Taking CISSP in 2 weeks

Awilliam77

So far I've read:

CISSP for dummies
Shon Harris All in one 6th edition (mostly)
Eric Conrad 2nd edition
Troy McMillan Cert guide
CISSP combined notes pdf found in this site
Watched Cybrary Videos

Practice tests i've taken and how i'm scoring:

Shon Harris test questions from 6th edition and the test questions book: Scoring 70-90%
CCCure scoring 70-90%
Skillset questions here and there doing farely well 70% +
McGraw Hill scoring 60-80%


I plan on taking the test in 2 weeks. If i can kick all of these scores up to over 80% consistently, do you think that will be good enough to guage whether I can pass the test or not? I also plan on reviewing the combined notes and reading Eric Conrad's 11th hour before the test, as well as taking 250 question tests from CCCure to build stamina shortly before.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

rfra

Yes, I think your scores look fine and raising them will raise your confidence. That is said on the condition that you can pass the tests with a good score because you actually understand the material and are not just learning the answers to repeated questions.

I've taken a lot of certification tests over the years and more of than not they can be passed by learning to answer test questions (the older Microsoft exams were notorious for this) without really understanding the material. On many exams you'll see a lot of questions that are virtually identical to the practice questions you were studying. The CISSP is not like this. I took hundreds (likely over 1,000) practice questions preparing for the CISSP and didn't see any question on the real test that was very similar to the practice questions in wording. That doesn't mean the practice questions aren't helpful but you really need to think of them as assessing your understanding of the material. If you're doing poorly in a domain then study it harder. The practice questions might also help you prepare mentally for the fuzzy questioning style of the CISSP - where multiple answers seem right but you need to discern the priority being addressed by the question in order to eliminate the less-correct answers.

One warning on the Skillset questions, when peers are assessing some of the written answers dont put too much value on their input. I found that in several cases the peer assessors clearly had no idea what they were talking about. I recall a Skillset question about laptop malware that nobody was recognizing as a risk management question and providing elaborate but totally wrong answers.

Awilliam77

I'm doing my best to understand. So far i've gone through each test one once, for the most part to prevent memorizing the question. From all of my research i've heard and found that there will be no questions comparable to the CISSP questions. I'm just hoping to cover all of the material and get all the concepts down. I'm recording each question I miss and going back to the books to drill deeper. Going from the info off this site, I think I have all of the best material, so it's just a matter if I can apply the information correctly.

I have recognized that on skillset, and haven't given that one as much attention as I have the others.

Thanks.

g33k3r

I've read so many "passed" threads and they all have the same theme. There aren't any shortcuts. The most inspiring advice I read was to RELAX. They mentioned it is only a test. Yes it costs $600 and you put a lot of work into it, but in the end it is only one test and your career is much more than that. Sometimes, myself included, we build things up to a level that shadows everything else when in reality it shouldn't.

My 2 cents