Passed CISSP! - First attempt

ITSec14 · October 2017

I took my CISSP exam today and walked away with a pass.

These forums have been a great help in my preparation. The exam was very challenging overall, but about as difficult as I expected (I knew it would be pretty brutal). I didn't take any breaks and pretty much used the whole 6 hours (I was on a roll and didn't want to stop). I did the three pass strategy like others have written about in previous threads. Overall, that worked out really well for me as some questions helped jog my memory on a few others that I struggled on.

For preparation I used the following...

Books:

Sybex 7th Edition - 9/10 (Very long book, but covered the domains well)
11th hour by Eric Conrad - 8/10 (Nice read to refresh concepts leading up to exam day)

Videos:

Watched half the CISSP videos on LinkedIn - 7/10 (Kind of boring, but some decent coverage of material)
Kelly Handerhan videos on Cybrary - 10/10 (She's amazing!)

Practice exams:

Sybex online practice tests - 8/10 (These were pretty good, but the answers can be too obvious. Flash cards were nice to have)

Extra:

Sunflower PDF - 9/10 (Great for reference, but did not use it heavily)

I personally believe that using too many resources can hurt your studies, so I kept it to a minimum.

So, overall it was a really tough exam, but it's doable! I'd also like to mention that you should never underestimate the importance of a good nights sleep and a healthy breakfast. The state of your body and mind go hand in hand. Do everything you can to ensure you are fresh going into that exam room.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

TechGuru80 · October 2017

Congrats...I have no idea how you focused that closely for 6 hours straight, nor how you didn't fall asleep doing a three pass strategy...both would drive me crazy.

shamim.sec · October 2017

Congratulations on your awesome achievement

mattster79 · October 2017

Congrats on the pass! 👍

I took 5.5hrs for my exam with no breaks. I didn’t want to lose focus and my rhythm. I think people need to do what feels right at the time. Be conscious to take a break if you feel like you need one, but don’t take a break for the sake of it.

PersianImmortal · October 2017

Congratulations!!! Interesting, I'm using the exact same materials - the two study books and two video series, Cybrary & Lynda.com. I also watched the pluralsight series once through, but it was far too dry, it was difficult to stay focused.

Can I ask how long it took you to prepare?

greg9891 · October 2017

Congrats!

xxxkaliboyxxx · October 2017

Was there any cats?

TechGuru80 · October 2017

xxxkaliboyxxx wrote: »

Was there any cats?

You can’t really tell when an exam is CAT...it’s more of “I think this question is harder or easier”...and there is already a thread covering CAT being in the future sometime not currently.

DZA_ · October 2017

Congratulations for passing your exam! I took the three pass strategy as well on my second attempt on the exam and I believe too that it helped me. You mentioned that the fewer resources is better in your case, did you have a lot of previous IT security experience before writing this exam? I was totally the opposite and had handful of resources that I was going through just to make sure that I wasn't missing anything.

xxxkaliboyxxx · October 2017

TechGuru80 wrote: »

You can’t really tell when an exam is CAT...it’s more of “I think this question is harder or easier”...and there is already a thread covering CAT being in the future sometime not currently.

My humor has failed me once again, sorry everyone!

Congrats OP, never give up!

ITSec14 · October 2017

@DZA - Honestly I’ve only been in a direct security position for about 15 months, but have done a lot of security related work in previous IT roles. A good amount was experience, but preparation helped fill the gaps. I focused heavily on areas I was weak in, but did not neglect areas I was strong in. I think that’s where a lot of people go wrong.

@Persian - I prepared for about 3 months with some gaps. No studying on weekends, primarily through the week for 2-3 hours each day.