CISSP - fasttrack - Passed on Oct 30

A few days ago I found out that my CISSP exam voucher expires on Oct 30. I had only two possibilities - to let it be or at least to give it a try. I chose the second option. I had 4 days to prepare (no days-off at work possible). My preparation consisted of:
1. Watching the Cybrary CBT videos (free) - 2 days
2. Bought the Kindle edition of the Sybex's - The CISSP Official Study Guide 7th Edition (paper version would not arrived on time

) - money well spent
3. Did one 250-question quiz at Skillport (morning) and reading the Sybex's book the rest of the day till midnight.

Today I got up at 4:30 am, skimmed through the Sunflower notes and drove 2 hours to the Test centre.

The test started at 9 am, took 2 bathroom breaks and finished at 11:10am with anticipation of the results. Thanks God I passed. The administrator told me my time is their CISSP record

A few remarks for conclusion:
- allow more time to study as I did to avoid the stress
- buy the NEW book - can not stress it more!!! - read the cloud and engineering topics thoroughly !!!
- do not dive too deeply and understand the underlying principles

Good luck to all!

Michal

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Comments

kiransav07

Congrats! excellent achievement! just 4 days ! it should be a good motivating post for anyone having less time to study
did you do any preparation prior to these 4 days? If so, how much of you preparation had you done?

g33k3r

Congrats on an impressive accomplishment given your short period of time! Were you able to read the Sybex book in that short amount of time? I spent two weeks and ended up skimming most of the second half of the book due redundancy from my other study materials.

QuisUtDeus

Thanks folks! I did no preparation beforehand. I was able to go through the Sybex book in ca. 13 hours ( I skimmed the passages with info I felt familiar with). I validated this by checking the chapter quizzes.

CLICK

well done indeed..congrats and enjoy

hylaab

This is amazing. Congratulations! What is your background in IT?

danny069

Geeze, a story of a warrior, gives me motivation and not to over think my CISSP preparation. Congrats, job well done!

QuisUtDeus

My background in IT is nothing special or impressive:
- MSc in CS
- 3 years of teaching (Neural Nets, Comp. Learning, Programming, Linux administration, CCNA 1st semester)
- 3 years as an Information Security Officer at the utilities company
- 4 years as a Sr. Security Consultant

That's incredible!

Congrats!

Congrats!

Super congrats!

Awesome! Conrats

Congrats

Congratulations. That's an impressive short runaway for your prep!

QuisUtDeus

Thanks to all, guys! I have just sent my endorsement form. Impatiently waiting for THE cert...

kalyan.nallapati

QuisUtDeus wrote: »

- buy the NEW book - can not stress it more!!! - read the cloud and engineering topics thoroughly !!!

Congrats Michal.

I have Eric Conrad and Shon Harris books. Based on many people suggesting new book with updated content, I just bought Sybex 7th Edition. Since there is no pdf version for Sybex, I really have hard time searching for topics related to Cloud and Engineering topics. Till now, I was able to find only one page about Cloud concept. Is it possible for you to share specific topic names/ headings in this book that are related to Cloud?

QuisUtDeus

Here is a list of cloud-related content in the Sybex CSG 7th Ed.:

Chapter 2 - SLAs
Chapter 3 - BIA, Vital Records Program
Chapter 4 - Licensing, Contracting and Procurement
Chapter 9 - Cloud Computing
Chapter 11 - Content Distribution Network
Chapter 13 - Identity as a Service, Integrating Identity Services
Chapter 16 - SLAs, Managing Cloud-based Assets
Chapter 17 - 3rd Party Security Services
Chapter 18 - Cloud Computing

kalyan.nallapati

Thank you.

RedneckCanadian

Go to the back of the book (page 96

for instructions to obtain the PDF version.

RedneckCanadian

lol
that was page 968.
don't put 8 and ) beside each other. hehe

harrym1

page 968 says PDF for Glossary of Terms and not the book.

kalyan.nallapati

Yes, it is just glossary of terms. Not the book itself.

danny069

I just ordered the Sybex book from amazon, let's see how good it is.

cledford3

I own the AIO, the new Sybex, and both of the Cole's. After reading a couple of chapters so far out of the Sybex (scanning the others), I'm going to have to say I'm disappointed. The bottom line is that the AIO is peerless. The Sybex book is better than Cole books, but still lacking. There are some areas of the Sybex that do a good job with examples - others that are really poor. There are some sections that read well, others about as good as the CBK :-/ I don't really care for the AIO, but grudgingly admit that it appears to be 100% solid in everything it presents. It's only drawback is not having the latest info, which after reviewing the new content in the Sybex first, really can be obtained for free on the internet by downloading PDFs.

I'd hoped that the Sybex might become the heir to the AIO, but IMHO it is not happening... It is not a bad book, but it is not the book that the AIO is. The writing style seems inconsistent, there are gaps, and (in my opinion) they don't do all that well with the new stuff. I found myself out downloading whitepapers and PDFs AFTER reading their chapters on the 2015 content and that isn't really excusable to me. I don't think it is good when someone is left with more questions after reading a chapter than before they started.

In the end I see the Sybex book completing with glorified brain **** (Cole books) and a technical book now almost 3 years old. (AIO 6th Ed.) - they could have and should have been able to hit the ball out of the park, especially with the benefit of the new content. Instead I see the book as an "also ran" that should only be purchased in conjunction with the AIO. If I could only pick one it would be the Harris book without a doubt. While it is long, it contains bad humor, and is slightly dry - I see it as a 100% solid, 100% consistent, must have reference for every CISSP or CISSP aspirant.

YMMV,

-Calvin

danny069

Thanks for the review Calvin! I also have the AIO6th PDF from Shon Harris, R.I.P. I don't know how they have a 7th without her, but anyway...I got the sybex for the new info, and collectively speaking, this should be enough to pass the exam, I am also checking out the cybrary videos, which are free.

Cyberscum

+1 for the AIO. I used that as my only source.