PASSED This Morning! Here's how I prepared in under 5 weeks..
Sorry for the wall of text - I wanted to be through and give back to the community after it helped me! First of all, thanks to all those that provided great information on this forum. The links and recommendations have been invaluable. I wanted to pass on my experiences so that others can gain the same valuable insights that I did while browsing these boards.
My background has been in Systems/Network Engineering for the last 8 years and a dedicated Security Engineer for about the last 2 years. I have worked primary in the legal industry throughout my career. I also have my MBA. I Finally felt like the time was right to pursue this certification. I would have done it sooner but had a baby about a year ago and there was no way to study with a new born in the house! I'll start with my exam experience and then explain how I was able to pass.
The exam: I immediately realized at question 1 that the real test is very different than any of my practice tests. The wording was almost never straight forward and they really make you think hard about each answer. There were very few straightforward questions. A lot of the details I spent hours memorizing never showed up, and there were very few definition or trivia type questions. The majority of what I saw was scenario based. You can't fake it on this test, they really make you understand the underlying reasons for why you'd choose an answer. It took me 3 hours to get through the first pass, and i had about 25 questions I'd flagged for review. It took me about 20 min to go through those and then I nervously pushed the button to finish. My approach was to answer every question before moving on, and ONLY flag questions that I thought I MAY change the answer to. In the end I went with my initial gut on most of them and only changed a handful. There were a few (3-4) questions I knew I was blindly guessing on which I did not flag because changing the answer would not have helped increase my odds. I took a break around question 180 because I felt myself getting antsy and wanting to rush through. Questions also stopped making sense and I was rereading 3-4 times. I needed to regroup and that 5 min reset was huge help to power through.
As many have said, you must think like a manager to answer questions. Understanding the BUSINESS reasons for taking actions is important. I found that helped me pick the correct answer on countless questions. Think like a manager, not an engineer or analyst. That usually meant more general or high level answers make more sense.
How I prepared:
Just over a month ago my boss offered me a week to work from home (and basically only respond to emergencies) to kick off my training. I had demonstrated in the past that I was capable of self study for Cisco Certs, and this approach allowed me to be available while the firm did not need to pay for expensive training/bootcamp. This was instrumental to me getting a huge head start. With my previous certification experiences, I thought I'd be ready in a few weeks of INTENSE studying. I scheduled the exam for 6/13...but realized quickly I would need more time due to the sheer amount of material. That's how I got to today's date.
Here's what i did in order
1) I bought the Sybex book and read it cover to cover in about 10 days. This was not easy and some of the material is really boring, and as a result I probably only retained 50% of the material the first time
2) Attempted a Sybex practice exam and did pretty poorly (60%). I realized I needed another resource..I didn't want to continue taking tests until i had a better grasp of the materials.
3) 2.5 weeks ago I got the Conrad 3rd edition book and took about 2 weeks to finish it. This was a way easier read than the Sybex as it was really straight to the point. I was able to finally "Get It" on a lot of the concepts and was able to start seeing the big picture. A lot of the stuff that didn't make sense at first finally started to become clear after seeing it presented differently. While reading, I would do the end of chapter exams and ALSO would do the related Transcender practice questions (I had access through my CBT Nuggets Account) related to those chapter(s).
4) After finishing Conrad's book, I took the 2 Conrad Practice exams back to back on Saturday morning and got and 82 and 76. I noted what I got wrong so I could brush up on those concepts - which took a few hours of time.
5) I then went back and took all four Sybex practice tests on Sunday, averaging around 82%. By now I was really able to nail down my weaknesses.
6) On Monday I felt pretty good but wanted to recap my weaknesses. I turned to cybrary. I was gonna just watch sections I was having issues with, but the videos were so good - i ended up watching 80% of the whole series (stayed up til 2am)! These videos were way better than CBT Nuggets (More on that later).
7) I took a day off from work yesterday and watched some more cybrary and finally I went through the "exam essentials" section in each Sybex chapter to ensure there were no gaps at all. By now it was literally just a few definitions I needed to brush up on and went to bed at a reasonable hour.
