Hey All. I started and posted in the "Just tried to Ask (ISC)2 about 5/20 Seattle CISSP Exam Results" thread and just wanted to mention that I passed (first time)!!!!!!
So in the spirit of Celebration and knowledge sharing I wanted to post some helpful information.
-Yes I put age in there because, at 22, obviously I was one of the youngest folks in the room by a wide margin. The test proctor looked specifically at me when he mentioned that "some folks are in here to only remember the test questions" although that might have been since I was so attentive. Anyway, point is, if you're younger don't let the stature of the cert get in your way.
Resources used in order of importance:
-
Official (ISC)2 Review Seminar Student Handbook v10 - 100% No Nonsense goodness <- Know these contents and you will probably pass.
-Freepracticetests.org Paid subscription - 55%
-
Shon Harris, Career Academy DVD Set - 50%
-
Various Community Provided CCCure Community provided Study Guides - 30%
-
Eric Conrad , CISSP Study Guide - 25%
-
Shon Harris, AIG v5 - 5%
Study Plan:
3 1/2 months with plenty of distraction (Work, School, Getting engaged). First I went through and made a mind map of certain domains using
xmind, then I went through and made flash cards YES FLASH CARDS FOR EVERY SINGLE TOPIC, EVERY SINGLE TERM both IN WRITING and using Mental Case for iOS and Mac. I studied daily for about 4 hours then on the weekend for 10 hours each day. I did skip a week or two though.
Tips: For all the techie terms know all the techie stuff. I will save you alot of agony that I had to go though. YES, you will be expected to remember key sizes and port numbers. I.E the difference between ciphers etc.
For the non technical/management parts ok these are extremely tricky. This is why the official review seminar handbook reins supreme in my opinion. I'll take what I wrote in a different thread:
For instance you will get questions where at the surface of the question ALL or 3/4 answers will seem right. You have to be focused and diligent enough to extract that critical detail which will put you on the right path: BEFORE, AFTER, LEAST, MOST, if COST is a factor, if TIME is a factor, BEST given X, BEST given Y, BEST given XY, BEST given XZ but DEFINITELY excluding Y, stuff like this. The smoking gun won't always be readily apparent. A question may have a set of elements that EXCLUDES all but one answer but if it's the last question on the test and you're already at the 5:50 mark, you might not be able to remember which one doesn't exactly fit the mold.
Personal Experience: Working for about 6 years in IT with DoD, 2 public school systems, a large software company (not google or microsoft), and SMB IT, somewhat limited security experience; it was never my primary focus but is interesting (Hence my associate status). Working with technologies such as but not limited to: VPN, Win Server 2003 & 2008 (GP, NPS (radius)), Mac OS X Client/Server, ESX, Desktop virtualization, Zyxel, SQL Server, Oracle DB, M$ Exchange, M$ Forefront, M$ SMS , Cisco WLC + Aironet, Cisco SMB Switches, Cisco ASA, Retrospect, BMC Remedy, Centrify, etc
Actual work experience wrt domains = Choosing and deploying wan + lan technologies, evaluating physical security, security architecture design, evaluating and implementing disaster recovery. Alot of these were a one off projects but I used the information learned to map what was going on in the real world.
Greets/Thanks for providing information/inspiration/motivations/lulz in some way/shape/form:
iristheangel,
JDMurray,
kalkan999 ,
spicy ahi,
Richard Rieben . The stuff that Richard Rieben is pure gold and I had the opportunity to speak with him a few times. READ HIS BLOG.
