Going for my third attempt at the CISSP - What I've learned

techwizard

Yay! good job! Glad you passed.

stryder144

That is awesome news! Congrats!

kccomputerpilot

To my post friends….I want to thank each one of you for your support, encouragement and taking the time to post. Thanks again to coty24, kalkan999, paul78, mayacosta78, beads, Khaos1911, Davis Nguyen, zybane, tprice5, acomo, maddy1, cgrimaldo, techwizard, and stryder144. A special thanks to LionelTeo (your advice was invaluable)!

LionelTeo

congrats on the pass, great to hear the good news from you!

kalkan999

i am SO Happy for you bro!!!!!

That was an interesting way to go, wasn't it? folding it up and giving it to your wife to read...must have been the longest ride home of your life!
Was your wife jumping up and down for joy? I know mine was.

Zorodzai

awesome.....so happy for you. Gratz on the pass - well deserved

zxbane

Congrats man! Definitely sounds like it was hard earned

maddy1

@kccomputerpilot..Congrats man!! Guess what?? I also passed it this evening. The PARTY time has finally arrived for both of us.

JoJoCal19

Congrats on your pass!! I know the sense of relief must be overwhelming.

j.petrov

Congrats! Fantastic determination to see it through.

bobloblaw

Congrats!

cgrimaldo

Congrats! Yes!!

samurai86

Awesome job! I think the only thing more impressive than your pass, is your perseverance.

RanMic

Good job man! Way to stick with it! Passing that exam can certainly brighten anyone’s day, so again I'm happy for you and I know you are proud of yourself.

One question. Was it total happiness you felt or relief followed by joy when you knew you passed?

kccomputerpilot

Thank you all for the latest posts. I was shocked that I passed. Truly, it didn't feel real, like I was living outside the moment. At this moment, I just feel relieved and thankful that I finally passed- still doesn't seem real. I gave up tv the last month and a half preparing for the exam and used every free moment to prepare in some way. The scheduled exam seemed to always be on my mind and now that it is over, it feels like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It's nice to get my so called life back!

twentytwenty

Thanks for the advice! I will go take a look at some of the links that you have mentioend.

LillyInBoulder

Thanks for posting your story! As someone who has taken the US Foreign Service written exam three times (passed it every time) only to miss getting in by a few points in the interview/in-person testing process *three times* (long story!) I totally get how frustrating that is but also admire your dedication. On a more relevant note, I'm taking the CISSP exam in two weeks and am just starting to study now. I'm taking a boot camp next week and this week I'm just tearing through the Shon Harris book and watching random tutorials on YouTube on things like Kerberos, Diffie-Helman and PKI. A lot of it is familiar to me from taking the CISA and CISM (albeit 7 years ago!) So, I realize it may take a few attempts but also trying to stay positive as I'm getting about 70-75% of the test questions right pre-bootcamp without any studying. I'm wondering if anyone on here took the "express path" as well and passed?

Humbe

Lilly I wish you good luck in your exam. Hopefully you are not another victim of taking the CISSP exam lightly.

beads

LillyInBoulder wrote: »

Thanks for posting your story! As someone who has taken the US Foreign Service written exam three times (passed it every time) only to miss getting in by a few points in the interview/in-person testing process *three times* (long story!) I totally get how frustrating that is but also admire your dedication. On a more relevant note, I'm taking the CISSP exam in two weeks and am just starting to study now. I'm taking a boot camp next week and this week I'm just tearing through the Shon Harris book and watching random tutorials on YouTube on things like Kerberos, Diffie-Helman and PKI. A lot of it is familiar to me from taking the CISA and CISM (albeit 7 years ago!) So, I realize it may take a few attempts but also trying to stay positive as I'm getting about 70-75% of the test questions right pre-bootcamp without any studying. I'm wondering if anyone on here took the "express path" as well and passed?

"Community wisdom" tells us you should be scoring about 85%+ on quizzes before attempting the exam. That's been the sweet spot for this exam. The CISSP is a bit more difficult than the CISA/CISM though the questions tend to be more direct, believe it or not. No matter what people say about the exam regarding the choose the best of four bad answers questions. Yes, they are there, just takes longer to figure out the least bad answer in comparison to the others.

Also keep in mind some domains are going to be more heavily tested than others. The more technical domains are more likely to show up than the less technical domains. You can figure this out on your own. Meaning the domains that are the hardest will be the domains most likely to show on your test.

From my understanding on the Foreign Service exam. It will probably feel about punching at the same weight class. Its a long boring exam but if you've been exposed to a wide variety of security situations, its actually fairly easy. If not you'll probably be convinced its some sort of management exam - which the exam has little if anything to do with actual management. Maybe some time management but that's a whole different argument.

Learning the TCP vs OSI model is critical to a couple of domains. Just get a blank sheet of paper and write it all out down to examples of both to include where routers and encryption sit on both stacks, etc. This goes for any if not all rote/boring tables and comparisons. Orange book and encryption not withstanding. Legal is, like many other aspects of IT, is really just a history lesson and can be treated as such.

To answer your "express" question? It really depends on how deep your background is in security not the material itself.

- B Eads

LillyInBoulder

Thanks! The 70-75% is before I've read the chapter so I think (hopefully) after the class it will be closer to 85%. Fingers crossed!

kalkan999

FSE was easier but in the same league. But then again, I havee 2 Bachelors (History and English) and a Master of Arts in History as well, so I think I was well prepared for the FSE. And then I joined the FS as a specialist because the pay as an IMS was so much better at the time than being a generalist...ahh well, who knew.

arussnfl

I am on this boat right now. Just failed the second time. When I read this story I heard myself. I was hoping to be wrong but now I hope to be right. I am studying for my third attempt now. 1st I got a 612. 2nd got a 678.