CISSP Exam Experience - November 19, Minneapolis

Just thought I would take a few minutes to share my CISSP exam experience, and some of my studying techniques (which I don't necessarily recommend). I found out that I passed this morning.

First off, I did not study as hard as I'd intended to. I have the fifth edition of Shon Harris' All-in-One, and also used "Eleventh Hour CISSP" by Eric Conrad, Seth Misenar and Joshua Feldman.

The Eleventh Hour book, I read all the way through; I think it was a nice overview of all the CBKs. The Shon Harris book, I didn't (only the chapters/CBK areas that I felt weakest on).

The exam itself was grueling in terms of it being 250 multiple-choice questions, but it wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated. It felt like none of the material I read actually helped to prepare me for the exam all that much. Instead, I feel that my interests and career path did a much better job of preparing me. When I finished, I was pretty sure I passed.

I finished in about 3.5 hours, marking my answers directly in the answer booklet. I didn't double-back, or second guess myself. I was feeling ill at the time, and for various reasons didn't feel comfortable sitting for too long.

That's it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I may not be able to answer until this evening, however, as I'm at work typing this over my lunch break.

Tom