Well, I was quite certain that I would pass the test... and what a disappointment it was.
695... probably one or two questions. Not more. My bad luck. I heard that I am not the only one. Maybe we should open a club? Lattice-based. LOL.
I would never know if that was the case, but I listened to all the good tips here except for one tip - if you are sure about your answer, don't change it. And I did change a few questions. Flagged, but also unflagged ones. I finished the exam with about 30 flagged questions. I only changed 3 or 4 from the flagged ones. When I finished answering my exam, I checked the flagged and then I had enough time to start messing with my exam... maybe that was my mistake. I would never know.
So, what can you learn from a 695? Ok, I've got the 8 domains ordered from the weakest domain to the strongest domain, and my weakest domain was Security Operations which I didn't give enough "love" to. That was one of my biggest mistakes for sure (although most of the time I scored around 70% at that domain. Probably not enough for the test). But the 2nd weakest domain was security engineering which I know that very well. I would not know the real difference between them, so I should keep working until I know them with more than 85% of success for a long time.
Invested time: 3 intensive months. 9 months before I hit it on and off.
This is what I used for learning:
Sybex 7th edition - actually teaches you the domain. Reading is not simple because you actually have to think, but they do it not in a boring way. Just give it the exact amount of time and understand every word (I read pretty fast and probably skipped/ignored a few important sentences each time). I would give it a 9/10.
Eric Conrad's CISSP Study guide, 3rd edition - very good book. Gives another perspective to Sybex. They actuallly complement each other. When one book misses an important "puzzle" part, the other one actually has it vice versa. Highly recommended to read both books to good a complete overview. 8.5/10
Eric Conrad's 11th hour CISSP - read it the last day. Very good for the last 48 hours of reading. 8/10
Video:
Cybrary, Kelly Handerhan - there were enough good reviews about her here and there. I watched her video 2.5 times and it was never boring. She's perfect. 10/10
Pearson IT Certification, Sari Greene. She teaches well, very methodical and I truly like her. She gives a very interesting insight to the domains. Unfortunately didn't invest enough time to watch it all (around 25 hours). 9/10.
O'Reilly, David R. Miller. I don't know why, but I barely read any review regarding his video. He gives 40 hours of explanations, "attacking" each topic in different words each time. He gives so many perspectives for his examples that you can't miss it. It's like a fully-live-paid course right at your home. He's amazing and I actually started watching him the last week, although I had his video for months... I blame him for my failure
10/10 !
Exams:
Cybex's 7th edition - 4 full online exams. Very good. use them! 9/10
Cybex's Practice tests - 2 full exams. 100 questions for each domain (1300 questions total). Very good. Use them! 9/10
Boson's practice exams kit. Only 3 exams. Use them wisely. To my surprise, it was the most difficult one but the most relevant one to the test. I scored around 65% in the first exam of Boson and neglected it (although I scored around 75% most of the time at Sybex's exams). That was last week. Now I know that I was wrong. 10/10
My tips:
1. Use your sources wisely. There are many good ones. Use at least 2. If you find a good source, invest your time to understand it completely. I would use at LEAST both Sybex and Eric Corman's. I guess that I will start reading Shon Harris' book as well, where my weak points are. She gives very good scenario-based explanations.
2. Check the videos. They are good. I believe that Cyberary, Pearson and O'Reilly's videos will give you everything that you need. I know that there are more good videos out there. Maybe I will check them out as well, but I probably don't need it especially when I only watched around 50% of the long videos and they were as good as taking an online course.
3. Give yourself time just to practice! Practicing is very important, not only to have the "feeling" of the exam but also to get as many scenarios as possible. It's one thing to read the book and another thing to test yourself with 100 or 250 questions of different domains, every day. I have done that intensively in the last 3 weeks and I felt that I needed 1 or 2 more weeks although I scored around 75% and my score kept raising to 80%... I was probably right with my feelings.
4. You failed, but keep up the good work and try to hit it again next time. The last thing that I want is to do this all over again, so I will keep studying and practicing while it's still hot in my head. I want to nail it next month (I wanted to do ISSAP, but that would have to wait.
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That's all for now. Let me know if you have any tips, especially for someone like me, who is probably close by 1 or 2 questions to pass the test. Thanks.
