CISSPassed?
flippedman
Member Posts: 15 ■□□□□□□□□□
in SSCP
Well, I sat for the CISSP this past Saturday April 30th in College Park, MD. I felt pretty good taking the test, and felt pretty good coming out of the exam location, so hopefully that is a good indication that I passed. I feel like I was able to spot the 'tricks' they used in asking questions; although pretty much all the questions felt tricky to me.
What can I say about the exam? This may be a little weird, but it was just fun to take it, and fun to test myself and my mental capacities. It truly is a comprehensive exam and hopefully the hard work of 3+ months of pure studying will pay off. You reap what you sow, and man did I sow...a lot.
I'll briefly mention some things I did to prepare, but don't want to go into a full blown study plan until I get notification, because then it won't help anyone.
Main Study Material:
Primary - Shon Harris AIO 5th ed
Secondary - ISC2 Study guide
Tertiary - Eric Conrad CISSP Study Guide
Other: VTE web courses
Opinion - If I had to do it all over again I would STILL use the AIO as my primary and supplement even more with Eric Conrad's book, I barely used the ISC2 study guide, it just didn't read well although I'll probably use it as a reference in the future. Conrad's book was very good in tightening up the concepts and last-week preparation.
How I studied:
My biggest worry was how to remember EVERYTHING, but, Thank God, I came across a special study method in Wired magazine titled "Want to remember everything you've ever learned?". It was an article about the SuperMemo study method, which I will get into later. It worked much more than I anticipated.
In my opinion, the biggest thing you can do to prepare for this exam is five-fold (in no particular order):
1) KNOW HOW YOU STUDY, taking notes works for me so I stuck with that, and the supermemo method includes a varied way of breaking down the information for memory retention and recall.
2) PLAN YOUR WORK and WORK YOUR PLAN. Come up with a study plan beforehand and stick with it. More on this later.
3) SET GOALS. I would even say set some crazy goals, that's the only way you'll study your hardest. For example, I set the goal of "Being the first person to score a 100% on the CISSP". Mind you, this is probably very unrealistic, but each time I caught myself studying "just to pass" I reminded myself of my goal and I felt guilty about not studying my hardest.
4) YOUR LIFE IS MORE THAN THE CISSP. This should probably be at the top of the list. I honestly felt that I invested some of my soul into this exam and it got to a point where I thought "What am I going to do if I don't pass?". Well, I'll tell you right now, I corrected myself and my thought processes and said to myself "The same thing I always do, and that's enjoy life" (although I reminded myself I still wanted it....bad).
5) DO THINGS TO KEEP YOURSELF SANE. I really enjoy kickboxing, so I stuck with that 2x week to keep my fitness level up and to break up the time. Keeps the blood flowing to the brain too.
Well, hopefully I won't have to wait 4+ weeks to hear results, because even though I am confident, my biggest worry is that I made stupid mistake like putting my first name last and last name first on the scantron.
More later.
What can I say about the exam? This may be a little weird, but it was just fun to take it, and fun to test myself and my mental capacities. It truly is a comprehensive exam and hopefully the hard work of 3+ months of pure studying will pay off. You reap what you sow, and man did I sow...a lot.
I'll briefly mention some things I did to prepare, but don't want to go into a full blown study plan until I get notification, because then it won't help anyone.
Main Study Material:
Primary - Shon Harris AIO 5th ed
Secondary - ISC2 Study guide
Tertiary - Eric Conrad CISSP Study Guide
Other: VTE web courses
Opinion - If I had to do it all over again I would STILL use the AIO as my primary and supplement even more with Eric Conrad's book, I barely used the ISC2 study guide, it just didn't read well although I'll probably use it as a reference in the future. Conrad's book was very good in tightening up the concepts and last-week preparation.
How I studied:
My biggest worry was how to remember EVERYTHING, but, Thank God, I came across a special study method in Wired magazine titled "Want to remember everything you've ever learned?". It was an article about the SuperMemo study method, which I will get into later. It worked much more than I anticipated.
In my opinion, the biggest thing you can do to prepare for this exam is five-fold (in no particular order):
1) KNOW HOW YOU STUDY, taking notes works for me so I stuck with that, and the supermemo method includes a varied way of breaking down the information for memory retention and recall.
2) PLAN YOUR WORK and WORK YOUR PLAN. Come up with a study plan beforehand and stick with it. More on this later.
3) SET GOALS. I would even say set some crazy goals, that's the only way you'll study your hardest. For example, I set the goal of "Being the first person to score a 100% on the CISSP". Mind you, this is probably very unrealistic, but each time I caught myself studying "just to pass" I reminded myself of my goal and I felt guilty about not studying my hardest.
4) YOUR LIFE IS MORE THAN THE CISSP. This should probably be at the top of the list. I honestly felt that I invested some of my soul into this exam and it got to a point where I thought "What am I going to do if I don't pass?". Well, I'll tell you right now, I corrected myself and my thought processes and said to myself "The same thing I always do, and that's enjoy life" (although I reminded myself I still wanted it....bad).
5) DO THINGS TO KEEP YOURSELF SANE. I really enjoy kickboxing, so I stuck with that 2x week to keep my fitness level up and to break up the time. Keeps the blood flowing to the brain too.
Well, hopefully I won't have to wait 4+ weeks to hear results, because even though I am confident, my biggest worry is that I made stupid mistake like putting my first name last and last name first on the scantron.
More later.
Comments
Getting enough regular exercise to keep yourself alert is great advice for anyone studying for a big cert exam. It really does wonders for your brain.
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M.B.A. (Technology Management)
Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm
Haven't read it yet, waiting for the Prez to announce that OBL got capped.
Good luck on your results!
4 and 5 are the truth!
Best of luck - the waiting for the results is the worst part.
I totally agree with your step 4 & 5. Can't wait to hear your results that you PASSED!
__________________________________________
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
(Leonardo da Vinci)
If you check the other forum, you'll see that there have been results from 4/30 and 5/1 test takers.
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No results yet for me too - I attended the CISSP exam in Kraków,Poland on April 16th. I emailed [email protected] a week ago, but received the info that my result is still unavailable.
Still no result yet.
Saw 2 candidate pass in a Shanghai and Hong Kong in 1 chinese forum.
It seems result only send on Firday Morning US Eastern Time?
I'm pretty happy right now. From the start of studying to taking the exam was about 3 months.
I will go into more detail later.
__________________________________________
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
(Leonardo da Vinci)
Same here just received the result today morning.
Result send from ISC on Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 11:29:31 -0400.
Will share my experience later.