PASSED CISSP (all thanks to my family AND contributions from this forum)
Firstly I should thank my spouse's support on this one.
Secondly I thank all the forum members for their contributions/inputs which guided me in the right direction.
After 3 month long journey of churning through several books. I'm proud to say that I passed CISSP.
All thanks to my family's support in getting me past this milestone. (This is absolutely needed if you are married).
No book will help you without your spouse's support.
My work experience
12+ years of various roles from a network admin, sys admin, dba, developer, Incident manager today as a systems security compliance specialist.
Each role has taught me several different aspects of IT support.
Onto the prep-work.
NOTE that I used the 10 domain strategy instead of 8. ( I was more comfortable to break things up for easy consumption).
I used several books, probably you can pick the best. Below is the rating and relevance to the resources used.
Note: this is just my personal opinion rating in a scale of 10.
1. AIO - Shon Harris 6th edition (read cover to cover) 8/10 (very good but a li'l outdated with cloud stuff).
2. CISSP study guide - Conrad 2nd ed. (read cover to cover) - 7.5/10
3. CISSP - Sybex 7th edition - (read 10 chapters and stopped, and read only the updates) 8/10 (used it only for the new content mentioned in CCcure.org)
4. Cissp 11th hour (read cover to cover) - 6/10
5. Combined notes (read cover to cover) - 8/10
6. Sunflower notes (read cover to cover) - 8/10
7. Cybrary videos (all of it in 1 day)- 7/10
8. Transcender (all questions)- 8/10 (this one really helped me)
9. cccure - quiz - (only 200 questions) - Cannot rate it. Many of them were a bit vague.
10. MH questions online (all questions) - 7/10 (this one really helped me)
11. Total tested from AIO book (all questions)- 7/10 (this one really helped me)
12. Sybex Test bank - 3/10 (Straight-forward questions from the book).
13. mp3 audios (7/10) - MUST use Shon harris books to get more depth.
My brain was numb by the end of this. For some reason, I felt that I kept forgetting all the things I read.
(too much information too keep in one's head).
Prep work:
I used AIO - shon harris to the core. And substitute the rest as a reference. The whole idea of AIO book is, after reading 1200 pages, your brain will skim unnecessary stuff and keep at-least 50% of the book, which boils down to conrad's book. Took 1.5 months to read ALL the books.
Made my personal notes on several domains that I felt weak. (especially the "theoretical" security architecture)
Began doing the prep-quizzes 2 weeks before the exam.
I did 4 rounds of 250 questions (like a real stress test). and the remaining 100 at a time.
That built my confidence a lot. I scored anywhere between 75%- 85%.
All my prep-quizzes lasted 4.5 hours of non-stop running. But this helped me grind the concepts over and over again.
The quizzes will help you remember the key concepts. You may be questioned the same with double negation.
Monster encounter:
This is just my personal experience. Possibility that someone else had a different experience.
Started my exam at 8am , like my prep work I completed the 1st round of scan after 4.5 hrs.
Marked over 50 questions for review. I used up ALL my 6 hours of the exam.
For some reason I was not too confident of other 100 questions that I did not mark for review.
Like someone said, either you know it OR you don’t, just move on.
Please note, Of all these resources used, all the questions I saw were unique.
Took a break, (was way to hungry). Got back and changed at least 30 questions.
(again this is my experience, probably I missed the point of the question).
Closed my eyes. Prayed and Submit.
Got the printed paper "congratulations"
, wohoooo. I literally jumped. 
Well. I'm back with my family happy as ever- (Actually, they are glad that I'm back to normal - after a long silence of 3 months) .
Suggestions:
I would say.
Partially isolate yourself (you cannot completely isolate from the family )
Stick to the due date of your scheduled exam.
Spend good time in understanding the concepts.(use a max of 2 books),
I felt it was an overkill for me to use too many books.
Take several quizzes.
Watch Cybrary.
Good luck to anyone taking this exam.
Alright. I'm now off to the endorsement process.
Secondly I thank all the forum members for their contributions/inputs which guided me in the right direction.
After 3 month long journey of churning through several books. I'm proud to say that I passed CISSP.
All thanks to my family's support in getting me past this milestone. (This is absolutely needed if you are married).
No book will help you without your spouse's support.My work experience
12+ years of various roles from a network admin, sys admin, dba, developer, Incident manager today as a systems security compliance specialist.
Each role has taught me several different aspects of IT support.
Onto the prep-work.
NOTE that I used the 10 domain strategy instead of 8. ( I was more comfortable to break things up for easy consumption).
I used several books, probably you can pick the best. Below is the rating and relevance to the resources used.
Note: this is just my personal opinion rating in a scale of 10.
1. AIO - Shon Harris 6th edition (read cover to cover) 8/10 (very good but a li'l outdated with cloud stuff).
2. CISSP study guide - Conrad 2nd ed. (read cover to cover) - 7.5/10
3. CISSP - Sybex 7th edition - (read 10 chapters and stopped, and read only the updates) 8/10 (used it only for the new content mentioned in CCcure.org)
4. Cissp 11th hour (read cover to cover) - 6/10
5. Combined notes (read cover to cover) - 8/10
6. Sunflower notes (read cover to cover) - 8/10
7. Cybrary videos (all of it in 1 day)- 7/10
8. Transcender (all questions)- 8/10 (this one really helped me)
9. cccure - quiz - (only 200 questions) - Cannot rate it. Many of them were a bit vague.
