Hell yeah!! Passed on 6th April 2016

Hunter85

Yes I passed it

Right now I am partying like hell

Having some drinks with my girlfriend

I will share detailed info later on

If you have any questions please ask and I will try to incorporate it

But at this stage my only advise would be.

STOP STUDYING

You might ask why

I will give you 1 straight answer. I had more than 100 pages on my notebook (hardcopy) and more than 200 pages on my google drive and believe me even if i had all the notes, practice books, cccure explanations it wouldnt help me answering even 1 question.

I dont even get the security measures they put in place to prevent you from cheating... because you cant really **** in this exam

The type of questions they are asking in this exam is nothing like you can imagine. It really depends on your experience. I must say I over studied!



Good luck

cyberguypr

Congrats on the pass!

NetworkNewb

Gratz Hunter!

IaHawk

Congrats on the pass, can't wait for that feeling! I have one month until my exam, I wish I could follow your "Stop Studying" advice...but just can't pull the trigger on that. I have been studying for 3 months now and have 5 years of experience. I hope thats enough experience to get through the exam. We shall see...

Congrats again!

Hunter85

Just do not focus on the details. I would suggest to focus more on cloud, identity.

I must say there were several questions (more than you can imagine) about cloud and identity and roles.

But again the problem is even the official book does not cover enough materiel for the exam

Eqmmickey

Congrats on the pass! And heck yeah celebrate!!! Great Job. Cant wait to hear more.

havoc64

WOOT WOOT! Congrats!

sameoj

Congrats

Ertaz

Congrats!

luking

Congratz.
Where do we study the cloud and identity stuff from?
What resource?

Hunter85

I wish I could help but I went back and checked official book and study guide I really couldnt find any section related to the questions I had about cloud and identity (I am not saying I am 100% sure because I am also lazy to read the entire book again )

For those who are wondering which sources I used

Books

Sybex 7th -- I think you only need this book for the exam

All-in-One 6th edition -- I read it cover to cover but I wouldnt suggest you doing that, this book should only be used for detailed explanations (if you need)

Practice Tests

CCCure questions -- They are good for you to identify which subjects you need to practice but I could have passed the exam without it

Exam

I arrived at the test center 1.5 hour earlier (hopping to spend last hour looking at my notes) but the lady at the reception insisted me to start my test since I was already there.

The test center had a dedicated room for CISSP takers, I had a really large LCD monitor and a really powerful fluorescent light on top of me. Especially after 3 hours due to the power of the light and huge monitor my head started hurting.

I started my test really fast, first 60 mins and I was already on question 100. I took a break and went back in. The first 100 questions seemed kinda easy when I saw the second 100 questions

My self-confidence slowly dropped and I was thinking about what I will do if I fail. I took another break when I hit 200 and had my lunch. After my return I quickly went through remaining 50 questions and started reviewing my questions. (I think it took me 2 hours and 40 mins to finish my first run)

At the beginning I was flagging all questions that I wasnt sure of but after some point I realized that I am not sure about any of the answers I give. I changed my strategy and flagged only the questions that I have no idea.

I started to review all the questions from question number 1 and made about 30 changes. At the end of the 6 hour marathon I was able to do all questions at least twice.

I wasnt sure if I was going to pass but I knew for a fact that if I fail I wouldnt know where to start studying again.

The questions are so different than anything that is covered in books. To give you some examples

1. Alice wants to encrypt her e-mail before sending to her boss. Why do you think Alice wants to encrypt her e-mail.

When you read the question, you start thinking and quickly come up with 1-2 ideas already (based on what you have read on study guides) but when you look at the answers

A) Because she had a bad day
She just likes to encrypt all her e-mails
C) Alice doesnt know how to send e-mail in clear text)
D)She just wants to annoy her boss

You wont be believing me but even the easiest looking question had 4 crazy answers like that.

Second type of questions that annoyed me the most was about things that are really not discussed in the book.

For example lets assume that the book does not discuss about importance of any steps of Change Management. They all just explain 5 or 6 steps of change management process. But the questions in the exam lists all these steps and asks you to choose which one is the most critical (btw there wasnt any question like that I am just trying to explain you the logic).

You will see lots of questions that explain things that you already know (because you are so familiar with all the concepts) but than forces you to choose the best one. (Which is never discussed in the book)

Some questions were asking you to choose from concepts without even giving a scenario.

Ex: Which of the following is most important for company X

A) Confidentiality
Integrity
C) Availability

But it doesnt even talk about what company X is doing. Are they holding any kind of PII or are they a financial institution??

Regarding the wording

Except of 1 question all the questions were well written. I cant complain

Study Guide


I advise all of you to stop wasting your time memorizing types of doors, IDS systems, fire types or protocols in OSI layers. This exam is not technical. There are few key points that will help you to pass this exam

1. Read through Sybex 7th edition.
2. Make notes (dont go deep)
3. Attend the exam

You dont need to solve 2000 practice questions. I think it all comes to experience. I would say If I had even 1 less year of experience I would have failed. Because you cant learn everything from the books.

CLICK

heck yeah..awesome post man.. BIG Congrats on the pass!!!! party ON

luking

That's a fantastic post. Thanks for the time

coffeeisgood

I give up, what is the answer to the Alice question?

Seriously though, it does not make sense no practice questions are like the real exam. What is the point then? sigh...

titsmcgee

Good to hear!!

I'm having the same dilemma. I read through the sybex book and everything is already pretty common sense for me since I have gone from a technical role to now a director role. I'm contemplating whether I should bother doing CCCure or just make sure I remember most of the book (i've got 100 pages left in the Sybex 7th). I just bought the Sybex App that has all the questions and definitions from the book and I can review that when i'm done.

What was the answer to your example or did you just make that up?

gncsmith

Congrats!

JoJoCal19

Congrats on the pass and I couldn't agree more on the "stop studying" part. Focus on understanding the basics of the concepts on the syllabus and from a high level. I think Eric Conrad's book is the perfect one for this. I read through it twice, and read through his 11th hour book and passed first try.