Passed the CISSP.

IonCannon

Hello all, got the Congrats email today from ISC2. I sat in Reston for the test. I thought I failed miserably as I believe I had a very hard test booklet. For study I used Shon Harris "Ain1" and cccure.org exclusively. I have worked in IT sec for around 10 years doing mostly firewalls and IDS for DoD and the US Treasury so I'm sure that experience helped. It's a big load of your mind to pass this test especially when thinking about having to take it again!! Anyways, feel free to ask me about the test experience. I'm pretty sure you won't like what you hear.... lol

dead_p00l

Actually I would greatly appreciate hearing about the test experience and steps you took in order to pass. As much information as you can impart without violating NDA agreements. Thanks and congrats.

mwgood

Congratulations!

IonCannon

dead_p00l, I was just sort of joking, not trying to be discouraging or anything but the test experience is pretty much brutal or at least it was for me. It's sort of like the SAT's were except even more uncomfortable because you probably won't know anyone there and everyone has anxiety the day of the test and you can pretty much cut it with a knife. For me taking the test absolutely sucked and there is no way to sugar-coat it.

As far as the test itself, the standard tips are enough. Go to bed early the night before, try to relax, take deep breaths -- don't worry. Fill out your scantron very carefully. Don't have eraser marks all over the thing... For me, I waited until the end to mark the bubble sheet and checked it twice to make sure the answers on my booklet matched the bubbles. I put "?"'s by questions i was totally not sure of.....put "*''s by ones that I had narrowed down to two answers and check marks by ones I was sure of. Use your time wisely but don't speed through it. Read each question carefully and watch for key words. This is all pretty standard stuff but just make absolutely sure you don't mess up the order of your answers on the bubble sheet. Some people finished faster than others, lots of sighs around the room. I wanted to say "WTF!!?!" out loud at several questions but thought twice, six times about not doing that... It took me 5.5 hours to finish everything. Some people were done in 3 which amazed me but I didnt notice people really leaving in droves before me as I was trying to concentrate. I did notice that there were about 5-6 people left when I handed my test in. I was hungry and sure of a failure....the whole way home I thought about when I'd take the test again. Today was definitely a great feeling of relief and surprise to say the least. I'm sure many many others can relate to this experience.

-kevin

dead_p00l

I have heard from a few different people that it's a brutal test. It's something im working on but probably wont even think of taking before the end of the year. Thanks and congrats again.

sprkymrk

Congrats Stiletto23 and thanks for sharing your experience.
I can feel the stress as you described your brutal test day experience and then the relief you must have felt finding out you passed.

I am hoping to tackle this one in the next year or two. I have one test I definately have to take before I can even think of any others, and then I am still in debate on what to persue next - I have about 4-5 on the list for serious consideration including this one.

ajs1976

congrats. Thanks for sharing your experience.

keatron

Congrats!! Way to go.