I've followed this forum quite a bit for both Security+ (passed in November) and now CISSP.
- Background info:
- MS-Applied Physics
- 12 years Systems Engineer Experience - mostly ESS and some CISSP-related topics (backup management, DIACAP, some RMF, etc.)
- Recently took new position as an Information Systems Analyst (October 2017)
- As stated - I studied/took the Security+ exam in November, studied for it for roughly 3 weeks.
- Reference Material
- Sybex CISSP 7th Edition Guide/Practice Tests (Primary Source)
- This was my main study material and does an adequate job of setting a foundation.
- Completed all of the practice tests/domain tests as I read through the material
- Went back and did text searches on topics that I stuggled with.
- The tests were helpful, but definitely not as difficult as the actual exam.
- Cybrary
- Kelly's videos were really helpful for big picture overviews and capturing the focus of the test.
- Transcender Tests
- Some info was not pertinent and/or wrong, but it was difficult enough to challenge you.
- The search text function is great for focusing on topics you struggle with
- Conrad 11th Hour
- Probably didn't need this; brief overview.
- McGraw-Hill
- Used these a bit on topics I needed help with, just to see more questions.
I used OneNote and organized my notes from CISSP and Cybrary by domain. I took a lot of practice tests (probably went through most of Sybex twice - counting the questions I took online). I was scoring in the 80% on the Sybex exams just picking a random selection of 50-100 questions from the online bonus exams. I'm sure this was skewed to the higher side since probably 75% of the questions I had seen before.
The test ended after 100 questions, it's definitely a wide range of topics, and difficult.
This forum helped a lot, so if anyone has any questions, go for it.
