Passed 07-16-16 1st Attempt
Hi all,
I registered an account and main purpose of doing so and writing here is to give back, as this place has been giving me a lot in the past few months. I'd like to share about my journey and experience.
1. Background
- I have IT audit & compliance related work for the 7+ years. Got my CISA few years ago.
2. I started my search in this forum back in January, which gives me guidance / suggestions as what books to read, what videos to watch, etc. Here is the what I did:
Exam is pretty strait forward (at least on my version, there are not many tricky or technical questions). A lot of managerial and scenario questions which require you refer to your experience and background knowledge to rule out the incorrect answers.
I have to say that I might have over studied, all the books I read and practice questions I did may not really be necessary to pass the exam, but it's all worth for the knowledge I gained from this journey.
Tip of taking the exam -- I mentally think this is 10 small exams, each have 25 questions -- this helped pace myself well and not get scared or mentally lost by the number of 250 questions. I took one break after 100 questions, and finished the rest without break. Flagged about 20 questions, and before submitting, quickly reviewed them without change a single one.
Good luck to everyone!
I registered an account and main purpose of doing so and writing here is to give back, as this place has been giving me a lot in the past few months. I'd like to share about my journey and experience.
1. Background
- I have IT audit & compliance related work for the 7+ years. Got my CISA few years ago.
2. I started my search in this forum back in January, which gives me guidance / suggestions as what books to read, what videos to watch, etc. Here is the what I did:
- Read Shawn Harris (only did 1/3 - gave up)
- Read Sybex 7th edition book (took me almost 2 months - cover to cover)
- Watched Cybrary videos
- Practiced Sybex Practice exams
- Read [FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]3rd edition Study Guide by Eric Conrad [/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]([/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]read [/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]twice - cover to cover[/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]) [/FONT]
- [FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]Subscribe (one month before exam) and did practice in CCCure
- Attended Bootcamp (by the way I did NOT read or used the ISC2 official book we received in the bootcamp at all - personally I feel it is the worst among the all the others I read)
Exam is pretty strait forward (at least on my version, there are not many tricky or technical questions). A lot of managerial and scenario questions which require you refer to your experience and background knowledge to rule out the incorrect answers.
I have to say that I might have over studied, all the books I read and practice questions I did may not really be necessary to pass the exam, but it's all worth for the knowledge I gained from this journey.
Tip of taking the exam -- I mentally think this is 10 small exams, each have 25 questions -- this helped pace myself well and not get scared or mentally lost by the number of 250 questions. I took one break after 100 questions, and finished the rest without break. Flagged about 20 questions, and before submitting, quickly reviewed them without change a single one.
Good luck to everyone!
Comments
-
jayaleem
Member Posts: 12 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats! Do you think just reading the Sybex cover to cover is enough, or do you recommend reading Conrad's book as well? -
clulu
Member Posts: 5 ■□□□□□□□□□
Hi Jayaleem,
For me, passing CISSP is one of my goals (the other one is to learn as much as I can from this process). Maybe it's overkill for the exam, but reading chapter by chapter from different books did give me a pretty good knowledge fundation.
So I'd say if you have plenty of time, go over both. Cornard book is shorter and easier to follow and understand. Again - exam is not very technical, but it does require you to understand the concept and apply to real cases. Good luck! -
danny069
Member Posts: 1,025 ■■■■□□□□□□
Two months is pretty good considering the Sybex 7th edition is as thick as a yellow pages phone book circa 1999 and prior (nowadays yellow pages are super thin) Congrats!I am a Jack of all trades, Master of None -
clulu
Member Posts: 5 ■□□□□□□□□□
Two months is pretty good considering the Sybex 7th edition is as thick as a yellow pages phone book circa 1999 and prior (nowadays yellow pages are super thin) Congrats!
LOL - Yeah, I gave up Shawn Harris book, so can't ban another book. Reading Sybex is not easy either, fall asleep few times in front of desk. Haven't had this "incidents" since college time... -
Nabsh07
Member Posts: 72 ■■□□□□□□□□
Congrats... Do you mind sharing which Bootcamp you attended and how long after the bootcamp you took the exam?
-
clulu
Member Posts: 5 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats... Do you mind sharing which Bootcamp you attended and how long after the bootcamp you took the exam?
I attended the trainingcamp - I think it's held by isc2. I took the exam Sat afternoon, immediately after the 5 days training and couple hours review session on Sat morning.
