CISSP Passed. 24th April

PeterHands

Hi all,

After a year of studying I finally passed CISSP at the first time of asking.... Crazy exam with some out of the box questions.

My advice is you don't need to memorise, but understand the concepts and how they are applied. If you don't do that, you won't pass! Simply memorising is not enough. Sure you have to memorise a lot, but it really is understanding what your reading and applying it. If you do that, you'll remember it anyways.

Practice exams that I did, BOSON, Skillset and even the Sybex practice did not come close to the exam. I'd actually use only the Sybex so you can ensure you understand the concepts. Simply spending money on other practice exams may make you feel good that your commiting to studying, but I have to be honest and say it's not needed.

So the tools I used are not nessary compared to what you need to pass. What I advise are the following:

Sybex 8th Edition or Shon Harris - (I used Sybex)

11th Hour - Really good in the last couple of weekes to remind yourself of the key concepts in each domain

Sybex Official Practice Questions

Sunflower Guide

Luke Ahmed Study Notes and Theory - Absolutey essential along with the main core book you read (Either Sybex or Shon Harris)

Mike Chappel Video's on LinkedIn learning or Lynda.com (Same thing!) - Great resource, especially on the train to work and back

You need to put your technical head in a box and only bring it out in certain domains in the exam. There are 25 questions that are evaluation questions. If you get a question that's out of this world, chances are it is one of those 25 so don't despair.....just move on, you'll never see it again!

If you get to 100 and press next..... BREATHE.....if you get another question, thats a bonus, your still in the game and keep thinking like that until the exam ends!

I got to 101 and then raised my hand to use the toilet......

Plan for 50 questions per hour and try to keep to that.....If your head goes fuzzy, go to the toilet, come back and look again!

All these resources need 3 things.....your TIME, FOCUS and COMMITMENT...... It's a long, arduous journey and at times I dispaired, I really did, but I stuck with it.... CISSP is not meant to be easy, thats why so few have it and those that do are considered the best!.... It's WORTH IT!!

The biggest benefit I have found is TIME...I have my life back again and it's so weird to have all this free time I don't know what to do with myself!

Good luck and god speed in your mission! You CAN DO IT!!

mikey88

Congrats on the pass!

cyberguypr

Congrats and thanks for the review.

NetworkNewb

Congrats!!! 

Infosec_Sam

Congratulations on the pass! And thanks for the write-up on your methods - that's super helpful!

What's the plan from here? Do you see more certs with your name on them, or are you just going to cash in on the new creds you just earned?

PeterHands

Infosec_Sam said:

Congratulations on the pass! And thanks for the write-up on your methods - that's super helpful!

What's the plan from here? Do you see more certs with your name on them, or are you just going to cash in on the new creds you just earned?

I'm undecided....was thinking of a CISSP ISSMP or ISSAP.... but also CISM or CCSP.

I'd appreciate some feedback.....

sunto

If you get the CISM, you don't need ISSMP. CCSP is in demand right now, and as things move swiftly to the cloud, this cert will be in more demand. I plan to take the ISSAP to nudge me ahead of the sea of other CISSP holders. 

fitzlopez

Between the CISM and de ISSMP I think the CISM has better material, that said once you've passed the CISM the CISSP-ISSMP isn't really much different. In my case it was like a week or two of skimming the ISSMP book after passing the CISM. So if you have the money I'd also get the ISSMP. More now that the annual fee is going to be flat no matter how many ISC2 certifications you have. Moneywise I'd get all the ISC2 certifications I want first.

Cheers,

X5c0r

Great input.  I am weary of practice exams for the exact reason you gave; they dont come close.  Not to mention some user generated ones online can be entirely wrong.  Best for understanding concepts and nothing more.  Congrats, I hope to do the same in the next 45 days.

roninkai

My position during 2018 was way more intense than I expected, lots of overtime, unexpected work, etc, so most of my certs goals weren't attained. I was still pretty burnt from heavy certs and MS in 2017. But now its almost June 2019, I've got child #3 on the way, and my program is wrapping up. So I'm jumping back into cert monkey mode.

I've previously done the studying for CISM and CISSP-ISSAP, so I'm confident a quick refresher is all that is needed. In fact, I wished I took CISSP / CISM back to back. I found so much over lap in the material and practice questions. I think I'll probably just study for ISSMP then attempt CISM without specific study. Maybe then onto CLSSP and CCSP and call that the pinnacle? Who knows...