Failed CISSP exam

larahy2k

Hi all

I went into the exam yesterday and though great I'll be fine and pass it. I'm scoring high on the cccure.org practice tests and I SHOULD be ready to go.
So I sat there, went through VERY difficult questions (like some were from another exam!) and finished up after the 6 hours.
I got 645 which I was naturally disappointed about.

I used Shon Harris AIO, the Official ISC2 AIO and also CISSP for Dummies (felt like a bit of a dummy after that exam!).
Is there something more I should be doing? Am I missing some vital element to pass this ridiculously hard exam!?!
I'm thinking ISC2 wanted certain answers to the questions that I wasn't properly aware of.

Any advice is welcomed. This is my EVEREST.....

mister704

Just don't give up. Thats the main thing. Take the sections they stated you did weak in and focus on them. My course of study this time has been Conrad book, Transcender, AIO online questions and audio lectures and using the study guide pdf that I found on this site.

larahy2k

Hi Thanks for your response.
Have you done the exam before too? What's the name of the Conrad book? Which AIO online questions are you talking about is it for Transcender?
How are you getting on now and do you feel differently about how you're approaching the study material now after seeing a real exam?

joedain

I am going to take my test at the end of this month. I studied last year for about 6 months, but stopped due to new job. I started studying about 1 month ago, so I am giving myself 8 weeks to study before taking it.

I hope what I have done is good enough. I am set to finish the AIO book and my CBTs this week. Next up is tons of pratice questions, note card making and studying of those. I want to finish the Conrad book as well.

• I have read completely through (1/4 of the last chapter left) of the AIO book. I have taking lots of notes from this book.
• I have done about 1800 questions on CCCure, but my averages are just above 70 on most and 80 on a few.
• I have done about 200 questions from the downloaded test engine in the AIO book.
• I have been reading through Conrad's book and taking notes.
• From all my notes I have made, as of now, about 100 note cards, and still have a lot to go.
• I have also watched the complete series of a CBT offered to me by the government.

cyberguypr

OP, you may need to watch Dr. Cole's webcast: https://www.sans.org/webcasts/successful-passing-cissp-95594

The first thing you need to do is identify what are they asking. This is not evident for some questions. They will give a plethora of useless info and then ask you a simple thing like an ARO calculation. However, it is extremely easy to get lost in the noise. Once you identify what is is that they ask, then apply the methods presented in the webcast.

There's an example somewhere on the web that illustrates my point:

"You have been hired as a chocolatier for XYZ. They make dark, milk, white, buttons, bars and eggs. They have recently acquired a new company who make biscuits, they are moving to a bigger premises and will be recruiting 100 more people in the next 6 months.
The CEO has declared they need to :
Increase domestic growth
Move into new markets."

What is the main ingredient in chocolate?
- cocoa
- milk
- sugar
- paper

Best of luck on your next try.

mister704

larahy2k wrote: »

Hi Thanks for your response.
Have you done the exam before too? What's the name of the Conrad book? Which AIO online questions are you talking about is it for Transcender?
How are you getting on now and do you feel differently about how you're approaching the study material now after seeing a real exam?

I am using the Eric Conrad Cissp Study Guide 2nd edition and the 11th hour book. And the AIO site is McGraw-Hill Education | CISSP Practice Exams.

And I purchased the Transcender questions. So I use that site to test knowledge as well. I am trying everything I can. And yes I have taken the test before.

da_vato

larahy2k wrote: »

Hi all

I went into the exam yesterday and though great I'll be fine and pass it. I'm scoring high on the cccure.org practice tests and I SHOULD be ready to go.
So I sat there, went through VERY difficult questions (like some were from another exam!) and finished up after the 6 hours.
I got 645 which I was naturally disappointed about.

I used Shon Harris AIO, the Official ISC2 AIO and also CISSP for Dummies (felt like a bit of a dummy after that exam!).
Is there something more I should be doing? Am I missing some vital element to pass this ridiculously hard exam!?!
I'm thinking ISC2 wanted certain answers to the questions that I wasn't properly aware of.

Any advice is welcomed. This is my EVEREST.....

