CISSP Failed 3x

lotsill2 · March 2018

My experience was that the CAT test was more different/harder than the previous tests as more questions were less clear. The questions were 1-2 sentences long, much shorter than previous exams. This was my 3rd time taking the test over 1.5 years. I'd didn't fail the test, ISC failed me. The Q/A is presented in questionable grammar. Was able to decipher Best/Most as they are bold, identify the primary word to meet the objective.
The first 50 were easy to comprehend and eliminate 2 answers. Around 80 the verbiage left me thinking "English MF, can you write it (not rhetorical)? Please rephrase the question!”
After question 115, I knew it was over.

Report said my worst domains are listed below. My 2nd test, these were some of my strongest.
Security Engineering
Identify and access management
Asset Security.

“A shared key, if 10 people want to exchange messages, how many tokens are needed.”
Would the answer be 1 or 10?

A lot of the material was missing from my exam.
Frameworks, Models, physical sec, database, CIA, ports, raid, SLE/ARO, Code of ethics, the list can go on and on.

My study materials were 7hrs a day at work for 2 months.

Sybex – Test Bank
All in One
Sybex - ISC Official Study Guide
CISSP Study Guide 3rd (Conrad)
11th hour (Conrad)
Bootcamp

scankloud · March 2018

lotsill2 wrote: »

My experience was that the CAT test was more different/harder than the previous tests as more questions were less clear. The questions were 1-2 sentences long, much shorter than previous exams. This was my 3rd time taking the test over 1.5 years. I'd didn't fail the test, ISC failed me. The Q/A is presented in questionable grammar. Was able to decipher Best/Most as they are bold, identify the primary word to meet the objective.
The first 50 were easy to comprehend and eliminate 2 answers. Around 80 the verbiage left me thinking "English MF, can you write it (not rhetorical)? Please rephrase the question!”
After question 115, I knew it was over.

Report said my worst domains are listed below. My 2nd test, these were some of my strongest.
Security Engineering
Identify and access management
Asset Security.

“A shared key, if 10 people want to exchange messages, how many tokens are needed.”
Would the answer be 1 or 10?

A lot of the material was missing from my exam.
Frameworks, Models, physical sec, database, CIA, ports, raid, SLE/ARO, Code of ethics, the list can go on and on.

My study materials were 7hrs a day at work for 2 months.

Sybex – Test Bank
All in One
Sybex - ISC Official Study Guide
CISSP Study Guide 3rd (Conrad)
11th hour (Conrad)
Bootcamp

@otsill2 - I Want to say a Big Congratulations again for not totally giving up after the first two fails and gave a third try, you lotsill2 are the REAL MVP, not the guys clearing the exams, you who has tried three times. My very candid professional advice would be, go sit for ISACA CISM and CRISC Exam, that would prepare you for this current CISSP. ISC2 seems to have moved away from too much technicality to Management focus, they are trending the way of ISACA

To begin your ISACA Journey is very simple,

Step 1: Join isaca.org if you haven't already, yearly membership fee is $135dollars and depending on where you live in the world, you may have to pay a chapter fee and that can be anywhere from 0 to $50dollars. In total you're looking at parting with $185 dollars depending on what chapter you allocated to.

2. Buy the CISM Exam voucher after your Membership, it cost $525 and you can get another discount of $50 dollars off when you Enter the code: CISMEX0518 .

3. Buy the 1 year subscription of the Question and Answer Explanation Database for $185dollars.

4. Join Cybrary.it and search for CISM & CRISC training by Kelly Handerhand, CISM video traning is 8hrs and CRISC is 5hrs.

5. Always visit this section of Tech Exams to read other people's Success stories and how they approached the exam: ISACA CISA CISM Forums

6. Schedule the Exam at a PSI Center, schedule it 6 weeks out, most of the content for CISP sync with the CISM, the CISM already ha the CAT Exam format long before CISSP thought of the change in their Practice and training session with the Question and Answer Explanation Database popularly referred to as QAE.

7. Finally, I know these stuff cost Money, but if you can reach out to me, I will personally send you a $100 dollars towards your exam voucher. I do not want you to give up, I failed my CISM the first time, I felt like my loved ones didn't believe in me again. I went to and studied like crazy for 3 weeks and Passed my CRISC and then re-sat my CISM after 2 months of failing and Passed it. Now I am preparing for CISSP after which I am going to clear my CISA, CGEIT and PMP then switch over to AWS Cloud.

8. Try to sign up for Sans Work Study Program for their CISSP, I signed up for Cloud Security Achitecture and Operations and was approved to support the trainer this April 03 to 10th 2018 in Orlando, Florida. God miraculously slot this in a good timing for me. The link to apply for many and several other programs including CISSP at Sans is here: https://www.sans.org/work-study/

Good luck and reach out with any question.

chrisone · March 2018

I failed twice and passed on my third try. These are typical results, nothing new here.

mgeoffriau · March 2018

lotsill2 wrote: »

“A shared key, if 10 people want to exchange messages, how many tokens are needed.”
Would the answer be 1 or 10?

If this is an actual exam question, you'll probably want to remove that info.

That said, for shared keys, the math for the number of required keys is:

n(n-1)/2

So, it would be:

10(9)/2 = 45 keys

csjohnng · March 2018

Hi there, it's great to see the persistence in pursuing and not giving up.
Actually I only use the book Sybex - ISC Official Study Guide and got pass, which I think the Sybex book at "sufficient" enough to get you pass if you know the content well.

You may also consider doing questions in the sybex CISSP Official (ISC)2 Practice Tests too (which I did not).

I would not comment on your question .. “A shared key, if ....", I can only tell you similar question and answer can be found on the Sybex book.

My advice:
1) Study the book (read once and twice in the 11th hours) ;
2) do those exercises at the back of each chapter/domain.
After answering each question, don't just finish the exercise (by marking just right or wrong answers) for the sack of doing but instead for every single question you have answered, try to understand why it's correct or why it's a wrong answer, I like the sybex one because they have explanation behind why this is a correct one. And taking a step further, ask yourself What makes choice (a) a correct one , and what makes choice (b) , (c) and (d) incorrect ones. or how would the question change/ask in order to get choice (c) to stand.
for example when a questions ask you about public key, you know the answer, and what if the question change to private key, then ask yourself what would be the correct answers, this could test your knowledge and understanding further.

3) Finally Try to keep clam, read the question carefully (sometime I mis-read the question, then 99% I will miss the right answer), keep a good timing (whatever it's comfortable pase to you which you can finish 150 question within 3 hrs) and do not get panic during the exam.

Best of luck to you.

Can'tTakeIt! · March 2018

Lotsill2,

I totally get the English MF part because I was thinking the same thing. It was so hard to read/understand the questions because they were poorly written. I was reading each questions 3-4 times and almost ran out of time at the end (12 seconds!). I failed for the 2nd time yesterday and getting back on the horse again. Hang in there! I understand your frustration. It's a soul-sucking exam.

CISSP Failed 3x

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