Passed CISSP - Very Difficult exam
Passed
Past experience is 12 years systems admin, windows, vmware, san
Wow. What a exam. I thought I failed. I went through every question and I felt somethings were not in any book, practice test, or study material I looked over. After I went through all 250 questions I went back and only completed my incomplete items. I was so discouraged I just hit the end exam button after I finished the incomplete items. I did not go back and review.
Instead of just asking the freaking question they play this grammatical war of words with you that stumps you with 2 answers which are so similar you just pick 1 and hope its right.
Studying Over kill
Conrad CISSP Study Guide (read 1 time and then read through 2nd time taking meticulous notes)
Transcender Practice Questions (I dont necessariy recommend them but I personally preferred the questions over cccure. I went through each domain 1 by 1 and until i correctly answered everything)
CCCure Paid Scenario Questions (confirmed what I already knew)
Conrad 11th Hour Study Guide (only did end of chapter questers......since this is a rehash of his book there is really no value to it other than the 5 toughest questions at the end of eash chapter )
Shon Harris AIO (only end of chap Questions...very diffcult.....got most of them wrong...moved on with my life)
Shon Harris 250 Practice Question Book (did not use...ran out of time)
CCCure Paid Online Practice Questions (too technical and this is coming from a technical person; quality of questions and lack of consistent grammatical style made it very difficult for me; I only attempted 400+ questions)
Past experience is 12 years systems admin, windows, vmware, san
Wow. What a exam. I thought I failed. I went through every question and I felt somethings were not in any book, practice test, or study material I looked over. After I went through all 250 questions I went back and only completed my incomplete items. I was so discouraged I just hit the end exam button after I finished the incomplete items. I did not go back and review.
Instead of just asking the freaking question they play this grammatical war of words with you that stumps you with 2 answers which are so similar you just pick 1 and hope its right.
Studying Over kill
Conrad CISSP Study Guide (read 1 time and then read through 2nd time taking meticulous notes)
Transcender Practice Questions (I dont necessariy recommend them but I personally preferred the questions over cccure. I went through each domain 1 by 1 and until i correctly answered everything)
CCCure Paid Scenario Questions (confirmed what I already knew)
Conrad 11th Hour Study Guide (only did end of chapter questers......since this is a rehash of his book there is really no value to it other than the 5 toughest questions at the end of eash chapter )
Shon Harris AIO (only end of chap Questions...very diffcult.....got most of them wrong...moved on with my life)
Shon Harris 250 Practice Question Book (did not use...ran out of time)
CCCure Paid Online Practice Questions (too technical and this is coming from a technical person; quality of questions and lack of consistent grammatical style made it very difficult for me; I only attempted 400+ questions)
Comments
WGU Indiana - BS IT Security (Started: August 1st, 2013)
Transferred: AGC1 CDP1 BVC1 CLC1 CVV1 DHV1 DJV1 GAC1 CIC1 CDC1 UBT1 IWC1 IWT1 TCP1 TJP1 TJC1 EBV1 WFV1 EUP1 EUC1 CJC1 UBC1 TBP1
Completed: CUV1 BOV1 DRV1 DSV1 CTV1 CJV1 COV1 CQV1 CNV1 TPV1 MGC1 TXC1 TXP1 BNC1 TYP1 TYC1
Required: SBT1 RGT1 RIT1
Sounds like you put in the quality study time needed and have the experience to go along with it. I felt like I failed when I took it as well, and I am just glad to have it over with, as I can bet you are too!
I felt the CCCure practice questions were technical in nature, however, knowing the technical stuff is very important to having a more complete and better understanding of the exam objectives. These questions helped me a lot in preparation for the exam and I would not have done nearly as well had I not used them to study. I would recommend them.
It is your personal IPS to stop the attack.
I think that there is definitely a certain percentage of the exam that is just learning how to read and understand the questions. This is why I always recommend Eric Conrad's book because he goes through and helps you understand what to look for and how to read those tricky questions. IMHO everyone who takes this should go through, understand the material and once that's complete, learn how to take the test.
“If I cannot drink Bourbon and smoke cigars in Heaven than I shall not go.
I agree. The problem is I felt like I was sitting in the wrong exam. So I felt I was guessing on some items because they were not in Transcender, AIO , Conrad book. The questions were so obscure and outside of the CBK that I just tried relate it to the closest domain and put the best answer related to all the CISSP concepts I learned. There is no way you can know everything.
With over 10 years of experience, do you think Eric's book gave you a lot of new information. Do you think going with Eric's book alone, will be enough for the CISSP examination? Also, would you mind telling if the "Orange Book" is still relevant for the examination?
Honestly its a concept test....you need to know the details and little random technical details
that will help you answer concept questions
Like for example:
What color book covers networks?
1) red book
2) green book
3) yellow book
4) blue book
Honestly I took 40 pages of Hand typed notes and also stole diagrams and charts from google for visual aids. However at the end I did not go back over those notes. However I did remember when making the notes that the Conrad book referred to the red book for networks. The reason my note method taking helped is because I ensured that I atleast glanced over every single topic in the Conrad book atleast once. which imprinted a visual image in my head. I am a visual learner.
The kicker is....when I started the transcender practice questions it was too tedious to look at my notes. Especially when your going through 1000 practice questions. So I just had to conjure up memories from my note taking and I realized that that you just need the concept to be able to answer most questions.
So with that being said I ditched my 40 pages of notes (when looking back was eerily silmilar to the 11th hour book) and I created a condenced study notes (2 page document) of only cryptography and the security models. This consisted of:
Assymetric Algorithms
Symmetric Algorithms
Hashes
and all the little minute details and intricacies of each...the random tidbits you might be questioned on
Biba
Clark Wilson
Bell-lapadula
take-grant
chinese wall
Not to mention by taking many practice questions you will be exposed to many more types of questions which are not covered in Shon Harris AIO or Conrad........espcially on Wireless and Virtual Machine concepts...
Hope this was helpful
Congrats!