Officially CISSP

Hello everyone,

I recently passed the CISSP exam and this forum served as a great resource for advice on study materials and study methods. I just wanted to give back and share what I did to pass. Maybe someone out there will find this information useful.

My background:
I've worked in IT for over eleven years, primarily as a systems and network administrator in the military. After I separated from the military, I transitioned into security and now work as a cyber security analyst. I do have relevant experience in 7 of the domains.

Study Materials:
-Cybrary (5/5)
-Sybex 7th Edition (5/5)
-CCCure (4/5)

Study Method:
I first watched the Cybrary videos to familiarize myself with the topics and to get a basic understanding of the concepts. The videos are excellent as an introduction to the material and Kelly does a great job presenting the topics in a way that kept me interested.

After watching the Cybrary videos, I read the Sybex book. I did find some of the material repetitive and a little dry, but it wasn't a bad read overall. Once I finished the book, I used the Sybex test bank to test my knowledge. I set the test to pick 25 random questions from the entire test bank. After each test, I would go through the results and make sure that I understood why I got a question wrong. This is probably what helped me the most in passing the CISSP exam. I made myself do at least 10 practice tests everyday.

A week before my exam, I purchased a month subscription to CCCure. I wanted to see the material presented in a different way because I found that I was starting to memorize the Sybex questions. The first test that I took I set to 50 questions and I got over half of them wrong. It wasn't exactly a confidence booster, but it did show me that I didn't understand the material as well as I thought I did. I used the same method that I did with the Sybex test bank. 25 question tests with a thorough review of the questions I got wrong.

Summary:
I spent about 3 weeks studying for the CISSP. I watched the Cybrary videos first, read the Sybex book, then used the Sybex and CCCure test banks to highlight my weaknesses. As stated before by many in this forum, don't rely on the test banks to be similar to the actual exam. Use them as a tool to test your understanding of the concepts. If you understand the concepts, you'll be good to go for the exam.

ISC2 took the full 6 weeks to complete my endorsement... after I emailed them.

Good luck! I'd be happy to answer any questions as long as it doesn't violate the NDA.