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Passed CISSP - June 2nd - First Try
letsrockcert
Member Posts: 8 ■□□□□□□□□□
in SSCP
I am really glad toshare my CISSP journey and study plan with you all. I planned my study readingmost of the Passed post here. I hope my post will help someone. This is goingto be really a long post.
Summary:
I planned to spend 6months to study and started my journey in Jan and booked my exam for June 30th.But end of May I felt so prepared that I rescheduled my exam to June 2nd . I amhappy that I made that decision.
Source:
Books :
Note: I had accessto Safari and so had access to Shon videos and Exam Cram books
Practice Exam:
Study Plan:
I read the post inthe FB - CISSP - Study group andtechexams daily. I spent 2 to 3 hours daily for first 4 months and 4 to 6 hrsduring the month of May. I take off on Sundays from Studies.
As I was doing test,instead of taking notes on weakest domain, I took a list of my weak areas fromeach domain. This list was of great help for me during the last week ofrevision.
Start
End
Duration
Book/Test
Notes
Jan 4
Feb 20
7 weeks
Cybrary + Sybex
Watched Cybrary (old) Videos and Took notes in One Note
Feb 22
Feb 25
4 -5 days
Revision
Reviewed my notes for each chapter
Feb 26
Feb 26
1 Day
Sybex - 1st Full test (Score - 76%)
Took this test to gauge myself.
Feb 27
Apr 9
5 weeks
Shon 5 chapters + Mcgraw Hill Test 1
Was a very quick read of Shon. No notes. Just a glance.
Apr 10
April 10
1 Day
Sybex - 2nd Full test (Score - 82%)
Was very happy with this score
April 11
May 5
4 weeks
Ccure - Took chapter wise.
Average Score - 82%
May 6
May 6
1 day
Sybex - 3rd Full test (Score - 77%)
Was not very happy but pushed myself after that to review concepts
May 8
May 9
2 days
Shon 6th edition - Chapter test
Average Score - 79%
May 10
May 11
2 days
CBK chapter Test
Average Score - 71%
May 12
May 16
5 days
Exam Cram Test Bank
Average Score - 75.5%
May 17
May 20
4 days
Exam cram Book (quick read) + Mcgraw
Average Score - Quiz 1 - 83% Quiz 2 - - 80%
May 21
May 21
1 day
Sybex 4th Full Test (score - 82%)
Felt well prepared for the exam and so rescheduled my exam
May 22
May 22
1 day
Eric Conrad - 1st Full test (Score - 72%)
May 23
May 23
1 day
Eric Conrad - 1st Full test (Score - 77%)
May 24
June 1
1.5 weeks
Revision, Revision, Revision
Watched cybrary, my sybex notes, combined notes, sunflower notes, some chapters in sybex
June 2 - Exam Day
Honestly, it was notas tough as everyone think so. Exam waspretty easy. I can say, I should have score above 80%.
I had some similarquestions from Sybex, ccure and Eric conrad test. It's not like the exam had questions that wehave not seen anywhere. Atleast my exam had very similar questions to the testbanks.
And though myexpereince in IT field is 13+ years, most of experience is only Identity AccessManagement and SDLC. I would rate myselfonly 5% in other domains. It is that my dedication to CISSP for past 5 months helped. I was living CISSP
I took 4hrs to complete to the exam. 3.5 hrs for 250 question and 30 mins to review.Break at 125 and 250 questions. Review 30 marked questions. Changed at least10.
Based on my exam,50% was very easy and straight forward question. 25% was little tough and 25%of the question was really hard (may be they are those 25 questions). Drag anddrop was the easiest, I wish I got more of those. There was some 10 scenarios andeach scenario has 2 to 3 questions. For the questions that I had 2 options, Iwrote the question and 2 answers in the sheet. Read it many times to get theright answer. I think writing helped. (Exam center came be Wipe sheet which isnot erasable so I had to return the previous one and get the extra sheet. Iused 3 sheets).
Also the questionswere distributed equally in all the domains. I got 3 to 4 questions fromPhysical security as well. And againonly 4 to 5 questions from BCP/DRP. I felt the exam was combination of technical+ concept based.
Advice: Don’t fearthe exam. If you have learnt the basic concept you can pass. Don’t spend timein memorizing the numbers.
My special thanks tomy family who had been with me during this journey. Thanks to everyone in thisgroup and to my dear friend Anusha Siva.
Please feel free tolet me know if you have any questions.
Summary:
I planned to spend 6months to study and started my journey in Jan and booked my exam for June 30th.But end of May I felt so prepared that I rescheduled my exam to June 2nd . I amhappy that I made that decision.
