My experience with CISSP (long read)

chaand

Appeared for the CISSP exam last week. My experience as below for the entire course:

Apologies for the long note, but just trying to put down my thoughts. Hope it benefits others.

Started Prep: 1^st week of March 2013

Ref books:

1. Shonn Harris AIO. Speed read it once.
2. Eric Conrad’s book. Speed read it once.
3. M. Overly’s notes. (read this once each day in the last four days before the exam)

During each of the above reads, I prepared notes/flashcards in my book/laptop. These went a long way in helping me prepare.

Next I concentrated on practise questions. Used the following stuff.

1. Shonn Harris questions at the end of each chapter
2. CCCure (paid). Took this multiple number of times. Initially I would not cross 60%. Kept working on it till I reached 80 and left it at that.
3. Questions from CD obtained with Shonn’s AIO and Shonn’s website. Took the practice test and final tests and then practice tests again. Averaged around 75 here in the first attempt.
4. Shonn's questions from the total security website.
5. Two full 250 Q's quizzes from the Syngress site. Wont rate those highly though
6. One full 250 Q's quiz from the SImpilearn site.
7. Day before the exam I took the questions from Conrads books (both eleventh hour and the other one). Also did the questions from Sybex book ( first 8 chapters only).

Anything wrongly answered by me during the exams found their way into the notes/flashcards.

Around the second week of July I realised that I had done all that was to be done. Just needed a few more days of intense prep and I would be good to go. Accordingly kept an eye on the online bookings of the test center. Finally managed to get a booking slotted for the end of July. This booking was done four days prior to the test.

Appeared for the exam in the last week of July. Last 4 days before the exam, I gave up all other activities other than pertaining to CISSP. Switched off my phone (so that I wouldn’t be distracted by whatsapp and bbm ) and went full steam on the preparation. I managed to cover a lot of ground in these four days and when I look back this was a significant point in my preparation mainly because it was just before the exam and all the points were fresh. Stuff like insurance and legal which I could not remember well earlier appeared to be easily recallable after studying these 4 days.

The day before the exam I spent close to 13 hours studying. Slept only for 4 hours in the night. Woke up early, ran through the flashcards I had prepared and the notes I had written. Then I put away all the books, left them at home and left for the test centre.
Started with the exam. Worked at a steady pace. My preset goal was to complete the test (first pass) in 3.5 hours and then review for the rest of the time. However, I spent more time on some of the questions than planned but this did not worry me. Completed the 200^th question in 183 minutes and took a break. Freshened up. Had a snack. Went back to the test cabin. Timer on screen showed that I had spent 12 minutes for the break. This was to be my only break for the CISSP exam. Started work on the questions again. At the end of 4 hours I had completed all 250 questions. Next, I completed the questions which I had marked for review. These 18 questions took me 30 minutes. With 90 minutes still left, I started with a last review of all the 250 questions. Worked at a steady speed and changed the answers to approx 8 questions. I completed a review of all the questions at 340 minutes and ended the exam (20 minutes before time). All through the exam I kept muttering to myself that I would pass this exam no matter how hard it would be. This was one test where at the end, I could not say whether I would pass or fail. However, I had answered all tough unseen/unknow questions to the best of my ability and was hopeful of passing. All the same I was mentally prepared to accept failure as well

Outside the room, I could see the proctor collecting the printout of my result. I was told to take my belongings and leave the test cabin. Outside the cabin I went through the last round of the palm vein scan. All this while the printout next to the palm vein scanner (face down). After completing the formalities I was handed the printout. I left the exam centre turned the print out over and saw just one word - “CONGRATULATIONS!”. I did not bother to read the rest of the stuff.

Learnings/Observations:

1. The notes and flashcards I prepared helped immensely. I tried referring to flashcards prepared by others but could not connect well. The ones prepared by me worked well for me. Others may also try this approach.
2. Twice during this 5 month period, I decided to call it quits and drop the plan for certification. However decided to keep pursuing it a few days after I dropped the plans. So don’t give up once your goal is set!
3. All in all I it took me 5 calendar months. During this period I studied for an average of 2 hours a day. In between there were many days (40 days approx ) when I did not study at all. Having a 1.5 year kid meant that I had to spend more time with family when I was home and I could study only when the kid slept. Accordingly I tweaked my daily activity list to maximise the study time.
4. The Test center can get pretty cold. So wear thick clothing. Jackets etc are not permitted in the test cabin. Towards the end I had to get the Aircon switched off.
5. Some of the questions were pretty long worded. I found myself reading these longish questions for 4 or maybe 5 times before deciding on the answer. Please be prepared for this.
6. Long let a bunch of tough questions dishearten you. Go through each question as if it’s the first question with no bearing to any other previous question (unless stated otherwise).
7. On some points which I had studied well enough I blanked out during the exam. Only during my review did the correct answers strike me.
8. The bulk of the exam was like nothing I had ever seen or practiced before. Roughly 15 to 20 questions were straight forward but the rest were never ever seen by me in any test prep or book. The kind of scenarios mentioned in the exams were also unseen/unheard of. However, I think I did answer most of the scenario questions correctly.
9. As you would have noticed, I went heavy on the exams rather than the books and theoretical stuff. This has worked for me earlier as well. But may not work for all.
10. Dont expect the result of the online test to flash on screen as soon as you submit. The result will be available only in a hard copy format.

All in all the journey to CISSP was exciting and full of suspense as I was regularly browsing this forum to check on the people who have appeared and posted their views about the exam. Been a bit of lurker and I hope that this post of mine does make some amends by helping those in the quest of the coveted CISSP. All the best for the road ahead!!

blueberries

Congratulations new CISSP warrior. May the force be with you on your journey of Sicherheit Kampf.