Passed CISSP today - San Jose, CA

khurramkhani

Hi,

Passed CISSP exam today in San Jose, CA after 3 months of part time prep.

My Preparation Strategy
>Finding the right balance between multiple books:
- Eric Conrad is missing lot of info/required explanation. (When you solve Transcender & CCCure - you will realize this).
- S. Harris has too much to remember

So I made a strategy to read Conrad as primary and go ahead to solve Chapter End problems in S. Harris, CBK & Conrad.
I read S. Harris to only fix knowledge gaps in all Chapter End Quiz.

Primary Book: Eric Conrad
Secondary Books:
- S. Harris (After reading Conrad I was only scoring 60-70 in S Harris problems.)
- CBK 2nd Edition

CBT Nuggets: Listen to CBT while driving to work to make driving hours productive.

Mockup Exams
- CCCure (Very Good) - I did around ~900 questions (no repeat mode) my %age was low 70s
>TCSEC (B1, B2 stuff is obsolete) and no longer relevant. Don't waste time on those.
>Overall easier than real exam.

- Transcenders (Very Good) - I did 3 Preset exams (No Repeat) my %age was low 70s
> Very good overall
>Stale information - Window 2003? Audit Tool etc (I guess they don't know its 2014 now)

I believe combination of CCCure+Transcenders+ Chapter End Quesitons from Harris, Conrad, CBK saved me


Feedback From Real Exam

I guess ISC2 has refreshed the question bank. No TCSEC, No CCTV and other stuff from Jurassic age.
Questions about Cloud, VM Security

Time
> It took me 5hr 55mins to finish the exam. Only took 10mins break to use rest room.
> I read each question and answer twice before submission.

Complexity
> Questions were not complex in general - just wordy & vague
> Answers were very wordy too. Too much verb-age in wrong answers which waste time in reading & selection.
- You can spot 2 wrong answer easy
- 2 answers are close to choose from.
(I did my PMP few months ago. CISSP & PMP exam format and general exam strategy matches)

> 70-80 High Level Questions (solve by common sense)

Knowledge Gaps
> IPv6 (I felt my knowledge was short on IPv6 and this is again due to reading only Eric Conrad)
> 1-2 questions came from a different galaxy (I guess Andromeda which is the nearest to milky way)
> IPSec
> Wireless Security ( I should have spent a bit more time on this)
> Cloud & VMs Security (looks like CISSP is refreshed)
> Lot & Lots of Risk Management & BCP (I am not a big fan of BCP questions, may be that's why I felt they are more)

Plz read BCP from S. Harris & CBK, Plz read Security Policy & related policies from as many reference as you can.

New Format
> 7-8 Questions
[5-6 easy]
[2 questions were extremely twisted in putting the right sequence and options. ]

Hope you find this feedback useful

Thank You
Khurram Khani.

maharaliel

Congrats and thank you for sharing.