A couple more tips: In terms of books, I highly recommend reading BOTH Sybex and Conrad - in that order. Conrad made the Sybex material understandable, and then I was able to go back to Sybex and get the additional details I needed - if any.
Regarding Practice Tests: This should NOT be your primary method of studying. Memorizing questions and answers will not help at all. You can take 2000 practice questions and likely not see a single one on test day. The purpose of these practice tests is to expose weaknesses, not learn the material. If you do below 75% on the first Sybex exam, I would strongly recommend taking time to learn the material better before trying any more. The exams are only really valuable the first time you take them. After that it is too easy to remember the answer, but not understand why it is correct. Getting a 90% on your third attempt means nothing other than you know those specific questions really well.
Of the practice tests, Sybex was "closest" to the real thing in terms of presentation and style. Conrad's tests were also pretty good, but the style was pretty different. Transcender was very technical and more difficult, but did help. I liked the fact that you could only test yourself on specific subjects. However, I only used them because I didnt pay any extra for them. I don't know if they are worth paying for. I dabbled with the free McGraw Hill tests, but hated them and felt like they were just testing me on trivia such as inventors of encryption algorithms etc. I don't think these were worth focusing on. I did not use CCCure or Skillset.
Videos: Cybrary is incredible and sealed the deal for me. Kelly's way of teaching is fantastic and she knows how to make things easy to remember and understand. CBT Nuggets was not as good for the CISSP. I have had great success with them for Cisco Certs, but I couldn't get into this series. I felt like it was a bit disorganized and was not comprehensive enough.
Additionally, real life work experience plays a big role in passing. Many questions where I was unsure between two choices, I was able to apply the "what would I have done in this scenario" approach to picking the correct one. I can see an inexperienced person struggling.
Finally, you really can study for this exam in 1-2 months if you DEDICATE yourself. I read every night after dinner to bed. I had no life on the weekends and studied through my lunch hours. I hardly drank or went out. I snuck in a bit of reading at work if it was a slow day. It really helped that my boss gave me that week to dedicate myself to studying, but I still think that I would have been able to prepare in under 2 months even without that. Immersion into this material was necessary. I could not see myself drawing this out any longer as it would be easy to forget stuff.
Hope this helped!
My background has been in Systems/Network Engineering for the last 8 years and a dedicated Security Engineer for about the last 2 years. I have worked primary in the legal industry throughout my career. I also have my MBA. I Finally felt like the time was right to pursue this certification. I would have done it sooner but had a baby about a year ago and there was no way to study with a new born in the house! I'll start with my exam experience and then explain how I was able to pass.
The exam: I immediately realized at question 1 that the real test is very different than any of my practice tests. The wording was almost never straight forward and they really make you think hard about each answer. There were very few straightforward questions. A lot of the details I spent hours memorizing never showed up, and there were very few definition or trivia type questions. The majority of what I saw was scenario based. You can't fake it on this test, they really make you understand the underlying reasons for why you'd choose an answer. It took me 3 hours to get through the first pass, and i had about 25 questions I'd flagged for review. It took me about 20 min to go through those and then I nervously pushed the button to finish. My approach was to answer every question before moving on, and ONLY flag questions that I thought I MAY change the answer to. In the end I went with my initial gut on most of them and only changed a handful. There were a few (3-4) questions I knew I was blindly guessing on which I did not flag because changing the answer would not have helped increase my odds. I took a break around question 180 because I felt myself getting antsy and wanting to rush through. Questions also stopped making sense and I was rereading 3-4 times. I needed to regroup and that 5 min reset was huge help to power through.
As many have said, you must think like a manager to answer questions. Understanding the BUSINESS reasons for taking actions is important. I found that helped me pick the correct answer on countless questions. Think like a manager, not an engineer or analyst. That usually meant more general or high level answers make more sense.
How I prepared:
Just over a month ago my boss offered me a week to work from home (and basically only respond to emergencies) to kick off my training. I had demonstrated in the past that I was capable of self study for Cisco Certs, and this approach allowed me to be available while the firm did not need to pay for expensive training/bootcamp. This was instrumental to me getting a huge head start. With my previous certification experiences, I thought I'd be ready in a few weeks of INTENSE studying. I scheduled the exam for 6/13...but realized quickly I would need more time due to the sheer amount of material. That's how I got to today's date.
