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Passed CISSP!
PersianImmortal
Member Posts: 124 ■■□□□□□□□□
in CISSP
Got my provisional pass for the CISSP this morning!! My heart stopped when I hit question 100 and the exam froze. Walking back to the front desk to receive my results I had no idea if I had passed or failed. Honestly, I can say I was confident in about 50% of the questions, the other 50% were total tossups for me.
Definitely was not an easy exam by any standard. I would have to agree with many other posts on here that the wording for some of the questions on the exam can be a bit tricky. While a 100-150 question exam is far more preferable to the 250 question (yikes) behemoth, one thing I didn't like about the CAT exam was that I couldn't go back and check my answers... I know for a fact that one of the questions I'm pretty sure I missed as soon as I clicked the "next" button, but I couldn't go back to change it..
Overall, I think this exam is very doable, but you do have to know the material inside and out. And I mean KNOW IT. Knowing the definitions are not enough, you need to understand how to apply these concepts in real-world and theoretical situations. I studied off and on for about 5 months... Life, work, and my phd dissertation continuously got in the way, so I didn't really have a lot of dedicated time to study...
Materials used:
Stewart et al. Sybex CISSP Official Study Guide: 7th Edition - Invaluable. This should be your primary resource. If you don't know the material in here cover to cover, the exam is going to be pretty difficult. The book is tough to get through, mainly due to its length...
Conrad et al., 11th Hour CISSP: 3rd Edition - A good review, albeit a bit brief. Gave me something else to read besides the ponderous Sybex book which can be tough to get through..
Kelly Handerhan's Cybrary.it CISSP Training Videos - Invaluable. Downloaded the MP3's and listened to while I was at the Gym or taking walks. Also watched the videos during any spare time at work. Kelly really conveys a lot of the concepts on the exam in easy to understand terms, and also gives what I thought was the most important lesson - "Don't think like an IT person on this exam, think like a Manager."
Pluralsight CISSP Training Videos - Mediocre... Nothing really bad to say about these, just sort of long and boring. I didn't make it all the way through these vids..
I also kept up with a lot of the success posts on these forums, and I have to say they were very motivational, so thank you to all the contributors here! Best of luck to everyone who is preparing to take the CISSP! If I can pass it, you definitely can too!
Definitely was not an easy exam by any standard. I would have to agree with many other posts on here that the wording for some of the questions on the exam can be a bit tricky. While a 100-150 question exam is far more preferable to the 250 question (yikes) behemoth, one thing I didn't like about the CAT exam was that I couldn't go back and check my answers... I know for a fact that one of the questions I'm pretty sure I missed as soon as I clicked the "next" button, but I couldn't go back to change it..
Overall, I think this exam is very doable, but you do have to know the material inside and out. And I mean KNOW IT. Knowing the definitions are not enough, you need to understand how to apply these concepts in real-world and theoretical situations. I studied off and on for about 5 months... Life, work, and my phd dissertation continuously got in the way, so I didn't really have a lot of dedicated time to study...
Materials used:
Stewart et al. Sybex CISSP Official Study Guide: 7th Edition - Invaluable. This should be your primary resource. If you don't know the material in here cover to cover, the exam is going to be pretty difficult. The book is tough to get through, mainly due to its length...
Conrad et al., 11th Hour CISSP: 3rd Edition - A good review, albeit a bit brief. Gave me something else to read besides the ponderous Sybex book which can be tough to get through..
Kelly Handerhan's Cybrary.it CISSP Training Videos - Invaluable. Downloaded the MP3's and listened to while I was at the Gym or taking walks. Also watched the videos during any spare time at work. Kelly really conveys a lot of the concepts on the exam in easy to understand terms, and also gives what I thought was the most important lesson - "Don't think like an IT person on this exam, think like a Manager."
Pluralsight CISSP Training Videos - Mediocre... Nothing really bad to say about these, just sort of long and boring. I didn't make it all the way through these vids..
I also kept up with a lot of the success posts on these forums, and I have to say they were very motivational, so thank you to all the contributors here! Best of luck to everyone who is preparing to take the CISSP! If I can pass it, you definitely can too!
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averageguy72
Member Posts: 323 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats!CISSP / CCSP / CCSK / CRISC / CISM / CISA / CASP / Security+ / Network+ / A+ / CEH / eNDP / AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty / AWS Certified Security - Specialty / AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional / AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional / AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate / AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate / AWS Certified Developer - Associate / AWS Cloud Practitioner -
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Falcon56
Member Posts: 94 ■■■□□□□□□□
PersianImmortal.....you DID IT!!!! Great job and nice post. So happy for you. Thanks for sharing the experience with us
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OptionsPersianImmortal
Member Posts: 124 ■■□□□□□□□□
Thanks everyone!! And thanks Falcon for the informative post the past week, definitely helped me push past the finish line!
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anthonx
Member Posts: 109 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats! Sounds like your study materials covered 50% of the exam and the other 50% based on your experience. Just like most of the exam passed topics, it now becomes a reading comprehension type of exam. Knowledge still counts but understanding the questions and answers are now the major obstacle. Thanks for the feedback.AnthonX
