Passed : 24 Sep 2016
Sat the exam this weekend and passed. 
It was hard work sitting in an exam room for 5 hours. I had a short 10 min break every 50 questions just to make it manageable.
OSCP next..
It was hard work sitting in an exam room for 5 hours. I had a short 10 min break every 50 questions just to make it manageable.
OSCP next..
Comments
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h1ck5r
Member Posts: 37 ■■□□□□□□□□
Great job2017 Goals: CISSP(✔)
2018 Goals: Security+（✔）,Find a girlfriend（?）
2019 Goals: Find a girlfriend（?）
2020 Goals: Find a girlfriend（?） -
simondeys
Member Posts: 13 ■□□□□□□□□□
Hi ,
Congrats ,
CAn you give us an overview of how the exam was , what material did you refer ,
Was it more technical or Managerial , ?
Did you think like a manager or a technical guy while answering the Questions , ?
Before you pressed the finish button in the exam , did you knew you would pass for sure , or was it 50/50 ? -
DataFox
Member Posts: 11 ■■□□□□□□□□
Hi Simon,
My Background.
I had been working in IT for 10 years as a senior systems engineer, before taking a serious pay cut to land my dream job as an Infosec Security Consultant. Would I do it again? Yes, if you take any advice from my experience! its simply this. Be happy in all that you do. An old saying rings true, if you enjoy your work, truly enjoy it. you will never work a day in your life. I made the move 4 years ago and I would never go back to that life.
Exam Prep.
My prep started in January 2016 when my employer asked if I would consider taking this on. We had a number of contracts that where reaching renewal and the discovery documents stated that all named InfoSec staff must be cissp qualified and in good standing.
I agreed and started my journey to become a CISSP.
The first thing I did was, I actually visited this site and reviewed what others where using to succeed in the exam. for my own style of learning the best books I used where.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Certified-Information-Security-Professional-Official/dp/1119042712/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475369389&sr=8-1&keywords=cissp
and
https://www.amazon.co.uk/CISSP-Study-Guide-Eric-Conrad/dp/0128024372/ref=pd_sim_14_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FH9KEHA1SENKN90Y7GY5
Eric Conrads Study Guide, became my “go to book” and favourite. When I was missing knowledge I referenced the the other.
I did not give the material the time it needed to master the content and after a few months of a half effort, I was making little to no progress with the domains. I settled myself and created a plan to attack the content and during March and April, I was spending 1hr to 2hrs per night reading and making my own notes. I was making progress and by the end of May I was ready to sit the exam and it was booked.
Unfortunately, 1 week before sitting the exam, my world was rocked and passing this exam became the last thing on my mind. I returned to work 2 months latter and during my return interview, I confirmed that I would sit the exam in 4 weeks.
Getting back to work allowed me to focus again. I was studying 2 - 3 hrs a night and on the final weeks run up to the exam, I had frequent dates with Kelly Handerhan, her free video series at https://www.cybrary.it/course/cissp/ helped keep the information and concepts in place for the big day..
The Exam
The exam was tough.
My game plan for going into the exam was simple. Take a break at 80 questions and another one at 160 questions and a final break at 250 before tackling the review. I aimed to do 2 passes, first knocking easy questions out of the way and then doing a second pass for the harder ones.
Well I can tell you this was the wrong plan, I did the first 25 questions and I was not happy. Their was a huge disconnect in the content in the books and sample questions and what was presented on the exam. Only 25 questions into the exam, I had to take a break and settle my thoughts. Software Development Life Cycle featured allot.
At this point I completely changed my thinking and decided that the best way forward was to take each question in turn, answer it as best I can and move forward. At the 90 question mark, I took another 10 min break, not because of the number of questions in, but because I was feeling tired and I found myself rereading questions. I personally found, that by taking small breaks when I needed them, I was feeling much happier about sitting in the exam room and also answering the questions to the best of my availability.
Back into the exam I diligently worked through the questions one at a time. I was making a conscious decision to keep moving forward. Around the 180 point, I took another break, I had bad run of questions that I needed to apply allot to come up with an answer. The questions are not difficult, But you must be able to identify what is being asked of you.
The second half of the exam was going much quicker. At about 225 I had my last break… I simply wanted to be fresh for the final push to the finish line. Back into the exam room, one question after the other, I moved forward..
When I came to the final question, I can honestly tell you that I did not know if I had passed or failed. I was swaying on the side of fail. But it did not matter, I did the best I could.
I had 10 questions marked for review… but I was done.. I did not review them, and changed no answers…. NEXT… NEXT …. finished….
I walked up to the counter and they handed me my results in a white envelope. I quietly sat down and made use of the coffee machine and opened the results…..
I had an equal representation of all 8 domains. Software Development questions were tricky, this was by far the hardest for me. Crypto and Access controls featured heavily as did Network Security. I had very few trivia questions, so on this note, CCURE was not worth the subscription. Sureskills, again in my option did not reflect the questions on the exam and I did not get many trivia questions.
The best exam tip I can relay is! know how to read the questions and understand what is being asked of you. Reading the question will tell you if its a Confidentiality answer, or an Integrity Answer or an Availability answer… and if its not one of the 3 (C I A) its going to be a trivia question such as a raw fact.
Good luck and hope this helps
forget to thank you guys for the kind words.
