Just wanted to say thanks for helping me Pass the CISSP exam

Bigstars

I will admit, I was more of a passive fan of tech exams forum where I just came to get tips and read about everybody else experience with the Exam. I though I at least owe you all the respect of saying thanks for helping me pass the exam. Even though I am only Associate of ISC2 for the CISSP I want to thank each and every last one of you all for helping me pass this exam.

Even though I do not have a great amount of experience withing the IT field, my words of advice would be get the Eric Conrad book. Its the only book I used and pretty much had more than enough information to pass the exam. Also use your resources, go to youtube and look at some of the tutorials that most of these people post for free. You will be surprised how well you understand things in a 3-5 minute video than reading a chapter over and over again. Lastly as one person on this forum said before, you don't have to be an expert in each CBK, you just need to know enough to where you can understand it.

IDK how much this may helped, but it worked for me...Oh year I forgot to mention. I kept the practice test to a minimum, reason being I did not want to become too reliant on the practice question. I believe that if you limit your pratice question towards the going into the exam, it forces you to read and understand the entire question on for the real exam. But hey different strokes for different folks.

BTW one of the best test taking tips I received for the CISSP was word association. Even if you don't understand what the question maybe asking you. pick out one of the associated words such as "persistent" and relate it to whatever answer that has something to do with "consistent" "steady" "constant" you all get it

But thanks again everyone.

SkyBlue

Congratulations!

I am a week away from my exam now. Lets see how it goes. Any tips?

Thanks

cyberguypr

Congrats on the pass. What's your background? Do you have any experience in InfoSec?

Bigstars

Thanks

Cyberguru: Yes I have about 1.5 years of cybersec network analysis experience.

Skyblue: Study hard, go in with confidence and do the best you can, even if you feel like you failed keep going and do the best you can.

JDMurray

Congratulations on passing the CISSP exam!

I'm very glad that the opinions and advice posted by TE members helped you along in your certification goals.

spicy ahi

Congrats on the pass! Be sure to stick around and share your experiences and advice with others!

datschmo

Congrats!! I'm 4 weeks out from taking it myself...

hotspot

congrats im targetting it in March 2013. was it really hard?

Sponx

That's awesome, congrats!

Bigstars

Personally. I don't believe the test was hard. However it was times I did think I failed the test. But just stay confident and do your best.

krupal_bhatt

I have heard a lot about Eric Conrad's book; and would love to not have to read AIO but is this a safe approach ? Also what do you mean by IDK ?

Bigstars

IDK = I Don't Know

When I stared I was just like you...I did not feel like reading that monster of a book. Don't get me wrong its a great book and will prepare for the real world as well as test. However, Conrad states in his book, that his book is designed to pass the test and that's all. Given my situation I knew I did not have a world of experience so I could just pass the test now and gain real world experience. I plan on finishing the AIO book, however my immediate goal was to pass the test. My experience will come. I have both books but I rarely used the AIO book except for two or three references. But as I mentioned before I just used Conrad's book which was more than enough information needed. Some was experienced based but I was introduced to alot of concepts and technologies early in my infosec career (Which was not that long ago). Conrad's book is a great tool, but for some stuff I did not catch immediately I used youtube videos. Networking and Software security was my weak area but as another person said on this forum before. It's sometimes better to hear it versus reading it. Its alot of great FREE i repeat FREE!!! video tutorials on pretty everything you need and want to know for the CISSP...Use them...They make understanding everything so much better. But I can't tell you how to study...I can tell you I did use this book heavily

krupal_bhatt

Thanks "Bigstars" you are spot on with the mind set at this stage.. while reading AIO I sometime feel there is a lot of unnecessary stuff that I could do without when pressed against the time so thank you for your opinion, much appreciated.

Anybody else in this forum who would say it's okay to heavily rely on Eric Conrad' book ?

Mainframer

I relied primarily on the Conrad book, with a significant dose of CCURE practice exams. I did pick up an old copy of the Shon Harris tome to get the CD with more practice questions, but haven't read it yet.

harrym1

Hi Bigstars,
Can you please post some of youtube video links you are talking about?
Thanks

coolz203

Congrats!

I didn't rely on practice exams much either. I used what was in the AIO book. I felt I would rather spend more time understanding the concepts than the quizes.

Bigstars

Nothing specific just maybe topics or subject I did not understand. Telecommunications was my weakest area so topics such as MLPS I did not understand when I read it. However when I put the topic in youtube search bar I looked at little videos like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZS81mFYIr4) to understand. I just found things that explained the the topic enough to where I can understand it. The videos I watched were 3-6 mins long because remember.

harrym1

Thank you Bigstars