Going for CISSP in Afghanistan

in SSCP
As long as my testing center doesn't close unexpectedly, I will be attempting the CISSP CBT here in Afghanistan sometime in April or May. I've been studying for about four weeks now and I have just finished my first read-through of all of my material. My study plan is as follows:
First pass: Read one chapter in CISSP for Dummies, followed by the corresponding chapter in the Shon Harris AIO, until complete; no quizzes or practice questions from AIO just yet
Second pass: Complete first half of a domain in the Skillport online training module, read the corresponding chapter in Eric Conrad 2nd edition, then complete the second half of the Skillport module. Complete the ~15 chapter end questions from Conrad as well as the pre-test, mid-lesson questions, and lesson tests from Skillport.
I finished the Skillport and Conrad pass yesterday. Starting today, I will go through each chapter-end quiz from Shon Harris as a closed-book self test and record my scores. This will give me an idea of what I need to focus my studies on. When I am above 85%, preferably above 90%, in each domain according to CCCure and the accompanying Shon Harris practice exam book, I will consider myself ready for final review with the Sunflower PDF and my study notes. At some point in this process I'll book the test to make sure I don't slack off near the end!
First pass: Read one chapter in CISSP for Dummies, followed by the corresponding chapter in the Shon Harris AIO, until complete; no quizzes or practice questions from AIO just yet
Second pass: Complete first half of a domain in the Skillport online training module, read the corresponding chapter in Eric Conrad 2nd edition, then complete the second half of the Skillport module. Complete the ~15 chapter end questions from Conrad as well as the pre-test, mid-lesson questions, and lesson tests from Skillport.
I finished the Skillport and Conrad pass yesterday. Starting today, I will go through each chapter-end quiz from Shon Harris as a closed-book self test and record my scores. This will give me an idea of what I need to focus my studies on. When I am above 85%, preferably above 90%, in each domain according to CCCure and the accompanying Shon Harris practice exam book, I will consider myself ready for final review with the Sunflower PDF and my study notes. At some point in this process I'll book the test to make sure I don't slack off near the end!
CCIE Security - this one might take a while...
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Security Operations - 96%
BCP and DRP - 94%
Physical Security - 90%
Cryptography - 88%
Access Control - 83%
InfoSec Governance and Risk Management - 82%
Legal / Regulations - 77%
Security Architecture and Design - 74%
Software Development - 73%
Telecommunications and Network Security - 59%
...ouch. As a CCNA, that last one stung more than a little. WANs were my Waterloo with Cisco, and they're hitting me hard now. I missed questions on PEAP, remote procedure calls, EAP-TTLS, SASL, DNSSEC, CCMP, and so on. However, I now know what I need to focus on, and after a solid week of review, I hope to see my scores go up significantly.
For only working on this for a month I'd say you're doing excellent.
We've got a test center here on base as well. It is definitely on the up and up. Unfortunately they only provide testing with Pearson Vue and not Prometric so we have to go out on the economy for all the Microsoft tests. Lucky me!
OP, enjoy that new Jeep Grand Cherokee
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Don't get too caught up with the test scores and let them discourage you, I faced the same issue when studying. Just make sure you hit the weak areas and use numerous study resources if possible!
It doesn't look like the Army will come through with a voucher for this test in time for me to take it here - I'm leaving soon, thankfully - so I will go ahead and schedule it courtesy of MasterCard for a week from today. If I don't make it through the first time, I will go through the voucher process again at home station. But I really don't want to have to do that, of course
The countdown begins today!
I re-read Security Operations in the AIO today and worked through some practice questions to gauge my knowledge of the domain. The test is booked and paid for. It's a good feeling, even though I'm also pretty nervous about the test. $600 is a lot.
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All the material is good to get an understanding of the subject matter and valuable, and it will help you with some "throw away questions", but the test isn't like any other test I've ever taken and again not one practice test came close to what to expect.
Just take your time, make sure you read the questions carefully and thoroughly, don't just assume an answer simply because "I read that in a book or saw the answer on a practice exam"
Good luck to you, you can do it!
I'll be signing into the testing center in just 21 hours. Fortunately (fortunately?) my day job is keeping me very busy today, so I don't have enough time to even think about the test as much as I usually would. CISSP is all well and good but if TACSAT isn't working, that is what I will be working on!
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The long version: I tried to go to sleep early last night but ended up staying awake until about 1 AM doing nothing in particular. I had assumed I would be up late because of nerves and so I scheduled my test for the afternoon so I could sleep in a little. I went for a 30 minute run to wake up, studied for 2 or 3 hours - I did the 142 question comprehensive exam from the back of the Shon Harris book, scoring 78% - reviewed some of the chapter end summaries from the AIO, and got some lunch before signing into the testing center.
The test itself was a lot easier than I expected. I had the same feeling that jvrlopez described of wondering if I was in the right exam; the questions were straightforward, more like a Cisco exam than the tricky CCCure or Shon Harris AIO questions, and I was going pretty fast. I went through all 250 questions in 110 minutes and flagged 55 for review. After a 5 minute break, I took ten minutes to review them and felt confident about all but 12 of the flagged questions. I felt calm throughout the entire exam except for when I was halfway through my review, as I knew that I wasn't going to change more than one or two answers (if any) and my exam was basically done already. With 230 minutes left on the clock, I ended the exam and received the very welcome one-page printout.
My preparation consisted of approximately 60 days of studying, about 1-4 hours per day. My primary sources were the Shon Harris AIO 6th edition (very, very thorough, but also far more in-depth than the exam required); the Eric Conrad study guide, 2nd edition (also very good. I got the Kindle edition for this one); and the CISSP for Dummies book, which I used as a topic introduction for each domain before diving into the AIO. I read through every page of all three books before self-testing with the AIO chapter end quizzes, then drilled myself with the entire 1500 question CCCure database and the Shon Harris AIO companion practice test book. I kept reading the AIO as I had free time and concentrated on the things I felt unsure about - WAN protocols, security architectures, types of evidence, software design methodologies, and so on. Before the test, I felt unsure if my knowledge was good enough to pass, but I also felt fairly comfortable with all the information presented in the Eric Conrad and the majority of the information in the AIO.
Off to the validation process! Thanks to everyone for your support, answered questions, personal experiences, encouragement, and most of all, the sense of community in this forum. Special thanks to da_vato, zxbane, jvrlopez (best study recap I've ever read for anything, ever), NimrodHunter, Charles, stryder144... and so many more. Today is a red letter day!
Nice to see we had a similar experience and the same result
It's funny how easy the test can seem if you study and have the right experience.
I'm glad my thread was able to help you!
Any goals next?
It really nice to hear and also the common thread here is preperation and experience are key. I have just over 6 weeks till exam date, and its only recently that I am looking forward to taking it.
Thanks for all the encouraging posts of successfull CISSP's
Gene