Passed - 9-20-2018 - Upset!

That Random Guy

I passed! Also, this is my first post!

Now then—who do I contact to complain about the exam and the format I received?

That's a serious inquiry BTW. Since I signed that NDA, I won't go into detail, but that was one of the WORST exams I've ever taken.

I wasn't expecting college/university-level format/difficulty, but at the same time I wasn't expecting the mess I received.

I could've written a better exam than what I got! Ridiculous!

mizterkewl

How long did it take you to study?

DeezyFF

Im taking it on Saturday, hopefully I have a better experience.

What materials did you use to study?

PC509

What was it that was a mess? Difficulty, wording, knowledge? I found it to be just right. There were times when I had to read the question a couple times, but it wasn't strange wording, just very specific wording. Difficulty was just right. What was being tested was just right. If you were prepared, it can seem like it was easier than expected because you know the material inside and out.

SteveLavoie

Exam was more than fair for, not too hard, not too easy. It covered the subject rather completely and the question where I said to myself WTF... were covered in the CBK. So if you didnt read the CBK, it is normal that you found some question a bit special

cyberguypr

Care to share what your background is?

That Random Guy

mizterkewl wrote: »

How long did it take you to study?

I studied the Sybex text (A.K.A official study guide) for about a month. I then took another month to go over the practice exams offered by the same guys (during which I frequently revisited the text for any lacking understanding). I feel it's important to mention that I just recently graduated from university and had a course that used the above mentioned study guide as reference material. So, it was basically my third time using the Sybex text to learn/absorb. I already read over it once before taking my classes. Truthfully, a lot of the content found in those texts I learned in my classes at university, but there was also a lot of specific things I did not. So, while I'd like to say that it only took 2 months to really get the knowledge cemented in, my circumstances led to a better review of things... I suppose.

AakashNT

That Mess is the real beauty of this exam..IMO

If anybody think/advise you that you get similar style/type of questions as in practice, you followed wrong advice.

That book is just for reference.

The exam is all about a techno-managerial, nothing you can expect as pure technical, although it drifts sometimes from real world scenarios, but still it's the best exam you ever write if you really like challenges. It may looked mess if you have already expected something before going for the exam. This exam is simple mystery unless you shot at it.

That Random Guy

PC509 wrote: »

What was it that was a mess? Difficulty, wording, knowledge? I found it to be just right. There were times when I had to read the question a couple times, but it wasn't strange wording, just very specific wording. Difficulty was just right. What was being tested was just right. If you were prepared, it can seem like it was easier than expected because you know the material inside and out.

That's just it though—I reviewed the material for more than 2 months and I still feel like that exam didn't properly gauge what it should have.

Yes, the study guide and practice exams were only to be references, but that on its own should not take away the necessity to keep the same format as found in those reference materials.

I wasn't expecting exact copies of questions from the practice exams but I was expecting similar questions and for that matter, more "advanced"-type questions that weren't multiple choice.

The exam wasn't difficult because of the knowledge it required, it was difficult because nearly every question I received was a vague trick-question that allowed for two correct answers depending on further specified context or interpretation. And, apparently, I'm not the only person that saw this. There's another thread on this forum with that exact subject in mind.

That Random Guy

SteveLavoie wrote: »

Exam was more than fair for, not too hard, not too easy. It covered the subject rather completely and the question where I said to myself WTF... were covered in the CBK. So if you didnt read the CBK, it is normal that you found some question a bit special

I read the CBK. I read the study guide 3 times over and by that time I had already grasped the concepts enough. My focus back in university (which I recently graduated from) was in Cybersecurity. A lot of it was redundant for me by the second read.

I feel as though the practice exams were mainly concerned with memorization half of the time and other half required you to actually know things.

The actual CISSP seemed as though it had nothing to do with memorization. It was all scenario-based and vague at that. Thus implying that everything assessed from the practice exams and study guide should have been first-hand knowledge. Ergo, something you just "knew".

I know the whole point was to test against real-world experience and knowledge, but I feel like it did a poor job at gauging that appropriately. Even if they couldn't copy the practice exam format of questioning, they should have toned down the trick-questions they introduced.