10. MH questions online (all questions) - 7/10 (this one really helped me)
11. Total tested from AIO book (all questions)- 7/10 (this one really helped me)
12. Sybex Test bank - 3/10 (Straight-forward questions from the book).
13. mp3 audios (7/10) - MUST use Shon harris books to get more depth.
My brain was numb by the end of this. For some reason, I felt that I kept forgetting all the things I read.
(too much information too keep in one's head).
Prep work:
I used AIO - shon harris to the core. And substitute the rest as a reference. The whole idea of AIO book is, after reading 1200 pages, your brain will skim unnecessary stuff and keep at-least 50% of the book, which boils down to conrad's book. Took 1.5 months to read ALL the books.
Made my personal notes on several domains that I felt weak. (especially the "theoretical" security architecture)
Began doing the prep-quizzes 2 weeks before the exam.
I did 4 rounds of 250 questions (like a real stress test). and the remaining 100 at a time.
That built my confidence a lot. I scored anywhere between 75%- 85%.
All my prep-quizzes lasted 4.5 hours of non-stop running. But this helped me grind the concepts over and over again.
The quizzes will help you remember the key concepts. You may be questioned the same with double negation.
Monster encounter:
This is just my personal experience. Possibility that someone else had a different experience.
Started my exam at 8am , like my prep work I completed the 1st round of scan after 4.5 hrs.
Marked over 50 questions for review. I used up ALL my 6 hours of the exam.
For some reason I was not too confident of other 100 questions that I did not mark for review.
Like someone said, either you know it OR you don’t, just move on.
Please note, Of all these resources used, all the questions I saw were unique.
Took a break, (was way to hungry). Got back and changed at least 30 questions.
(again this is my experience, probably I missed the point of the question).
Closed my eyes. Prayed and Submit.
Got the printed paper "congratulations"
, wohoooo. I literally jumped. Well. I'm back with my family happy as ever- (Actually, they are glad that I'm back to normal - after a long silence of 3 months) .
Suggestions:
I would say.
Partially isolate yourself (you cannot completely isolate from the family
)Stick to the due date of your scheduled exam.
Spend good time in understanding the concepts.(use a max of 2 books),
I felt it was an overkill for me to use too many books.
Take several quizzes.
Watch Cybrary.
Good luck to anyone taking this exam.
Alright. I'm now off to the endorsement process.
Comments
-
g33k3r
Member Posts: 249 ■■□□□□□□□□
Congrats!! Great review. I like your recommendation to not go over kill on the books. I am almost done with the new Sybex book which I've started to skim more and more in the later chapters due to redundancy. Enjoy your accomplishment!!! -
danny069
Member Posts: 1,025 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats on the pass! Do you happen to know which material had the 8 domains instead of the previous 10?I am a Jack of all trades, Master of None -
zentury
Member Posts: 17 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats on the pass! Do you happen to know which material had the 8 domains instead of the previous 10?
Sybex is one of the official books that has 8 domains. This book is comparable to "Conrad's" but a bit too wordy. -
fuz1on
Member Posts: 961 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats!
timku.com(puter) | ProHacker.Co(nsultant) | ITaaS.Co(nstultant) | ThePenTester.net | @fuz1on
Transmosis | http://transmosis.com | LinkedIn | https://linkedin.com/in/t1mku
If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it. - Epictetus
The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows. - Buddha
If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you. - Unknown -
Canberra1973
Member Posts: 14 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats you deserve it. This is very useful info... thanks heaps.
Do you have the links for Cybrary videos and Shon Harris mp3 audios by any chance.. I will be sitting mid Dec for my second try.
Cheers -
zentury
Member Posts: 17 ■□□□□□□□□□
Canberra1973 wrote: »Congrats you deserve it. This is very useful info... thanks heaps.
Do you have the links for Cybrary videos and Shon Harris mp3 audios by any chance.. I will be sitting mid Dec for my second try.
Cheers
Below are the links that I bookmarked.
https://www.cybrary.it/course/cissp/
McGraw-Hill Education | CISSP Practice Exams
Goodluck on you 2nd try. You've already been there. so you know what to expect in the exam. -
zentury
Member Posts: 17 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats!! Great review. I like your recommendation to not go over kill on the books. I am almost done with the new Sybex book which I've started to skim more and more in the later chapters due to redundancy. Enjoy your accomplishment!!!
Very true, there's a lot of redundancy as you move along from chapter to chapter. I would say Sybex book is less redundant compared to shon harris. I preferred to re-read the same in a different chapter, which helps me correlate between chapters (Sybex book will just throw a pointer to the redundant information - some prefer it that way too ). -
clarkincnet
Member Posts: 256 ■■■□□□□□□□
Great Job!Give a hacker an exploit, and they will have access for a day, BUT teach them to phish, and they will have access for the rest of their lives!
Have: CISSP, CISM, CRISC, CGEIT, ITIL-F -
kiransav07
Member Posts: 17 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congratulations and thanks for sharing the resources for each certification
Good luck with everything 
