Failed CISSP today
ReverendGoo
Registered Users Posts: 3 ■□□□□□□□□□
in SSCP
Well I feel like crap. I failed my CISSP today. I have already signed up to try it again next month. I wish I didn’t have to wait 30 days but I’m glad to have time for more studying.
I have been coming to this forum quite some time but only bothered to register recently. I figure I might as well break my silence to give the people who follow behind me some advice on what I did wrong? A lot of this has already probably been said on these forums from time to time so forgive me if I say something redundant.
There was some technical stuff in the exam but not as much as I thought there would be. A LOT of managerial questions, which I expected but I figured the ratio would be closer.
A lot of the questions would propose answers in which multiple ones were good answers but you had to pick the best one. I hate those types of questions by the way.
The simulations were not a big deal at all. There was one I disagree with but with the NDA I’ll not bring it up.
One of my problems leading up to the test was I was weak on the rainbow books. I spent a lot of time this week on them and especially the orange one. My exam had zero questions about them.
I’m sure some guys breezed through this one but I would tell anyone who was going to take this to keep their head in the game and focus. I was on vacation last week and swamped at work this week as a result of being gone. I didn’t devote the time to it that it needed and I paid the price. The price being $600 and a few hours of my time. I won’t make that mistake again.
As for how I prepared prior to slacking off…
I took a CISSP bootcamp years ago, like 2008? Didn’t help much obviously.
My job pays for a CBT nuggets account. Didn’t find it all too useful with CISSP but I got an email a few days ago that they have a new CISSP course so it might be better now? The mp3’s are nice with this one since a lot of it is terms and things you don’t need to see to learn.
I have a couple books. Eric Conrad’s study guide which was good and also the 11th hour study guide by the same author. The 11th hour guide was good but I would have considered it a better first hour study guide. I read it last night and it was good for a lot of overview stuff but didn’t contain the specifics. It would be a better read for someone when they first start down the CISSP path as it will give a lot of general info and where they need to start.
I also have the study guide by Harris? Sorry it’s not by me. It’s the book I was given with my bootcamp. Its 4th edition and I think they are on 6th edition now? I have the new one on order.
Anyway I’m on for round 2 on the 24th of next month. Wish me luck.
I have been coming to this forum quite some time but only bothered to register recently. I figure I might as well break my silence to give the people who follow behind me some advice on what I did wrong? A lot of this has already probably been said on these forums from time to time so forgive me if I say something redundant.
There was some technical stuff in the exam but not as much as I thought there would be. A LOT of managerial questions, which I expected but I figured the ratio would be closer.
A lot of the questions would propose answers in which multiple ones were good answers but you had to pick the best one. I hate those types of questions by the way.
The simulations were not a big deal at all. There was one I disagree with but with the NDA I’ll not bring it up.
One of my problems leading up to the test was I was weak on the rainbow books. I spent a lot of time this week on them and especially the orange one. My exam had zero questions about them.
I’m sure some guys breezed through this one but I would tell anyone who was going to take this to keep their head in the game and focus. I was on vacation last week and swamped at work this week as a result of being gone. I didn’t devote the time to it that it needed and I paid the price. The price being $600 and a few hours of my time. I won’t make that mistake again.
As for how I prepared prior to slacking off…
I took a CISSP bootcamp years ago, like 2008? Didn’t help much obviously.
My job pays for a CBT nuggets account. Didn’t find it all too useful with CISSP but I got an email a few days ago that they have a new CISSP course so it might be better now? The mp3’s are nice with this one since a lot of it is terms and things you don’t need to see to learn.
I have a couple books. Eric Conrad’s study guide which was good and also the 11th hour study guide by the same author. The 11th hour guide was good but I would have considered it a better first hour study guide. I read it last night and it was good for a lot of overview stuff but didn’t contain the specifics. It would be a better read for someone when they first start down the CISSP path as it will give a lot of general info and where they need to start.
I also have the study guide by Harris? Sorry it’s not by me. It’s the book I was given with my bootcamp. Its 4th edition and I think they are on 6th edition now? I have the new one on order.
Anyway I’m on for round 2 on the 24th of next month. Wish me luck.
Comments
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dheeraj_singh@live.com
Registered Users Posts: 2 ■□□□□□□□□□
Wish you all the best for next month exam.
Just wanted to know how many new format simulation question you got in the exam. -
_nessie_
Member Posts: 39 ■■■□□□□□□□
Wish you all the best for the nex exam
Shon Harris' last one is indeed 6th edition. Can't tell the difference compared to the 4th though.
@dheeraj: best way to prepare yourself to those is "think of ordered lists", can't remember exactly, but I believe about 10 ? Could be less though ...
cheers -
ReverendGoo
Registered Users Posts: 3 ■□□□□□□□□□
Maybe 4 or 5. Not really something I would call simulations. More like drag these 5 things into the correct order.
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Falcon56
Member Posts: 94 ■■■□□□□□□□
Sorry that you didn't pass, ReverendGoo. Sounds like you know what your weaknesses were. I just signed up for the CBT Nuggets newer CISSP series with Keith Barker and I like the videos thus far.
Thanks for taking the time to write out your experience and offer suggestions. I purchased the new David Miller CISSP .pdf book file and I really like it so far. No one has mentioned it [that I am aware of] in this forum but I have found myself using that, the Conrad book and the Transcender and CCCure.org resources the most. I got my boss to approve a boot camp thru work in the first week of April so I am going to take your advice and really hammer down the next couple of months.
I hope you'll come back on the 24th of next month and let us share in your victory celebration. Best of luck! -
wikiget
Member Posts: 75 ■■□□□□□□□□
Why are the rainbow books still on a certification test? Most of what is relevant to the CISSP has been superseded or abandoned for more current standards.
The concepts are still sound it just strikes me as odd that (ISC)^2 wouldn't move off of the NSA rainbow (except as part of the history lesson) and move to ISO 27000, CCEVS, etc.
Note: I'm not bad mouthing the NSA rainbow. Those were the bread and butter of security when I started and I think everyone should look through certain colors. I remember I was told specifically to read Aqua, Red, Orange and Violet (I should have read Blue too) a long time ago. Mandating it sound quite asinine at this point though.
That said there's a copy of all the books on FAS:
https://www.fas.org/irp/nsa/rainbow.htm"Once upon a time, disks were floppy, administrators were electricians and computers were louder then jets. Then it all got complicated." -Anon
Life of a Network Security Manager: http://imgur.com/kKvmgjj -
JDMurray
Admin Posts: 13,092 Admin
There is a "shadow domain" of the CISSP CBK for Information Security History. Many older topics are retained to reenforce that a study of where InfoSec came from is also important to the modern InfoSec professional. I do think the (ISC)2 should consider toning down the detail required for learning historical InfoSec topics.