Thats too bad but don't be too hard on yourself most people are not a first time go at this test. What did the print out say for your weakest domains? Strengthening these are going to be the biggest help to you plus knowing these we can start helping you understand subjects from a different perspectives.

the conrad book mentioned is CISSP Study Guide, Second Edition: Eric Conrad, Seth Misenar, Joshua Feldman: 9781597499613: Amazon.com: Books. Another thing is did you read the ISC2 code of ethics? https://www.isc2.org/uploadedFiles/(ISC)2_Public_Content/Code_of_ethics/ISC2-Code-of-Ethics.pdf

seph123

How long did it take you to answer all of the questions?

I had 30 minutes left on the clock when I finished the exam, I was VERY thorough with reading the questions and answers and very thorough with the key words that would change the entire answer. I think this is very much key once you feel like you know the material. Many people talk about finishing the exam in 4 hours or so..... IT IS NOT A RACE!! Take your time!! Answer every question as if it were your final choice and if you feel very uncertain about something mark it for review! I had probably 80 questions marked for review and I went over maybe 75% of them and changed probably 3 of them...

The material is half the battle, the other half is your test composure and ability to think like management. I have no idea how I did on the exam besides that I passed -- but I always answered the questions as if it were my company and how would I react.

Not sure what else to add.... what do you think? How did you feel exactly when you took the test? There were a lot of questions that I knew nothing about and I had to guess as best as I could... I was hoping that they were a part of the special questions.... or that there wouldn't be too many of them!! With a 70% as passing score you can miss around 60 questions, even a little more!! So don't worry if you aren't sure about 1 or 2 questions.... just try your best to take out 2 answers that are obviously wrong and go 50/50 best chance.....

JDMurray

seph123 wrote: »

With a 70% as passing score you can miss around 60 questions, even a little more!!

The minimum passing isn't "70%" and the exam items are weighted, so they aren't all worth an equal number of points. There are also the 25 research items that aren't included in the calculation of the final score.

larahy2k

Hi I will send you on my list of domains later (as I'm at work now) and maybe you could offer some help. I'm not giving up!
I think it was the management/analytical questions that threw me. The straight-forward technical ones (I think) I did fine on which is probably the case for most doing this exam. I guess what I need to get my hands on is some analytical questions that will set me in the right direction.
I need to know what ISC2 are looking for - I know there's no magic formula but if I can at least get familiar with what they're looknig for I'd be half-way there.
I will invest in that book - does it offer scenario based questions? Has anyone done any of the ISC2 seminars? I'm thinking of trying one out but I'll be paying for it myself.

larahy2k

I felt I did know about most of the questions asked, but scenario based e.g "BEST" solution "FIRST" step questions threw me off. I did realise that these were going to be trickiest for me. You can learn reams and reams of material and still not know what they're asking for. I guess this is the hardest part of the exam. The technical questions I seem to get through well and be very confident about.
I wasn't racing but I certainly will spend the full 6 hours the next time. I'd prefer to get exam questions that are scenario based the next time because this is something I need practice on. Once I can master these and the way ISC2 need me to answer them, I think this is the key.

larahy2k

cyberguypr wrote: »

OP, you may need to watch Dr. Cole's webcast: https://www.sans.org/webcasts/successful-passing-cissp-95594

The first thing you need to do is identify what are they asking. This is not evident for some questions. They will give a plethora of useless info and then ask you a simple thing like an ARO calculation. However, it is extremely easy to get lost in the noise. Once you identify what is is that they ask, then apply the methods presented in the webcast.

There's an example somewhere on the web that illustrates my point:


Best of luck on your next try.

Thanks I had a look at the SANs presentation its very good.

glentc

A suggestion that worked with me is to put myself under time pressure while practicing with whatever test engines that you're working with. For me I went with 2.5 hours as my meteric. I personally feel that after all the studying, not only was I well versed with the 10 Domains, but I'm already experienced with the stressful "feel" of taking the actual test.

larahy2k

Thanks glentc.I'll try that and mix the quiz engines also. Which ones do you use?

A breakdown of my weakest to best CISSP domains are as follows;
- Legal, regulations, investigations and compliance
- Operations Security
- Information Security Governance and Risk Management
- Physical (Environmental) Security
- Business Continuity & DRP

- Access Control
- Software dev security
- Telecommunications and network security
- Cryptography
- Security Arch and Design

glentc

There are probably more practice testing engines out available, but here are the two that I used. In back of my Shon Harris 5th edition book, there was a URL for a free testing engine called Total Tester. Once you finish downloading & installing, it'll let you test yourself by domain which is the way that I studied. That way I can review the domain chapter in all the books that I own. During the practice drill, you can grade yourself as you go, flag the question or just grade yourself at the end. My time goal for each domain is about an hour. The other practice test engine that I used was the Transcender. Overall I don't believe either practice test engine would stand on it's own as a single source of study. But if you combine them, I found a lot of synergy between their question styles. Some domain concepts really came together.

