Passed today 4/25, 1st attempt

Well, I passed my test ... Here is what I did and my thoughts.

1st I have been in IT since 1997, and believe me experience counts.

I read

shown Harris aio 6th Ed
Eric Conrad CISSP Study Guide 2nd Ed
Michael Gregg Exam Cram
And Eric Conrad 11th hour

I also watched the CNT nuggets video training series

Listen to a few of shons mp3s, and some of her kids

Looked up some concepts on YouTube and did some internet research on items that I felt wasn't explained well in any book

I also did the cccure.org practice exams and transcended practice tests.

First of all, if you don't have experience then your lucky if you pass. This test truly tested your knowledge in IT, but not as a tech. You must address each question as if you were manager.

Second neither of practice tests helped me at all, I wish I didn't spend my hard earned money. They did not offer any insight as to what to expect on test and some questions where worded so weird and made no sense they confused me more. Also some of the transcended questions were wrong.

Thirdly, the books were a good resource to understand the concepts and gain technical knowledge (especially shins book), but just reading the books will not help you answer some of the questions. The tests asks you questions that require more than just understanding a chapter.

I honestly thought I failed the test and was preparing to take it again. The test really challenged me. Especially since now everyone works in all 10 domains. I almost shouted when I say I passed.

My honest advice is to think in a managers mindset not technical (it is a managers test). People come first, business, and CIA. Read the questions carefully.

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Comments

broli720

Congrats and welcome to the club.

cissper

NimrodHunter, Congrats on passing. Thanks for the heads-up, I am taking mine on April 30. Excited!!!

billyr2009

Congrats!

kingkong81

you said "neither of practice tests helped me at all..." Does CCCure help at all? I just don't want to waste time.
I'm going through CCCure now and half way through (about 800/1500 questions).

I'm thinking I should stop taking CCCure if it is really not that helpful. I noticed too there are technical type of questions(i would say at least 15% of the pool) asking what is the port number for SMTP or what are pro/cons of different gen firewalls or something to do with like 802. technology.
This is a non technical test from what people say and there are a lot of mixed opinion on CCCure for sure.

cissper

@kingkong81, I have not attempted my CISSP yet (scheduled April 30) but, this is wanted I felt: I found CCCure a good source to gauge how much i could remember. But I found no use in repeating the test questions until I achieve 80% as a mantra that is being professed unless, you want to make sure that you remember protocol IDs and lot of deep technical questions that were contributed by users who had a passion for certain topics

. It took me 3 weeks to complete all the questions and review the answers / detailed explanations. However, I would recommend anyone to subscribe for CCCure but not to waste too much around it.
I then quickly moved to other sources where I would find different set of questions. Overall, my goal was to review answers for every question and scribble some notes in my 11th Hour Study Guide by Eric Conrad.

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats on the pass

TheProfezzor

Congratulations on the pass!

NimrodHunter

Hello kingkong81, I can only comment on my experience and yes neither practice tests sources helped me. This test is not about memorization whatsoever. Its about understanding the concepts and answering as a manager not a tech. Yes there was only a few (maybe 10) questions that I got that was technical, but they were technical things you should know as an it professional already. A few things asked "which element/principal mean ______ or defined as _____" which is out of books, but they aren't worded as any of the books. You need to understand the concepts in order to answer correctly. Cccure, for me had awful written questions, and was no where near what ingot on the test. None of the test questions are written as badly. Yes they are confusing and 2 or 3 answers could be the answer, but they are written out clearly.

I took maybe 300-400 questions and got between 50-72% everytime.

The best advice I got was by watching the cbgnugget series, which I'll give you "think people always come first and foremost, and always think CIA". 2 other words of advice, managers should think what's best for the organization and read each questions thoroughly. Don't just assume you know the answer or think you know if cause you read that line in a book.

I saw it said in one of these threads and they said shin is not the end all be all of the isc2, the isc2 is ... This is true for all authors.

Good luck to you.

LionelTeo

kingkong81 wrote: »

you said "neither of practice tests helped me at all..." Does CCCure help at all? I just don't want to waste time.
I'm going through CCCure now and half way through (about 800/1500 questions).

I'm thinking I should stop taking CCCure if it is really not that helpful. I noticed too there are technical type of questions(i would say at least 15% of the pool) asking what is the port number for SMTP or what are pro/cons of different gen firewalls or something to do with like 802. technology.
This is a non technical test from what people say and there are a lot of mixed opinion on CCCure for sure.

CCCure can be used in two ways, the first way is that to test if you memorize your concepts, after all, a portaions of the exam gives away free score if you memorize them. The second way is to use its when you hit a question that you do not know the answer about, that is somewhat an obscure question with obscure answers, try your best to make sense of the question and guess the answer. Even its a useless architecture question (who the heck approve that kind of question), try to think of the 'order' and answer it to your best.

kingkong81

How can I distinguish if a question is a asking for 'garbage collector' or 'bounds checking(buffer overflow)' answer?

anyone?

NimrodHunter

@kingkong81, without disclosing what is on the test all I can say is the questions I got are worded clearly, not like CCCure tests. The problem was that any of the answers worked really well. You must use your knowledge and expertise when answering the questions. So to answer your question, I do not believe that the test will be worded in such a way that you will not be able to understand the question, but you will need to choose the best answer for that question. Make sure to read the questions thoroughly, don't just assume one answer of the over. Think through the process carefully ... I used the ISC2 code of ethics as my measuring stick.

NimrodHunter

@cissper, thank and good luck on the 30th.

NimrodHunter

@broli720, @billyr2009, @DAVIS NGUYEN, @TheProfezzor Thanks to all of you, my endorsement has been submitted and received by ISC2 and hope to be fully certified within the next few weeks ... Onto the C|EH, CCNA Security, and other certs ... eventually I would love to get the OSCP, but that will come later.

finhack

goodjob!

Grafixx01

Good job!

NimrodHunter

@finhack @Grafixx01 Thanks