Passed CISSP 1st of May
Hi,
First of all i would like to thank everyone on this forum for nice tips, study plans , great guidance and motivation! .
I would like to share some notes with you guys regarding my preparation material and approach. I have around 8 years of experience in InfoSec. I started my preparation on 12th March 2016 and scheduled my exam on 1st May 2016.
Study Plan and approach:
I used only Sybex 7th edition as my primary and only source. (took 30 days to complete the book cover to cover and went through the chapter tests 3-4 hours daily).
I would also watch CBT Nuggets in between with the chapters i was reading on Sybex.
As i would complete a Domain, i tried doing the practice tests on McGraw website to test myself and the content/information i was missing through Sybex.
About 15 days later, i purchased the cccure subscription, and started doing 50-100 Questions on each domain as i would cover through the Sybex. Focused on why i was getting the correct and wrong answers and cccure itself is a good way to cover the missing information if you are using Sybex only. I was scoring around 75% to 85 % on cccure at this time.
After finishing the Sybex guide, i did all the full practice tests on Sybex test engines and switched to cccure 250 full tests unattempted questions for 4 days. In between i would also watch cybrary videos for the domains i was weak in. I always thought of a way if we can measure if we are ready for the exam? Varies from person to person but i always wanted to know what others were scoring in test banks before they passed the exam. I would like to share my scores from cccure if thats okay :
[TH="class: sort_enable"]No of Question[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Score[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Area[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Difficulty[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Quiz Type[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Time Taken[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable sort_down"]Date[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Status[/TH]
[TH]Results[/TH]
[TH="class: hidden_tooltip"][/TH]
205
85%
CISSP 2015
Pro
Test
04:05:19
28-Apr-2016 02:19:13 pm
Complete
Review Quiz
250
82%
CISSP 2015
Pro
Test
04:33:10
25-Apr-2016 02:15:58 pm
Complete
Review Quiz
250
84%
CISSP 2015
Pro
Test
04:50:53
23-Apr-2016 07:55:31 pm
Complete
Review Quiz
250
82%
CISSP 2015
Pro
Test
04:05:42
21-Apr-2016 06:04:33 pm
Complete
Review Quiz
My sybex scores were very similar to the above ones too.
About the exam:
Like everyone says, focus on the concepts and don't memorize stuff. Yes its true you will not see test questions being repeated on the real exam questions, the purpose of the test questions is to find your weak areas and domains. Decision making is the key, think like a manager and you will get through!. You will see questions with all 4 options fitting in but control yourself take a deep breath :P, at the same time you will also see some very straight forward questions. I am sure if you are doing good in cccure and sybex "most" "least" "best" type questions ,you will get through the real exam! Take some breaks in between and don't let some bad questions take you over (by bad questions i mean they will really sometimes spin your head and they want you to think) .I saw like maybe 2 questions which i had no clue about, totally. I took 5 Hours and 30 Minutes to complete 250 questions and review them once. (changed 4-5 answers in the end).
The toughest part:
Walking towards the desk, which had a printer and guy ready to give you the surprise
Best of luck guys!
First of all i would like to thank everyone on this forum for nice tips, study plans , great guidance and motivation! .
I would like to share some notes with you guys regarding my preparation material and approach. I have around 8 years of experience in InfoSec. I started my preparation on 12th March 2016 and scheduled my exam on 1st May 2016.
Study Plan and approach:
I used only Sybex 7th edition as my primary and only source. (took 30 days to complete the book cover to cover and went through the chapter tests 3-4 hours daily).
I would also watch CBT Nuggets in between with the chapters i was reading on Sybex.
As i would complete a Domain, i tried doing the practice tests on McGraw website to test myself and the content/information i was missing through Sybex.
About 15 days later, i purchased the cccure subscription, and started doing 50-100 Questions on each domain as i would cover through the Sybex. Focused on why i was getting the correct and wrong answers and cccure itself is a good way to cover the missing information if you are using Sybex only. I was scoring around 75% to 85 % on cccure at this time.
After finishing the Sybex guide, i did all the full practice tests on Sybex test engines and switched to cccure 250 full tests unattempted questions for 4 days. In between i would also watch cybrary videos for the domains i was weak in. I always thought of a way if we can measure if we are ready for the exam? Varies from person to person but i always wanted to know what others were scoring in test banks before they passed the exam. I would like to share my scores from cccure if thats okay :
[TH="class: sort_enable"]No of Question[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Score[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Area[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Difficulty[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Quiz Type[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Time Taken[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable sort_down"]Date[/TH]
[TH="class: sort_enable"]Status[/TH]
[TH]Results[/TH]
[TH="class: hidden_tooltip"][/TH]
205
85%
CISSP 2015
Pro
Test
04:05:19
28-Apr-2016 02:19:13 pm
Complete
Review Quiz
250
82%
CISSP 2015
Pro
Test
04:33:10
25-Apr-2016 02:15:58 pm
Complete
Review Quiz
250
84%
CISSP 2015
Pro
Test
04:50:53
23-Apr-2016 07:55:31 pm
Complete
Review Quiz
250
82%
CISSP 2015
Pro
Test
04:05:42
21-Apr-2016 06:04:33 pm
Complete
Review Quiz
My sybex scores were very similar to the above ones too.
About the exam:
Like everyone says, focus on the concepts and don't memorize stuff. Yes its true you will not see test questions being repeated on the real exam questions, the purpose of the test questions is to find your weak areas and domains. Decision making is the key, think like a manager and you will get through!. You will see questions with all 4 options fitting in but control yourself take a deep breath :P, at the same time you will also see some very straight forward questions. I am sure if you are doing good in cccure and sybex "most" "least" "best" type questions ,you will get through the real exam! Take some breaks in between and don't let some bad questions take you over (by bad questions i mean they will really sometimes spin your head and they want you to think) .I saw like maybe 2 questions which i had no clue about, totally. I took 5 Hours and 30 Minutes to complete 250 questions and review them once. (changed 4-5 answers in the end).
The toughest part:
Walking towards the desk, which had a printer and guy ready to give you the surprise
Best of luck guys!
Comments
-
mkohi
Member Posts: 49 ■■□□□□□□□□
Congratulations sir.
-Which parts of the Sybex should we focus the most on? -
webpriestess
Member Posts: 82 ■■□□□□□□□□
Congratulations on passing! Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope I can keep this gravy train going
::Claudia -
sibandad
Registered Users Posts: 4 ■■■□□□□□□□
Thanks for this valuable study information..! Congratulations for passing this difficult "monster" test..
-
clarkincnet
Member Posts: 256 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats!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 -
havoc64
Member Posts: 213 ■■□□□□□□□□
Congratulations sir.
-Which parts of the Sybex should we focus the most on?
The part between the front and back covers... Come on now...your question almost borders on test compromise. Also the fact remains that everyone who takes the test can and will get different questions. Take the time and study, that's the way to pass this test. If you rely on brain **** and shortcuts you are only cheating your self and your future employers..