Here's what i did in order
1) I bought the Sybex book and read it cover to cover in about 10 days. This was not easy and some of the material is really boring, and as a result I probably only retained 50% of the material the first time
2) Attempted a Sybex practice exam and did pretty poorly (60%). I realized I needed another resource..I didn't want to continue taking tests until i had a better grasp of the materials.
3) 2.5 weeks ago I got the Conrad 3rd edition book and took about 2 weeks to finish it. This was a way easier read than the Sybex as it was really straight to the point. I was able to finally "Get It" on a lot of the concepts and was able to start seeing the big picture. A lot of the stuff that didn't make sense at first finally started to become clear after seeing it presented differently. While reading, I would do the end of chapter exams and ALSO would do the related Transcender practice questions (I had access through my CBT Nuggets Account) related to those chapter(s).
4) After finishing Conrad's book, I took the 2 Conrad Practice exams back to back on Saturday morning and got and 82 and 76. I noted what I got wrong so I could brush up on those concepts - which took a few hours of time.
5) I then went back and took all four Sybex practice tests on Sunday, averaging around 82%. By now I was really able to nail down my weaknesses.
6) On Monday I felt pretty good but wanted to recap my weaknesses. I turned to cybrary. I was gonna just watch sections I was having issues with, but the videos were so good - i ended up watching 80% of the whole series (stayed up til 2am)! These videos were way better than CBT Nuggets (More on that later).
7) I took a day off from work yesterday and watched some more cybrary and finally I went through the "exam essentials" section in each Sybex chapter to ensure there were no gaps at all. By now it was literally just a few definitions I needed to brush up on and went to bed at a reasonable hour.
A couple more tips: In terms of books, I highly recommend reading BOTH Sybex and Conrad - in that order. Conrad made the Sybex material understandable, and then I was able to go back to Sybex and get the additional details I needed - if any.
Regarding Practice Tests: This should NOT be your primary method of studying. Memorizing questions and answers will not help at all. You can take 2000 practice questions and likely not see a single one on test day. The purpose of these practice tests is to expose weaknesses, not learn the material. If you do below 75% on the first Sybex exam, I would strongly recommend taking time to learn the material better before trying any more. The exams are only really valuable the first time you take them. After that it is too easy to remember the answer, but not understand why it is correct. Getting a 90% on your third attempt means nothing other than you know those specific questions really well.
Of the practice tests, Sybex was "closest" to the real thing in terms of presentation and style. Conrad's tests were also pretty good, but the style was pretty different. Transcender was very technical and more difficult, but did help. I liked the fact that you could only test yourself on specific subjects. However, I only used them because I didnt pay any extra for them. I don't know if they are worth paying for. I dabbled with the free McGraw Hill tests, but hated them and felt like they were just testing me on trivia such as inventors of encryption algorithms etc. I don't think these were worth focusing on. I did not use CCCure or Skillset.
Videos: Cybrary is incredible and sealed the deal for me. Kelly's way of teaching is fantastic and she knows how to make things easy to remember and understand. CBT Nuggets was not as good for the CISSP. I have had great success with them for Cisco Certs, but I couldn't get into this series. I felt like it was a bit disorganized and was not comprehensive enough.
Additionally, real life work experience plays a big role in passing. Many questions where I was unsure between two choices, I was able to apply the "what would I have done in this scenario" approach to picking the correct one. I can see an inexperienced person struggling.
Finally, you really can study for this exam in 1-2 months if you DEDICATE yourself. I read every night after dinner to bed. I had no life on the weekends and studied through my lunch hours. I hardly drank or went out. I snuck in a bit of reading at work if it was a slow day. It really helped that my boss gave me that week to dedicate myself to studying, but I still think that I would have been able to prepare in under 2 months even without that. Immersion into this material was necessary. I could not see myself drawing this out any longer as it would be easy to forget stuff.
Hope this helped!