Passed CISSP exam today 03/23/2016
Hi guys
I have passed the CISSP exam earlier today on my first attempt.
Here are my study regime and some study + exam tips.
Experience: Almost 15 years total IT experience in different domains. I have some other network and security product certificates as well.
Prep time: 4 months in total. I am working full time so I spent about average 3 hours every night just studying and taking quiz and in weekend spend some more time.
Materials:
Thanks everybody for all your support.
I have passed the CISSP exam earlier today on my first attempt.
Here are my study regime and some study + exam tips.
Experience: Almost 15 years total IT experience in different domains. I have some other network and security product certificates as well.
Prep time: 4 months in total. I am working full time so I spent about average 3 hours every night just studying and taking quiz and in weekend spend some more time.
Materials:
- Shon Harris AIO 6th Edition (7/10)
- Sybex 7th Edition 2015 (9/10)
- 11th Hour (7/10)
- Eric Conrad 2E (6/10)
- CCCure Quiz (8/10)
- Sybex test banks (9/10)
- Sybex book 450 Questions (8/10)
- Transcender (6/10)
- Cybrary video (9/10)
- Sunflower PDF (5/10)
- CISSP Combined Notes (7/10)
- The International CISSP Summary (7/10)
- First and foremost, the AIO is still a very valid study material. Even if the book is not relevant to the CISSP certification anymore, it still makes for a good work reference with the depth it provides. I finished each chapter on the AIO and proceed through each chapter's quiz on the AIO and Practice Exam. I also used Cybrary video and Conrad Book 2E with each chapter to understand each topic more in details.
- Once I finished the AIO, I moved on to CCCure to brush up on the new 2015 CBK materials. Also I started to review Sybex 7th Edition to get current CISSP material. I like Sybex 7th Edition book for exam point of view as it very well covers necessary topics for current CISSP exam format.
- Then after, I just reviewed other study materials and different quizzes all the way until exam day. I liked both CCCure Quiz and Sybex test banks.
- Don't wait for study at last minute. It'll not work.
- Relate what you've read to your working / professional experience. That will help you gain solid understanding of the concept rather than plain memorizing which is somewhat burdensome.
- Do as much quizzes you can, but try to understand detail concept and why each answer is right or wrong. CCCure Quiz gives you very good explanation of each topic.
- Try to work on you weak domains more and try exposes yourself to different angles a question may be asked.
- If necessary, use Google, Wiki or other sites to get more about weak topics.
- Before exam day, get plenty of rest and get to the testing center early.
- READ, READ, READ questions before jump to select answer.
- Think like manager before you give any answer.
Thanks everybody for all your support.
Comments
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DocRoy
Member Posts: 41 ■■□□□□□□□□
congrats. Out of curiosity, how much time did you use of the allotted 6 hours for testing? -
Terminator X
Member Posts: 60 ■■■□□□□□□□
Agreed with everything up to this.
"Relate what you've read to your working / professional experience. That will help you gain solid understanding of the concept rather than plain memorizing which is somewhat burdensome."
Be careful with this one. The problem I feel with this is when you start injecting what you do at work you come up with a "real world" answer vice the book answer which is what the exam is based off. Just stick to what is being taught in the CBK and other texts. But I like everything else that you said. Congrats!-Tact is for those not witty enough to be sarcastic-
~Unknown -
CJ3
Member Posts: 11 ■□□□□□□□□□
Thank you so much everyone.
I completely agree with Terminator X.
IMHO When you are preparing yourself for CISSP Exam, relate what you've read to your working / professional experience - just more easy to understand concept.
But During exam, please think like manager before you give any answer as this is not technical exam.
Also it took me almost 4 hours and 50 minutes to complete all questions including couple of breaks. I just took my own time to handle each question slowly instead of running. You have more then enough time to finish all questions.
Also I forgot to mention in my exam experience that when finished my exam, Test center person gave me 2 pages of result. So initially I thought, I failed in exam and I just hold results and not look to results for 10 minutes. But later when I thought to review result for each domain, I saw it was PASS result. It printed 2 pages only because of bigger fonts on papers and only few lines are in second page. I spent more 30 minutes in test center to verify my test result before leave test center.
At its best, life is completely unpredictable. Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities!
Thanks again.. -
mkohi
Member Posts: 49 ■■□□□□□□□□
CJ3, when you stay it's not technical, does this mean I don't have to memorize things like RSA algorithms and stuff like that? How important is memorization?
Btw CONGRATS! -
Hunter85
Member Posts: 60 ■■■□□□□□□□
I would also add memorization of american laws? Do you think is it relevant to the exam?
