My brain hurts but happy I got the “Congratulations!” letter at the end. Almost every question was a battle!
How I prepared
- Sybex 7th (official CISSP Guide)
- Eric Conrads 3rd edition CISSP Study Guide
Read both books, cover to cover and took over 200 pages of written notes. I find physically writing things down helps for me. I completed all book exam questions, some chapters I would do the exam multiple times! The Sybex official guide has an iOS app with the same practice questions as the book that I would find myself using randomly. Sybex was ok but it was reading Conrad's 3rd edition that made things “click” for me to understand that "concept"!
I purchased a 60 day access to the
3. CCCure test engine (completed over 2000+ questions all on Pro setting)
I liked their engine & detailed explanations but many of the questions were way too overly technical than what was needed for the actual exam BUT what is really important is you understand the “CONCEPT”. Stop memorizing and understand the concepts, this cannot be stressed enough. Anyway, that said sometimes you really need to understand the “tech” to understand the concept. Over the last two weeks I did a three 250 question exams so I was prepared for marathon of sitting for the real thing. I averaged about 80%/85% on all CCCure tests but honestly maybe only preparing yourself for 5+ hours of a mind game is the real benefit here.
Anyway… I also did
4. Flash Cards (written 3” x 5” index cards)
Every time I missed ANY question, I would write a card to help me with some point. Sometimes I would have many of the same items just asked different ways, which sometimes had me going back to re-read a section I missed. (CCCure has an option to keep your missed questions in your future “pools/banks” of test questions.) For the past couple months, it was rare you would not find me with a 10-15 flash cards going over a few topics.
No CISSP courses but I do have 10+ years in InfoSec experience, extremely heavy on PCI DSS. My experience helped with many of the firewall, cryptography, networking questions, SDLC was one of my weak areas.
It is really hard to explain but none of the practice test questions really line up to the actual exam. Some were familiar in the idea but none really line up. If/when you get down to two answers, re-read the question! I had planed to watch some of the Cybrary videos but just never got around to it. Everyone learns a little different.
Over the 5+ hours spent on the exam, I took a couple breaks. Besides bathroom, water, stretch, I had some snacks which I left all in my locker. My breaks never lasted longer than 5 minutes. You cannot have anything in the exam room. I found it easier to just leave my pockets inside out … maybe I will leave them that way and start a new fashion statement.
My exam felt heavy on IPSec / other cryptography, SDLC, FeID/SAML, BCP/DRP but the range of topics was really was a "mile wide & an inch deep"
Often I would read a question and get down to two of the four answers. Go back and re-read the question and study each word, what is it specifically asking to help pick one of those two answers. There are some multiple answer/matching questions, not a lot but some. You will stumble on a few questions (like was this subject on my study guide?) but just remember 25 questions are not counted and ISC2 is just throwing them out.
Cheers… I had a few cold ones last night but my body still gets up at the crack of dawn to study. What will I do with all my free time?
Good Luck!
