PASSED CISSP First Time - New CAT exam format!!!

So today I have taken my CISSP exam and i told myself I would write one of these regardless if i passed to inform the community that comes behind me. Long story short I passed (test ended at 100 questions)

Study time frame:
- 6 weeks hardcore studying prior to exam (4-6 hours per day)

Study material:
- Sybex book is GOD
- Videos from a bootcamp that were recorded (not the best they left out key things)
- Kelly Handerhan from Cybrary.it (Very good high level)
- Morning of the exam i watch skillsoft videos that hit the topics high level and quickly

Practice Test
- All the Sybex test engine questions twice
- Pocket Prep (Android and iOS)
- This resource was really helpful but the questions were not great but they tested you on "paragraphs" from the Sybex book. So you really had to be on top of your game.
- iOS app that offers practice questions. (Cant remember the name, orange icon)
- Quizlet (used this to master the cryptography and all the algorithms)

What I avoided
- Shon Harris
- The stupid green "official" ISC2 study guide (DON'T GET THIS YOU WILL BE LOST)

Bottom Line
- No practice test I ever took could of prepared me for the actual questions. I cannot explain it but the questions were very hard and very difficultly worded so you must really know the ins and outs of the various topics.

Good luck and good studying

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Comments

Falcon56

Great job! Looks like you attacked this exactly how it should be taken on.

I agree about the Sybex book.

TheRedBar0n

Congrats on the pass and thanks for the feedback!

banjohunter

I am new to this. You say the Sybex book is GOD. But, you say that the Green official study guide is useless. Which one of those is "[h=1]CISSP (ISC)2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide" published by Sybex?[/h]

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

Deadly-Dosage

Way to go!

Nightfallx

banjohunter wrote: »

I am new to this. You say the Sybex book is GOD. But, you say that the Green official study guide is useless. Which one of those is "CISSP (ISC)2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide" published by Sybex?

he means the green CBK is bad I believe.

PersianImmortal

Congratulations!!!

amwestgate

Congratulations and thanks for the feedback. Can you confirm that you have to answer every question in the order presented? It is not clear to me if you can hold questions to return to at a later time. It is pretty clear you cannot change your answer once it is submitted.
Also did you have scenarios that carried over multiple questions?
Thank you!

SteveLavoie

You can return to older question answered or not.

NEODREAM

amwestgate wrote: »

Congratulations and thanks for the feedback. Can you confirm that you have to answer every question in the order presented? It is not clear to me if you can hold questions to return to at a later time. It is pretty clear you cannot change your answer once it is submitted.
Also did you have scenarios that carried over multiple questions?
Thank you!

In the old format you could return to questions, but in this new CAT format you must answer the questions in the order they are presented with no ability to go back. You are correct in that once you answer the question, you will not be able to change it.

TechGuru80

With CAT it is much more likely you will have questions across many topics because you have to be judged in signicantly less time...the old style theoretically could present you several questions on the same topic and could give you that “ah ha” moment allowing you to return to another question.

Honestly, for anybody taking the exam, don’t stress too much about CAT. So many exams today prevent you from going to an earlier question, and in life you need to be decisive then move on. It’s not like you can take down a network at work and ask for a “do over” without penalty.

brusell

Hi there,
do you mean this book?

sameoj

Congrats