Going for the CISM!

JoJoCal19

Well after 3+ years of starting and stopping my attempts at the CISM for various reasons, it's finally time. I ordered the latest review manual (physical copy) yesterday. I'm still pretty miffed that I can't find the one I bought last Fall when I was going to go for it in December because I'd bet that it's 99% the same.

Anyways, now that my house purchase is out of the way and I can now schedule the exam for when it's convenient for me, I'm shooting to take the exam between May 1st and May 15th.

My study plan is to read the book cover to cover once (will complete by the end of March), then I'll get the online question DB and take an exam and see how I do. Depending on how I do, I will either go back to read again, or keep pounding the question DB until exam time.

jamesleecoleman

Good luck!

TankerT

Awesome!

While you're at it, you could take the ISSMP exam too as a practice exam before you take the CISM... If you can pass one, you can pass the other.

Clm

I'm taking the CISM too fair warning the CISM Manual is dry. Cybrary has an 8 hour course keeps us updated

scasc

@ TankerT - I wanted to ask is the ISSMP very closely related to CISM that once you revise from the database you are effectively preparing for the ISSMP? Reason I am asking is because I have my CISM exam in May and thinking of straight away going for ISSMP as its fresh in my head. Any obstacles faced in regard to discrepancies?

Best wishes..

scasc

Sorry one last thing - did you use the ISSMP CBK? Heard a terrible read!

rwmidl

I took the CISM last year and will say you can almost skip the book. I didn't even finish reading it (it is that dry). Get the online DB from ISACA and knock out the hours working that. I started studying in March-April last year and passed the June exam with top 20% scoring.

scasc

Apologies I might have gotten carried away with my last post. Do you mean you used the CISM database to prep for the ISSMP exam and did not need the CBK for it?

dayglo

rwmidl wrote: »

I took the CISM last year and will say you can almost skip the book. I didn't even finish reading it (it is that dry). Get the online DB from ISACA and knock out the hours working that. I started studying in March-April last year and passed the June exam with top 20% scoring.

Strong agree with the ISACA DB of questions. I was in the top 5% and the top CISM scorer in my area (although if you look back on my posts I really didn't have a grasp of how I did). Don't even think of taking the exam without the online DB.

E Double U

Good luck! I will also attempt CISM this year after I complete GCIA.

scasc

Does anyone know if focussing on the CISM database questions is enough to actually sit for the ISSMP without further study. Thinking of killing 2 birds with one stone.

Best wishes...

Jamm1n

It was strongly recommended for me to take this exam so now I am about to order the book. For the online db did you guys go for the 6 or 12 month? Was thinking 6 just because of the price 65 vs 225 which is quite an odd jump in price.

rwmidl

Jamm1n wrote: »

It was strongly recommended for me to take this exam so now I am about to order the book. For the online db did you guys go for the 6 or 12 month? Was thinking 6 just because of the price 65 vs 225 which is quite an odd jump in price.

I might have done the 12 month only because I was hedging my bets in the event I failed.

rwmidl

dayglo wrote: »

Strong agree with the ISACA DB of questions. I was in the top 5% and the top CISM scorer in my area (although if you look back on my posts I really didn't have a grasp of how I did). Don't even think of taking the exam without the online DB.

I will probably do the CISA next year so curious if using the db for that will garner same results?

TankerT

scasc wrote: »

@ TankerT - I wanted to ask is the ISSMP very closely related to CISM that once you revise from the database you are effectively preparing for the ISSMP? Reason I am asking is because I have my CISM exam in May and thinking of straight away going for ISSMP as its fresh in my head. Any obstacles faced in regard to discrepancies?

Best wishes..

If you review the ISC2 materials and the ISACA materials for their respective certs, the subjects they are covering are pretty much the same. I did use the ISSMP CBK. It reads easier than the official ISACA CISM book... But it is not a great read. Frankly, I used the CISM test database for 95% of the studying, and then researched topics I wasn't sure of in the ISSMP book a few times. If you can pass one, you can pass the other.

I have worked in IT and Security for about 20 years, so I understood the concepts of most of the materials for starters. And, I assume you have your CISSP since you mention testing for the ISSMP. You've already been tested on some of the concepts, just not as deep.

JoJoCal19

rwmidl wrote: »

I took the CISM last year and will say you can almost skip the book. I didn't even finish reading it (it is that dry). Get the online DB from ISACA and knock out the hours working that. I started studying in March-April last year and passed the June exam with top 20% scoring.

Man I should have taken your advice! This book is dreadfully dry and taking so long to read through!! At this point it's already a sunk cost so I'm just going to try and speed through it (haha as if that were possible) and get to the question DB the rest of the way.

I was aiming for a May 1st test but I'm looking more around the 10th unless I do really well on the DB questions.

JoJoCal19

Just ordered the online question DB and booked the exam for May 8th! Time to hit the question DB hard I'll just use the review manual to read up on any weak domains.