Granted I don't have the experience to judge correct/common action, I was fairly confident in my understanding of the topics found in the CBK (which is why I took the CISSP in the first place).

The CISSP, as I took it, solely contained questions that wouldn't be understandable without more context.

If the whole point is for me provide for the best security solutions based on the requirements, I should've been given questions with more specific details that would clearly outline the answer.

I don't think ISC^2 should be offering the whole Associate thing if this is how they're going to do the exam.

That Random Guy

cyberguypr wrote: »

Care to share what your background is?

I recently graduated from university where my focus was in Cybersecurity. A lot of the content found in the CBK was hammered into me while my time there and a lot of classes even expanded on a lot of the topics (while minor concepts to most, I found value in it).

I had one class where the official study guide was used as the course text and the course pretty much covered that material. So, you could say I had my own prep-course while I was still an undergrad.

I don't think the knowledge was the issue. I think the way the questions/answers were written and the type of questions asked were not distributed enough. One could argue that all of the questions encompassed more than one domain found in the CBK, but that's just a cop-out. It's technically correct, but if the question is vague, it could apply to anything. I don't that's an appropriate way to asses all of the distinct topics found in the CBK.

mgeoffriau

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your perspective, but I'm guessing that ISC2 sees this as a feature, not a bug. That is, the questions are pretty vague, which forces you to read extremely carefully and pick up on every detail and nuance in order to consistently select the best answer. That last part is important - you aren't going to be faced with 3 wrong answers and 1 right answer. In my exam, all 4 (or however many) possible answers could be partially correct (and even the best answer may only be partially correct), and the task is to select the best of the 4 options.

Moreover, the new format intentionally adjusts the difficulty of the questions as you go, with the stated purpose of targeting a 50% chance of answering a given question correctly. Therefore, regardless of how well you are doing, you will repeatedly face questions that feel like a coin-toss (based on your knowledge and skill level). This is by design.

For myself, I found the test/question format a bit disorienting compared to more conventional multiple-choice exams, but I kept reminding myself that the vagueness and uncertainty was designed into the test/question format, and to just be disciplined to read carefully and select the best answer.

laurieH

mgeoffriau wrote: »

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your perspective, but I'm guessing that ISC2 sees this as a feature, not a bug. That is, the questions are pretty vague, which forces you to read extremely carefully and pick up on every detail and nuance in order to consistently select the best answer. That last part is important - you aren't going to be faced with 3 wrong answers and 1 right answer. In my exam, all 4 (or however many) possible answers could be partially correct (and even the best answer may only be partially correct), and the task is to select the best of the 4 options.

Moreover, the new format intentionally adjusts the difficulty of the questions as you go, with the stated purpose of targeting a 50% chance of answering a given question correctly. Therefore, regardless of how well you are doing, you will repeatedly face questions that feel like a coin-toss (based on your knowledge and skill level). This is by design.

For myself, I found the test/question format a bit disorienting compared to more conventional multiple-choice exams, but I kept reminding myself that the vagueness and uncertainty was designed into the test/question format, and to just be disciplined to read carefully and select the best answer.

Yes - often you find yourself choosing the best of the 'right' answers or the least worst

Info_Sec_Wannabe

I guess you could probably think of it this way, in reality or practice, the options aren't always defined or clear-cut and you have to make do with whatever cards you are dealt with. The questions and/or choices, at least IMHO, were phrased in such a way as to twist the context to be able to measure you're understanding of the concepts and fundamentals sometimes going two or even three steps ahead.

That Random Guy

I finally get it!

After days of going over this mess in my head, I finally realized why they formatted the test in the manner that they did!!!

They were killing two birds with one stone!

Not only was the exam therein difficult, but they were able to make it so that it was difficult to remember most of it after having taken it!

I could only probably tell you 3 questions at most for what I remember.

lucky0977

Exactly....
I can't even remember a single question from that exam and when co-workers ask me about it when they're prepping, I don't have an answer for them.