Passed CISSP exam
shashashane
Registered Users Posts: 2 ■□□□□□□□□□
in CISSP
Passed the CISSP exam last Thursday. I've been working on this for over 2 years, every time I had some traction some life event got in the way so early April, I committed to early May test, here's what I did. (granted by the time I locked in the test I already understood security models, risk analysis formula, etc.) Here's my take:
Last 2 years: CBT Nuggets course for high level knowledge, CCCure CBT was in-depth knowledge. Also went to some instructor led classes/workshops... not as much value to me as CBT because you can pause the CBT and go research something in depth to mastery where the instructor has to keep moving forward to cover all the material.
Last month:
Scheduled the test to lock in the commitment
Prep the family to make studies a priority for them too
Focused on 1 domain at a time, pull up the CIB/exam outline and understand objectives and sub topics
-Read through the official CBK for that domain looking for topics that match CIB
-Used "lighthouse book" to drill into new or unfamiliar topics I ran across in CBK
-Practice test with Wiley/Sybex online practice tests (study guide that complements lighthouse book)
-CCCure practice tests
-both sets of practice tests always 1 domain at a time and practice mode, read the answer explanation for BOTH right and wrong and answers. As many questions as you can do. I did 100 questions at a time and this helped me estimate time for the exam
Test:
-Scheduled for 11:00AM... plenty of morning time for good breakfast, etc, actually arrived early and started at 10:00AM
-Answered every question before taking a break, mark anything not 80% or better sure the answer was correct
-Counted up and had marked 97 questions, around the 70% mark, figured if all unmarked q's were correct and all marked were incorrect I was pretty close to 70%.
-Took a much needed restroom, water and snack break. At this point it was almost 4 hours in.
-Reviewed marked questions, spent additional time on each, didn't end up changing a lot of them. Left a few marked, just flat out didn't know or had never seen the term that was referenced in the question.
Last 2 years: CBT Nuggets course for high level knowledge, CCCure CBT was in-depth knowledge. Also went to some instructor led classes/workshops... not as much value to me as CBT because you can pause the CBT and go research something in depth to mastery where the instructor has to keep moving forward to cover all the material.
Last month:
Scheduled the test to lock in the commitment
Prep the family to make studies a priority for them too
Focused on 1 domain at a time, pull up the CIB/exam outline and understand objectives and sub topics
-Read through the official CBK for that domain looking for topics that match CIB
-Used "lighthouse book" to drill into new or unfamiliar topics I ran across in CBK
-Practice test with Wiley/Sybex online practice tests (study guide that complements lighthouse book)
-CCCure practice tests
-both sets of practice tests always 1 domain at a time and practice mode, read the answer explanation for BOTH right and wrong and answers. As many questions as you can do. I did 100 questions at a time and this helped me estimate time for the exam
Test:
-Scheduled for 11:00AM... plenty of morning time for good breakfast, etc, actually arrived early and started at 10:00AM
-Answered every question before taking a break, mark anything not 80% or better sure the answer was correct
-Counted up and had marked 97 questions, around the 70% mark, figured if all unmarked q's were correct and all marked were incorrect I was pretty close to 70%.
-Took a much needed restroom, water and snack break. At this point it was almost 4 hours in.
-Reviewed marked questions, spent additional time on each, didn't end up changing a lot of them. Left a few marked, just flat out didn't know or had never seen the term that was referenced in the question.
Comments
-
shimasensei
Member Posts: 241 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congratulations, good luck on the endorsement processing time. Thanks for sharing your study formula.Current: BSc IT + CISSP, CCNP:RS, CCNA:Sec, CCNA:RS, CCENT, Sec+, P+, A+, L+/LPIC-1, CSSS, VCA6-DCV, ITILv3:F, MCSA:Win10
Future Plans: MSc + PMP, CCIE/NPx, GIAC... -
pinksj
Member Posts: 89 ■■□□□□□□□□
Congratulations and good that you had finally taken it. What's next on the list now?
-
shashashane
Registered Users Posts: 2 ■□□□□□□□□□
Thanks! I'm either going to do CISM or ISSMP (or both). Trying to figure out which would be better. I took a CISM practice exam and passed with 75%, late at night and on a whim so I don't think that would be too hard to drill into, but I like the idea of stretching on into ISC2 and CISSP to have something really unique. I really get excited about the ISSAP domains, it's stuff I do every day... but I want to let the new domains and CBK settle in before taking that on. Part of my delay with CISSP was spending a lot of time on the previous resources. I was scheduling the test in April 2015 and showed up at an ISC2 review just to hear them start the class with "new content". That set me back a long way, although in hindsight it shouldn't have.