All the books that I purchased for the exam were ebook versions which saved me some money on some titles. I went with the Shon Harris 5th edition since the Transcenders refers to this book when it's explaining incorrect answers. I really liked the Eric Conrad books and I read them everyday.

Are you keeping a set of your own notes for studying? Whenever I come across a tough or complicated concept, I write it down for future study reference. I kept one page for the OSI model and mapped everything to it to keep everything straight in my notes. I can quickly find where firewalls are located in the model, how the TCP/IP model maps out to the model and and any other behavior.

joedain

glentc, did you find the Shon Harris Total Tester questions to be similar to the test?

glentc

Maybe the moderators can rule on this, but I don't believe that I'm allowed to answer such questions of a direct 1 to 1 comparison.

JDMurray

I'll answer for you: The Shon Harris stuff isn't close to the actual exam. It's meant as subject teaching material and isn't advertised as an emulation of the actual exam.

beads

I found this book to helpful with regard to the more complex exam questions. Perfect? No, not at all. Occasionally an off or poorly written question or answer but overall a very good resource. Once you master answering these question (most are very complex and probably some of the hardest questions your likely to see in the first place), you should be pretty well set for the exam.

CISSP Exam Prep Questions, Answers & Explanations: 1000+ CISSP Practice Questions with Detailed Solutions: SSI Logic: 9780982576847: Amazon.com: Books

- beads

Paul Fleischer-Djoleto

larahy2k wrote: »

Hi all

I went into the exam yesterday and though great I'll be fine and pass it. I'm scoring high on the cccure.org practice tests and I SHOULD be ready to go.
So I sat there, went through VERY difficult questions (like some were from another exam!) and finished up after the 6 hours.
I got 645 which I was naturally disappointed about.

I used Shon Harris AIO, the Official ISC2 AIO and also CISSP for Dummies (felt like a bit of a dummy after that exam!).
Is there something more I should be doing? Am I missing some vital element to pass this ridiculously hard exam!?!
I'm thinking ISC2 wanted certain answers to the questions that I wasn't properly aware of.

Any advice is welcomed. This is my EVEREST.....

I took my first exams in november 2008 and had 620. In 2010 I had 661 and 2011 I had 696. I realized that I need to prepare well. In the previous exams I used only shone harris as the main material,cissp for dummies and not much practice test from cccure.

Now, the preparation I have made is serious. I missed the last one by 4 but I have put in a lot of effort. I will be sitting for it in 3 weeks time. I used shone harris this time just for references. My main materials this time are the shone harris cbt for foundation, then cccure, examcram2, eleventh hour and a lot more. I take test daily even though I have studied for the cissp for the past five years. This will be my 4th time. Add Jesus Christ to it. So don't be discouraged

Althmash7

beads wrote: »

I found this book to helpful with regard to the more complex exam questions. Perfect? No, not at all. Occasionally an off or poorly written question or answer but overall a very good resource. Once you master answering these question (most are very complex and probably some of the hardest questions your likely to see in the first place), you should be pretty well set for the exam.

CISSP Exam Prep Questions, Answers & Explanations: 1000+ CISSP Practice Questions with Detailed Solutions: SSI Logic: 9780982576847: Amazon.com: Books

- beads

Beads the book u suggested above does it matches the std of actual CISSP exam

Please suggest

joedain

Althmash7 wrote: »

Beads the book u suggested above does it matches the std of actual CISSP exam

Please suggest

Everyone on here has said over and over that no pratice test matches the actual exam. The pratice test are not meant to do that, they are meant to simply test you knowledge of the material in the domains.

beads

About as close to the actual questions as your going to find anywhere. Most of the long questions in that book are definitely comparable to what I saw on my exam. Meaning that if your having any difficulty at all parsing through miserable or complicated compound sentences - this will help as there are numerous examples of such in this book. Cryptography in general was particularly worth the failed effort (on my part) to learn. Then again, I used the same crypto section to study for the ISSAP (which by the way, is even more difficult than the CISSP by a long shot).

- B Eads