Source:
Books :
- Sybex 7th Edition - Sybex: CISSP (ISC)2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide, 7th Edition - James M. Stewart, Mike Chapple, Darril Gibson
- CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 6th Edition - Shon Harris - http://www.amazon.com/CISSP-All-One-Exam-Guide/dp/0071781749
- Exam Cram - 3rd edition - http://www.amazon.com/CISSP-Exam-Cram-Michael-Gregg/dp/0789749572
- Eric Conrad 11th hour - Not a big fan of this book
- Cybrary (old and new videos) - Watched 3 times. - https://www.cybrary.it/course/cissp/
- Shon Videos
Note: I had accessto Safari and so had access to Shon videos and Exam Cram books
Practice Exam:
- Sybex chapter test and 4 full test - Free with the book - https://sybextestbanks.wiley.com/public/index/login
- Shon Harris - Chapter test from CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide 6th edition. - - http://www.amazon.com/CISSP-All-One-Exam-Guide/dp/0071781749
- Mcgraw Hills - https://www.mhprofessional.com/sites/CISSPExams/exam.php?id=AccessControl (free)
- CCCure - https://www.freepracticetests.org/quiz/index.php ( Got 3 months Subscription)
- Exam Cram
- Eric Conrad - Full Length test (free)
Study Plan:
I read the post inthe FB - CISSP - Study group andtechexams daily. I spent 2 to 3 hours daily for first 4 months and 4 to 6 hrsduring the month of May. I take off on Sundays from Studies.
As I was doing test,instead of taking notes on weakest domain, I took a list of my weak areas fromeach domain. This list was of great help for me during the last week ofrevision.
Start
End
Duration
Book/Test
Notes
Jan 4
Feb 20
7 weeks
Cybrary + Sybex
Watched Cybrary (old) Videos and Took notes in One Note
Feb 22
Feb 25
4 -5 days
Revision
Reviewed my notes for each chapter
Feb 26
Feb 26
1 Day
Sybex - 1st Full test (Score - 76%)
Took this test to gauge myself.
Feb 27
Apr 9
5 weeks
Shon 5 chapters + Mcgraw Hill Test 1
Was a very quick read of Shon. No notes. Just a glance.
Apr 10
April 10
1 Day
Sybex - 2nd Full test (Score - 82%)
Was very happy with this score
April 11
May 5
4 weeks
Ccure - Took chapter wise.
Average Score - 82%
May 6
May 6
1 day
Sybex - 3rd Full test (Score - 77%)
Was not very happy but pushed myself after that to review concepts
May 8
May 9
2 days
Shon 6th edition - Chapter test
Average Score - 79%
May 10
May 11
2 days
CBK chapter Test
Average Score - 71%
May 12
May 16
5 days
Exam Cram Test Bank
Average Score - 75.5%
May 17
May 20
4 days
Exam cram Book (quick read) + Mcgraw
Average Score - Quiz 1 - 83% Quiz 2 - - 80%
May 21
May 21
1 day
Sybex 4th Full Test (score - 82%)
Felt well prepared for the exam and so rescheduled my exam
May 22
May 22
1 day
Eric Conrad - 1st Full test (Score - 72%)
May 23
May 23
1 day
Eric Conrad - 1st Full test (Score - 77%)
May 24
June 1
1.5 weeks
Revision, Revision, Revision
Watched cybrary, my sybex notes, combined notes, sunflower notes, some chapters in sybex
June 2 - Exam Day
Honestly, it was notas tough as everyone think so. Exam waspretty easy. I can say, I should have score above 80%.
I had some similarquestions from Sybex, ccure and Eric conrad test. It's not like the exam had questions that wehave not seen anywhere. Atleast my exam had very similar questions to the testbanks.
And though myexpereince in IT field is 13+ years, most of experience is only Identity AccessManagement and SDLC. I would rate myselfonly 5% in other domains. It is that my dedication to CISSP for past 5 months helped. I was living CISSP
I took 4hrs to complete to the exam. 3.5 hrs for 250 question and 30 mins to review.Break at 125 and 250 questions. Review 30 marked questions. Changed at least10.
Based on my exam,50% was very easy and straight forward question. 25% was little tough and 25%of the question was really hard (may be they are those 25 questions). Drag anddrop was the easiest, I wish I got more of those. There was some 10 scenarios andeach scenario has 2 to 3 questions. For the questions that I had 2 options, Iwrote the question and 2 answers in the sheet. Read it many times to get theright answer. I think writing helped. (Exam center came be Wipe sheet which isnot erasable so I had to return the previous one and get the extra sheet. Iused 3 sheets).
Also the questionswere distributed equally in all the domains. I got 3 to 4 questions fromPhysical security as well. And againonly 4 to 5 questions from BCP/DRP. I felt the exam was combination of technical+ concept based.
Advice: Don’t fearthe exam. If you have learnt the basic concept you can pass. Don’t spend timein memorizing the numbers.
My special thanks tomy family who had been with me during this journey. Thanks to everyone in thisgroup and to my dear friend Anusha Siva.
Please feel free tolet me know if you have any questions.
Comments
-
OptionsZhangt71
Registered Users Posts: 2 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats. quick q, you said don't remember the numbers, but what about steps? there are lots of concept that requires to know the step 1, 2, 3 etc, like SDLC, Incident response time, steps for pen tests, etc, are those things required to be memorized? thank you
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Optionsfaris1
Member Posts: 13 ■■□□□□□□□□
Congratulations! Well done. Thank you for your tips and advice too. I am preparing (living CISSP) to do my exam end of July. Any more tips and tricks would appreciated.
Regards,
Faris
