I took my CISSP exam today and walked away with a pass.
These forums have been a great help in my preparation. The exam was very challenging overall, but about as difficult as I expected (I knew it would be pretty brutal). I didn't take any breaks and pretty much used the whole 6 hours (I was on a roll and didn't want to stop). I did the three pass strategy like others have written about in previous threads. Overall, that worked out really well for me as some questions helped jog my memory on a few others that I struggled on.
For preparation I used the following...
Books:
Sybex 7th Edition - 9/10 (Very long book, but covered the domains well)
11th hour by Eric Conrad - 8/10 (Nice read to refresh concepts leading up to exam day)
Videos:
Watched half the CISSP videos on LinkedIn - 7/10 (Kind of boring, but some decent coverage of material)
Kelly Handerhan videos on Cybrary - 10/10 (She's amazing!)
Practice exams:
Sybex online practice tests - 8/10 (These were pretty good, but the answers can be too obvious. Flash cards were nice to have)
Extra:
Sunflower PDF - 9/10 (Great for reference, but did not use it heavily)
I personally believe that using too many resources can hurt your studies, so I kept it to a minimum.
So, overall it was a really tough exam, but it's doable! I'd also like to mention that you should never underestimate the importance of a good nights sleep and a healthy breakfast. The state of your body and mind go hand in hand. Do everything you can to ensure you are fresh going into that exam room.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.
