Passed CISSP 03/29/2013 - 30-day study plan

[Title should have read 08/29/2013]

This is my first attempt at the CISSP exam which I passed it today 08/29/2013 in 2.5 hours. It sure wasn't a fun exam to take and I was all stressed out by the time I finished the last question. A lot of the tips that I read in these forums did help a lot with me with studying for this test. Here is my study plan and IT work history.

20 years of IT experience, last 5 years in IT Security field
* Worked in local government, universities and the corporate field.
* Experienced with administrating linux, unix, Windows, Apple environments.
* Incident investigation.
* Virus & Trojan investigations. Tracking down source vectors and determine if other employees downloaded the malware.
* Managing DMZ servers and Check point firewalls and IPS.
* Managing Websense Proxy servers to log all activities for investigation or public record requests.
* SIEM and syslog.
* Managing university computer labs. Physical lockdown of workstations & monitors, cipher locks and access control.
* Administrating Reverse proxy servers, Apache webservers, and SMTP servers.

Study Plan
* Goal was to take the CISSP test in 30 days of the start of the exam.
* Review this website for ideas for study plans and tips for taking the test.
* IMHO the best book that I read was "CISSP Study Guide" by Eric Conrad.
* The next best book that I used was "Eleventh Hour CISSP: Study Guide" by Eric Conrad.
* The first book that I purchased but I didn't really like was "CISSP All-In-One Exame Guide 5th Edition" by Shon Harris
* Purchased the Transcenders CISSP
* Downloaded the exam program from the Shon Harris book.
* First week I read the Shon Harris book. It was a long and boring read. It was painful to read so I bought the Conrad books.
* Second week I finished the Conrad book and purchased the Transcenders and began working on the questions.
* Third week downloaded the exam program from the URL that was provided in the Shon Harris book. Bought 11th hour book.
* Fourth week went over my notes, read the 11th Hour book a few times and complete both exam programs.
* The day before the exam, I completed all the Transcender exam questions and re-read the 11th Hour Book.


My tips
* I thought Transcenders was a good study aid, but I found some real good synergy when I combined my Transcender study session with the exam program downloaded from the link provided my Shon Harris's book. Both study aid programs were helpful in training my mind in how to prepare for the exam. I highly recommended both exam aids with your choice of textbooks.

* It's important to understand the concepts and behaviors of the security domains instead of going over the top my trying to remember every detail.

* Understand where the questions are leading you and who the audience is. Ethics and the preservation of human life are paramount.

* In my notes, I put together a chart which contained the OSI & TCP/IP models. I also mapped elements like the various firewall types and other information that I gathered from my readings. At the end it'll give you full view on how everything interacts.

* I also advise on taking the Security+ exam. I took that exam about 1.5 years ago and I think it's a good pre-cursor test to experience prior in taking the CISSP.