Provisionally Passed the CISSP

charismaticx

Let me start off by saying this, for the longest time I told myself that I no longer needed to take this exam. After passing and holding the CISM certification a few years ago my focus was on other skillsets. I'm currently working on the PNPT course and my goal is to pass the exam here soon. My work offered an expiring voucher that was good until Memorial Day so I figured why not try. 

My primary study material was Thor Pederson's Udemy practice test. I used his material previously when I took the CISM exam and he is regarded as one of the best CISSP instructors. I took seven of his practice test and I kept reviewing them until I understood my weak areas. Personally speaking, if I had to go back I probably would have taken one or two more of his practice test just to get more of the material digested, but based on my experience seven practice tests was enough for me.

 On reddit, someone had recommended looking up "50 hard CISSP practice tests" by Technical Institute of America. He has a great mindset for this exam and this helped me out tremendously for picking the best answer when answering each question during the exam. His mentally is if you can pick one then you can't pick the other. Usually the one that you pick carries over or overlaps with the other option without you realizing it. 

Lastly, I kept hearing great things about "learnzapp" and I would take a few of the ten question quizzes whenever I had a free moment. The questions aren't long and really help with asking random topics from each domain. Incredibly useful for questions on encryption. 

 I will say this exam is not for the faint of heart. I passed the exam at question 150 and honestly I wasn't even sure if I had passed. The exam didn't feel hard for the most part, but in some area I honestly did not know if my answer was the right choice. Even some of the answer choices was written kind of weird that it felt like an English exam. There is definitely enough time to take the exam and read each question carefully. It honestly felt like my 15 years of experience really helped with most of the questions and doing the quick review with Thor solidified my chances of passing the exam.  Now it's time to take a small break and go back to finishing the PNPT course.  

JDMurray

Provisional congratz! The CISSP exam's major update was released last month, so you experienced the hardest CISSP exam yet.

charismaticx

I had read that a couple more of the domains were weighted more, but that was about it. I'm not sure if anything else was different. The exam felt hard in some areas and in others it felt easy. You really have to read the question to understand what was being asked. 

JDMurray

Yes, there may be little that seems to change between taking the CISSP exam a few months ago and now. All cert vendors quietly add in new exam items and retire less-effective exam items as an exam release ages. The big marketing fanfare about releasing a new exam revision is to inspire a surge of procrastinators to spend their $$$ to take the "old exam" before the "new exam" is released. The increased business looks good on the annual balance sheets.