Took CISSP exam 2/11 in Dallas
NiftySwifty
Member Posts: 19 ■□□□□□□□□□
in SSCP
So, I took my long awaited CISSP exam this past weekend in Dallas and thought I'd document my experience.
My background: 10 years as an enterprise architect working in the service provider industry, 4 years as enterprise architect in the financial industry and the last 5 years as corporate security officer for a credit card company
I started studying at the end of November, and read and studied the Conrad CISSP study guide cover to cover, along with various white papers and internet resources. In January, at the suggestion of a friend, I purchased Exam Cram 2nd edition and read that as well. Along the way, I had a copy of Shon Harris AIO that I used as a reference whenever I felt the other two books had not covered a topic well enough. With a week to go, I did over 700 practice questions with the Total Tester engine and I was scoring 85-95% on each domain. I read the entire associated chapters in Shon Harris AIO in the four lowest domains. On the Friday before the exam, I read the 11th Hour book cover to cover (it's only like 200 pages), just as a refresher. I feel it really helped.
For the first 2 months I was averaging about 2 hours a day. For the last two weeks, (I was between contracts) I was averaging 8 hours a day.
One good resource nugget I ran across was this one: Fundamentals of Information Systems Security/Information Security and Risk Management - Wikibooks, open books for an open world. It's a little light on detail, but is a very good review aid, IMHO.
I arrived at the testing center at 8:00AM. I'm a smoker, so I inquired about smoke breaks. Just an FYI: SMOKE BREAKS ARE NOT ALLOWED, and once you've signed in, you cannot leave. So, if you're a smoker, I recommend getting that last cigarette in right before 8:30 and then being the last guy to sign in.
One thing that was surprising is that they would not allow us to use our own pencils or erasers, we were told we had to use the ISC provided pencils, and there was only one sharpener you had to raise your hand to use, amongst 30+ people there. They also provided ear plugs to anyone that wanted them.
Due to the NDA, I was a little worried because I had no idea what to expect of the exam itself. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I found the vast majority of the questions to be very direct, and fairly worded. I don't want to give too much away, since I have now signed the NDA as well, but it didn't seem to be full of trick questions or anything that I'd heard from various folks. It's a pretty standard test.
I used the two pass method. I circled the answers on my answer sheet, and circled the questions I did not know. Once I had completed the test that way, I went back and *reread* every question to double check any answer I had already marked, and then made decisions on the ones I had marked for review. There were still two questions I was unsure after my second pass, so I guessed, marked the answers. I took 3 hours and 45 minutes. I actually considered going through a third time just to make extra special sure, but after almost 4 hours, I was completely drained. I double checked my scan tron, and did a brief sanity check of my copying by choosing 5 or 6 questions at random from the book and verifying they were marked correctly on the scantron. Raised my hand and turned it in.
Now begins the waiting game. I'll come back and update everyone when I get my results.
Study materials with a X/10 for how useful I found it:
CISSP Study Guide (Conrad) 7/10
Exam Cram CISSP 10/10
11th Hour 9/10
Shon Harris 5/10 (It's just too long and wordy, and too much fluff IMHO to use as a primary source. Used primarily as a reference)
CCCure practice tests 8/10 (Very good for checking your study progress)
Total Tester CISSP (8/10)
wikipedia and other internet resources (7/10)
Hope that helps! What an adventure, I really hope I passed, because I don't want to go back to studying 5 hours a day.
My background: 10 years as an enterprise architect working in the service provider industry, 4 years as enterprise architect in the financial industry and the last 5 years as corporate security officer for a credit card company
I started studying at the end of November, and read and studied the Conrad CISSP study guide cover to cover, along with various white papers and internet resources. In January, at the suggestion of a friend, I purchased Exam Cram 2nd edition and read that as well. Along the way, I had a copy of Shon Harris AIO that I used as a reference whenever I felt the other two books had not covered a topic well enough. With a week to go, I did over 700 practice questions with the Total Tester engine and I was scoring 85-95% on each domain. I read the entire associated chapters in Shon Harris AIO in the four lowest domains. On the Friday before the exam, I read the 11th Hour book cover to cover (it's only like 200 pages), just as a refresher. I feel it really helped.
For the first 2 months I was averaging about 2 hours a day. For the last two weeks, (I was between contracts) I was averaging 8 hours a day.
One good resource nugget I ran across was this one: Fundamentals of Information Systems Security/Information Security and Risk Management - Wikibooks, open books for an open world. It's a little light on detail, but is a very good review aid, IMHO.
I arrived at the testing center at 8:00AM. I'm a smoker, so I inquired about smoke breaks. Just an FYI: SMOKE BREAKS ARE NOT ALLOWED, and once you've signed in, you cannot leave. So, if you're a smoker, I recommend getting that last cigarette in right before 8:30 and then being the last guy to sign in.
One thing that was surprising is that they would not allow us to use our own pencils or erasers, we were told we had to use the ISC provided pencils, and there was only one sharpener you had to raise your hand to use, amongst 30+ people there. They also provided ear plugs to anyone that wanted them.
Due to the NDA, I was a little worried because I had no idea what to expect of the exam itself. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I found the vast majority of the questions to be very direct, and fairly worded. I don't want to give too much away, since I have now signed the NDA as well, but it didn't seem to be full of trick questions or anything that I'd heard from various folks. It's a pretty standard test.
I used the two pass method. I circled the answers on my answer sheet, and circled the questions I did not know. Once I had completed the test that way, I went back and *reread* every question to double check any answer I had already marked, and then made decisions on the ones I had marked for review. There were still two questions I was unsure after my second pass, so I guessed, marked the answers. I took 3 hours and 45 minutes. I actually considered going through a third time just to make extra special sure, but after almost 4 hours, I was completely drained. I double checked my scan tron, and did a brief sanity check of my copying by choosing 5 or 6 questions at random from the book and verifying they were marked correctly on the scantron. Raised my hand and turned it in.
Now begins the waiting game. I'll come back and update everyone when I get my results.
Study materials with a X/10 for how useful I found it:
CISSP Study Guide (Conrad) 7/10
Exam Cram CISSP 10/10
11th Hour 9/10
Shon Harris 5/10 (It's just too long and wordy, and too much fluff IMHO to use as a primary source. Used primarily as a reference)
CCCure practice tests 8/10 (Very good for checking your study progress)
Total Tester CISSP (8/10)
wikipedia and other internet resources (7/10)
Hope that helps! What an adventure, I really hope I passed, because I don't want to go back to studying 5 hours a day.
Comments
Dan
I actually called customer service yesterday, and they said the exams had not yet been scored, although she said she thought they would probably be going out any day.
Exactly. We tested on the 11th, so ours should come (hopefully at most) a week after the folks that tested on the 4th.
CompTIA exams are VERY straightforward compated to the CISSP exam.
However, I do believe that there is a process we are not aware of that makes this last so long. I do know that they tend to want to provide grades for test-takers world wide, if possible. Overseas test packets must go through the customs of their own country and again through ours, which can take awhile. If, say, they wait for everyone, then I can see why it takes 4-6 weeks.