□□□□□□
Awesome, I have similar background and seems i have little more time than you to go for it. Sept 24th is my dooms day.
Congratulation on your success.
Thank you for sharing this.
