CISSP passed today(18-12-15) at first attempt after 6 weeks of studying

Hi all,
As someone who has been reading the advice of other people on this forum over the last couple of months I thought I would share my experience of studying for the CISSP exam.

I used the Sybex official 2015 guide which I read cover to cover twice, I also read the Eric Conrad 2nd edition book twice. I rotated between the books so once I finished one I started the other, I have dedicated every week day for the last 6 weeks, weekends I took off to digest and switch of a bit, i,didn't make any notes not that is a bad thing to do as I found i could remember a lot of the concepts based on my experience.
I also used the official ISC guide a couple of times for reference but that's all.
For online tests I used the Sybex tests virtually all the time, I found them to be excellent, I did also purchase the ccure ones as well but didn't get on too well with them as I found some mistakes and some typos, still handy though for revision.

The day before the test(yesterday) i read the 11th hour guide by Eric Conrad twice and that's all.

Today was the test and it was at 8am, so I up early, I had a nice relaxed breakfast and walked the 40 mins to the test centre to get me in the mode.

The test itself was as expected, I had some questions which I had no idea about probably around 4 but the vast majority I had a good inkling to the answer or could narrow it down to a couple of answers.
I did a three pass method to complete the test, first pass I answered all the questions I knew straigh away and marked the ones I didn't know, this took me around 2 hours, then I did a second pass and completed everything I missed, this took another 1.40 and then I did a final pass of the whole test, all in all it took me around 5 hours with 3 breaks.

I hope this helps other people, I think what I have learnt is stick to a few good reference guides and supplement this knowledge with online tests but make sure you understand the concepts.

I hope this helps, Good luck for anyone else taking this test.

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Comments

fumbling22

Again congrats on passing the first time! I'm normally just a lurker, I'm really impressed, though, that you read the Sybex book twice. Wow!

Are you a speed reader? Do you take notes as read?

I've spent the past 6 weeks just trying to get through the Sybex book once. Im scheduled to take the test on Monday and I still have two more chapters.

nothing007

Congrats....:d

danny069

How the heck did you read that Sybex book twice? Congrats!

fumbling22

Oops never mind my notes question. Honestly, after I saw "read Sybex twice", I stopped reading and posted.

hannism

Congratulations on passing.

Out of curiosity, did you have an information assurance background?

Or was the material entirely new to you?

Again, congratulations.

tancro

Thanks everyone, just to answer a few questions, no I didn't take any notes at all and I am not a speed reader but I knew quite a few of the topics inside out so a bit of an advantage I suppose as I could skip a few pages. my background is that I have been in IT for around 27 years even though I am still only 42, early starter. I have been security for a good 18 of them, IS manager, compliance manager, security consultant etc, heavy experience in firewalls, IPSs, DMZs, VPNs, strategy, architecture etc etc, by the way it's not easy reading the Sybex book once you reach the middle and are reading holding up as its heavy.

Also for anyone else reading I set myself two targets this year get the CiSSP and CISM and that gave me the determination to achieve it, I have got both now so never give up and hard work always pays off.

Cyberscum

Never seen a date written day-month-year (18-12-15) but congrats on the pass!

tancro

It's the UK format buddy.

cfirsten

tancro wrote: »

Hi all,
....
The test itself was as expected, I had some questions which I had no idea about probably around 4 but the vast majority I had a good inkling to the answer or could narrow it down to a couple of answers.
......

I developed my own scale after taking the exam:
If four of the answers seem right to you, you will most likely fail, if three seem right you have a good chance of failing, if two seem right, you will most likely pass. If only one of the answers seems right to you then you must be Dennis Ritchie or one of original creators of the DARPA network

. Congrats OP!!!

rajpoot296

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

chopsticks

This is hard work and impressive! Congrads!

Tongy

Cyberscum wrote: »

Never seen a date written day-month-year (18-12-15) but congrats on the pass!

It would indicate that he isn't based in the states... the only country that uses that format

Congrats OP on the pass!

sameoj

Congrats OP!!!

Mike7

Tongy wrote: »

It would indicate that he isn't based in the states... the only country that uses that format

Congrats OP on the pass!

Or his country was a British colony.

Congrats @tancro on the pass!

abyssinica

Cyberscum wrote: »

Never seen a date written day-month-year (18-12-15) but congrats on the pass!

(I think) everyone who speaks English writes it this way except maybe America.
Then Koreans/Japanese just flip it around [15/12/18]

But the American format is by far the most confusing...

g33k3r

Congrats