I passed the SSCP exam Friday and thought I'd jot a quick note to share my experience.
First, I already have several certs, including CISSP, CISM, and Sec+, and I've worked in IT for a long, long time. But I'm always looking for ways to increase my knowledge and garner CPEs/CEUs/Etc.
I didn't start out to get the SSCP. I recently started a new job and didn't want to dedicate the time to prepare for an exam, but I wanted to renew my Sec+ and needed some CEUs. I decided to do the FedVTE SSCP prep course (16 hours of videos). Overall, I thought it was a decent review of things I was mostly familiar with.
When I was about a third of the way done with the videos I started thinking I could grab the cert without a whole lot more prep, so I ordered the SSCP All-in-One Second Edition by Darril Gibson as a second source (I always try to have at least two prep sources) and scheduled the exam for about 3 weeks out.
With a deadline set for the exam, I wish I could say I spent 3 weeks really studying, but I really started hitting it about 10 days out. I went through the book pretty quickly, and the last 2 days I also reviewed notes I had made when studying for Sec+ and CISSP.
I didn't go through any practice tests except the FedVTE quizzes and some of the AiO end-of-chapter review questions (first 4 chapters, I think... after that I was just trying to steamroll through all the material as quickly as possible).
So Friday I took the exam. My lesson learned was that I should avoid exams at 5pm on Fridays!! There were several times I felt like I was just staring off into space, tired, not focusing like I should. At one point I even slapped my face (not hard, I was trying to be quiet). Despite that, I finished in about an hour (you get 3 hours).
No score is given, so I don't know how well I did except that I passed. I felt pretty confident all the way through, though. There were a few questions that that I didn't remember being covered by either source, and even a couple of questions that I thought I understood well enough but would have sworn had no correct answer listed, but overall I felt like my study materials covered more than enough to pass. My plan is always to not waste time on questions I don't know the answer to... I either know the answer or I don't, if I don't I quickly try to narrow it down, then I guess and move on. I don't mark questions for review and I generally don't go back to any questions unless I want to double check that I read it right. Most of the questions seemed pretty straight forward to me. Way, way easier than CISSP (of course), but I have to say that I also thought it seemed easier than Sec+.
Okay, that's it. Not even sure I'll send in the endorsement, but passing an exam always makes me feel good
