PASSED 1st attempt. Forum Creeper.

gerardb

Hey everybody. I just wanted to share that I passed the CISSP on my first attempt last Friday. I like visiting to forum to read about everyone's successes and wanted to contribute and share my own.

I would say that the exam is a very tricky tricky little b. You must read the questions entirely and then read them again to understand what is being asked. Half of the question may have something to do with the answer but may not be the best answer. Always choose the BEST answer. Follow the rules and advice towards understanding the canons and choosing solutions based on those priorities.

I studied for about 2 months, a few hours most nights, no weekend study.

I used:
Mike Chapple, Lynda.com
Kelly Handerhan, AUDIO only Cybrary in the car
11th Hour CISSP, the week of the test, 30-50 pages skimmed each night
CISSP for Dummies - random wildcard draws opening the book and reading a few snippets of that page (not used much)
Larry Greenblat CISSP video course... I got through about day 2.5 and then skimmed the rest of the videos. I think that abstraction of thought in his videos and teaching is very helpful.

Practice tests: None

Career Experience:
10+ years network engineer/technician

Education:
MS Applied Information Technology
MBA Cybersecurity

Certifications:
SSCP 2016
Security+ 2017
Network+ 2004

I completed the test with 70 minutes to spare. My test ended at 100 questions. I was certain to wear my athleisure wear, vision glasses and to me most importantly ear muffs. I also stayed in a hotel 5 minutes from the test site the night before and took the test at 11AM.

PersianImmortal

Congratulations!!! And with only 2 months of study, well done!!

PCTechLinc

That is definitely an awesome accomplishment! I think what's more impressive is not using practice exams. Good job!

NetworkNewb

Congrats you creeper!

gerardb

Thanks everyone. I did answer the questions at the end of each chapter in 11th Hour CISSP and completed the questions at the end of each Mike Chapple video. I listened to the Cybrary audio 2 complete times while commuting to work and completed the approx. 20 hours of Mike Chapple training once.
I did not get into any practice exams because I did not want to think about questions and answers. I wanted to think about principles, foundational knowledge and context. IF you at still studying for this exam, good luck. You can do it!

PCTechLinc

I did pretty much everything you did, except I did go through as many practice exams that I could find. I also studied for about 2 months, but my Master's degree covered all the objectives, which I think gave me an edge. I almost got the full 150 questions, but thankfully passed after that. Now just waiting for my endorsement to complete. It's been just over 2 weeks.

beads

Compare recent CISSP numbers to those of the past and you will see a dramatic increase in the number of CISSPs out there combined with the slow increase in numbers. Took 20+ years to get to 400,000 and and another 8 for the next 300,000. Currently new CISSPs are in the low to mid 700,000s. The exam has become easier to obtain - particularly with the CAT format.

It's been discussed on the official ISC(2) board before being redacted.

Congrats on coming out of the shadows, lurker!

- b/eads

mgeoffriau

beads wrote: »

Compare recent CISSP numbers to those of the past and you will see a dramatic increase in the number of CISSPs out there combined with the slow increase in numbers. Took 20+ years to get to 400,000 and and another 8 for the next 300,000. Currently new CISSPs are in the low to mid 700,000s. The exam has become easier to obtain - particularly with the CAT format.

I don't necessarily disagree that it has become a more accessible and attainable certification, but I also wonder how much of that growth is simply due to the massive growth of the infosec field itself (and the shortage of qualified infosec professionals).

sameoj

Congrats