Passed CISSP exam first attempt
opensourcer
Registered Users Posts: 1 ■■□□□□□□□□
in CISSP
Hello
I`ve been lurking around this forum for a while and reading about other peoples experience with this exam. The succuss stories have been helpful and I thought I`d give back something. I studied for almost 3 months and passed the exam the 30th of November 2017.
Background:
Bachelors in Computer Science and 11 years in the IT field. The last 8 years as a network and security engineer. I`ve earlier taken CCNP routing and switching, CCNP Security, CCDP, HPE MASE Network infrastructur, Security+, Linux+, Network+, CEH and several other certification not worth mentioning in this context.
Books:
Read CISSP Study Guide, Third Edition (Erick Conrad) once and took a lot of notes.
Read the Sybex Official Study Guide 7th Edition once and used a marker to highlight what I thought was important. I used this book as reference.
Audio/video:
Watched Kelly`s videos (Cybrary) whenever I had the chance. Very helpful. I also used the mp3`s when I was driving or walking. I even made a script that trimmed the annoying ad in the beginning and end of the files
Watched all of the CISSP videos at CBT Nuggets. Only because I had free access through my employer.
Shon Harris mp3`s. Listened for a few hours. Way too technical and probably outdated.
Practice tests:
Went through all the questions from Sybex twice. Probably the most helpful questions.
Took about half of the questions at CCCure.org.
(ISC)² CISSP Official Tests, Android App, did some of the questions. These questions were the most difficult ones in my opinion.
Other materials:
CISSP Combined Notes.pdf, just skimmed through.
(ISC)² CISSP Official Study, Android App, just did the first four chapters. Repetition of the Sybex book.
My own notes, skimmed through.
Exam:
I took 3 short breaks. From reading other experiences I was prepared with the concept mindset and thinking like a manager or advisor. In my opinion the questions was not very hard, but you have to read them carefully to get all the details, especially if English is not your native language. Because I rarely manage to eat in an exam situation, I felt almost exhausted when I was close to 200 questions. However, I took a break and eat something. The motivation came back and I manage to stay focused. So make sure to eat something! Took about 5 hours to go through all the questions. Used another 30 minutes to go through the marked ones and finished with about 30 minutes remaining.
Conclusion:
Keep out for overstudying and reading several books. I was overprepared in some domains and fed up of reading. The Sybex book and Cybrary videos/mp3`s were the most important sources of information for me. Kelly has some very good advice for how to prepare and think when taking the exam. And she explains the concepts pretty well. The Sybex questions were good too and CCCure OK if you want to spend the money. The android apps were unnecessary.
I`ve been lurking around this forum for a while and reading about other peoples experience with this exam. The succuss stories have been helpful and I thought I`d give back something. I studied for almost 3 months and passed the exam the 30th of November 2017.
Background:
Bachelors in Computer Science and 11 years in the IT field. The last 8 years as a network and security engineer. I`ve earlier taken CCNP routing and switching, CCNP Security, CCDP, HPE MASE Network infrastructur, Security+, Linux+, Network+, CEH and several other certification not worth mentioning in this context.
Books:
Read CISSP Study Guide, Third Edition (Erick Conrad) once and took a lot of notes.
Read the Sybex Official Study Guide 7th Edition once and used a marker to highlight what I thought was important. I used this book as reference.
Audio/video:
Watched Kelly`s videos (Cybrary) whenever I had the chance. Very helpful. I also used the mp3`s when I was driving or walking. I even made a script that trimmed the annoying ad in the beginning and end of the files
Watched all of the CISSP videos at CBT Nuggets. Only because I had free access through my employer.
Shon Harris mp3`s. Listened for a few hours. Way too technical and probably outdated.
Practice tests:
Went through all the questions from Sybex twice. Probably the most helpful questions.
Took about half of the questions at CCCure.org.
(ISC)² CISSP Official Tests, Android App, did some of the questions. These questions were the most difficult ones in my opinion.
Other materials:
CISSP Combined Notes.pdf, just skimmed through.
(ISC)² CISSP Official Study, Android App, just did the first four chapters. Repetition of the Sybex book.
My own notes, skimmed through.
Exam:
I took 3 short breaks. From reading other experiences I was prepared with the concept mindset and thinking like a manager or advisor. In my opinion the questions was not very hard, but you have to read them carefully to get all the details, especially if English is not your native language. Because I rarely manage to eat in an exam situation, I felt almost exhausted when I was close to 200 questions. However, I took a break and eat something. The motivation came back and I manage to stay focused. So make sure to eat something! Took about 5 hours to go through all the questions. Used another 30 minutes to go through the marked ones and finished with about 30 minutes remaining.
Conclusion:
Keep out for overstudying and reading several books. I was overprepared in some domains and fed up of reading. The Sybex book and Cybrary videos/mp3`s were the most important sources of information for me. Kelly has some very good advice for how to prepare and think when taking the exam. And she explains the concepts pretty well. The Sybex questions were good too and CCCure OK if you want to spend the money. The android apps were unnecessary.
Comments
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Info_Sec_Wannabe
Member Posts: 428 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats!
All those resources / study materials in just three months? Wish I can do the same.. I don't absorb stuff as quickly so I would sometimes need to read certain portions or sections a couple of times.
X year plan: (20XX) OSCP [ ], CCSP [ ]
