Passed CISSP Exam today 8/27 - Second Try

After failing the first time I was determined to study more and convenience myself that I will do it on my next try. Thank god, I passed today my CISSP exam

. I will provide my study plan for the first and second time later on. For now, need to celebrate and relax

. One thing I can say is that if I can do, you can do it as well. Wish the best for everyone.

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Comments

pinksj

'-Thats a nice feeling after not getting through the first. I am so happy for you. Congratulations and celebrations

mandy7777

congratulation to you

sameoj

Congrats

vijaytyagi@msn.com

Congrats

ankit2455

Congratulations to you....waiting to see your study plan and plz let us know what you learned from the 1st and the 2nd attempt

E Double U

Job well done! What is next for you?

security.skillz

Alright, after relaxing and enjoying the rest of the weekend, here is the study plan for me:

Material used for both attemps:
1. Cybraryit videos, the old videos based on the 10 domains on my first attempt and the new 8 domains for my second attempt . very good resource to start with as it will give you an overview of all the domains and what to focus on in the exam. 8/10
2. Eric Conrad 3rd edition, this book was my only book for study (first and second attempt). every word on this book is important, so would be good to study it in depth and first time, and do a quick skim of the book 2-3 days before the exam. 9/10
3. Freepracticetests.org, for the first attempt I only studied up to 1000 questions for my second attempt I stutdied all of the questions (I used a 250 questions tests almost every time using study mode) 8/10
4. Transcender practice tests, (more realistic questions and more similar to the exam, but they are only 900 questions so it didn't cover as much information and subjects as freepracticetests.org). on my first attemp I only solved 200-300 questions. with my second attempt, I worked on all the questions. 7/10
4. CISSP Practice Exams fourth Edition - Shon Harris, I answered all the questions in the book and CD for the first attemp only. not much helpful to be honest 5/10
5. Sybex 7th Edition, for me it was a beefy, fat book to read so I didn't study this book, I only did all the practice tests in the book on my first attemp. What I did is that any subject that wasn't clear or needs more clarification, I refer to this book and read it here. 7/10
6. CISSP skillset video trainings on youtube, Unfortunately, I knew about these video training two days before my second attempt exam. They are good as I went through 3-4 videos. 8/10
7. Cyber Kung Fu - Larry Greenblatt CISSP videos, I didn't enjoy the first video - 8 hours - so I didn't move forward with this training. 5/10

Exam Day:-
First Attemp:-
--total # of days to study was 45 days--
on the first attempt, I went through each question and took my time to make sure I answer and move forward, this caused me to have very little time to do the review. I already flagged a lot of questions 50-60 questions. I took 2 breaks, each one was for 5-10 mins. after I reached the end of the exam 5 hours and half have already passed so I went into stress mode and said I won't be able to go through the 50-60 flagged questions and just wanted to end the exam and leave. so thats what I did and failed with a score of 677.

Second Attempt:
--total number of days to study 25 days--
on the day of the exam, I took a different approach which I learned from reading these forums. I went through the questions as quickly as possible and flagging as little as possible (you need to have the confidence in your answers and as many of the guys here said most of the time the first answer you choose will be the correct answer). That being said, I flagged 25 questions and finished the 250 questions after 4 hours. So I had 2 hours left to do a review of the 25 flagged questions. I went through the flagged questions and changed 6 out of the 25 within 30 mins. After that, I finished the exam and went out to get my results. When I saw there were 2 papers, then I thought I failed again but when I checked the paper and started looking for my failing score I realized that there is no score and I saw the word congratulations

.

Tips:
1. Try to relax while taking the exam as you will be able to answer the questions with more confidence.
2. take quick breaks, get snacks, water, go to the restroom and wash your face, look outside of the window while on break to relax.
3. don't focus much on questions that will take you more than 1 min, quickly choose an answer and flag it and move to the next one.
4. Most of the time the first answer you choose will be the correct answer.

Wish all the best for everyone who is taking the exam.

security.skillz

Thank you. To be honest, I'm still not sure what would be my next certificate. I have the following to choose from:

1. GCIH - recommended by my manager
2. CISM - would be a good choice for me to move up the ladder in the future
3. CCSP - for cloud but still not sure if it's worth it or not

mika123

What was your score on the first try?

No_Nerd

way to go!!!

I test again in November for CISSP and in 30 days for CASP again .
Congrats again . the test is long and difficult.

kalkan999

Nothing makes me happier than to see someone persevere after the first attempt. The test is still a crucible, and still valid. It's onward and upward from here!

kalkan999

cmitchell_00

Congrats