Passed CISSP Today - Here was my plan

Hello, I've been a lurker for a couple of months on the site and have learned so much that I decided I needed to give back.

First, about me: 16 years in IT with the past 4+ dedicated to security. Prior to that I was a sys admin for 10 years. I've been fortunate to have been exposed to most of the domains with the exception of Security Architecture and Software Development.

Books Used:
AIO - read about 20% of the first domain and realized there was NO way I could read 1,400 more pages
Conrad Study Guide - Loved
11th Hour - Very Good

Practice Exams:
Total Tester - Decent
McGraw Hill - Good
CCCure - I like the interface and the customization options but many of the questions were way too technical and some seem dated
Transcender - Decent
Conrad Online - Good
Shon Harris Practice Exams Book - Scenario questions were good
ISC2 IPad Questions - Good questions but some had no explanations which was rather annoying
A CISSP app for iPhone that had like 500 questions - mediocre but only cost 10 bucks

Study Guides:
Combined CISSP Notes from this site - Awesome
Sunflower PDF - Decent but dated

My plan:
I decided to go "All-In" on the Conrad Suite and not bother with any other primary sources. But I did a LOT of practice questions; probably answered over 7,500 and over 5,000 of those were unique.

I first started to read the Conrad book and take a lot of notes but honestly this method doesn't work for me. I was busy writing but not absorbing. I know for most people this works for them but I've NEVER been a note taker. I'm better at just reading to comprehend so I decided to just read through the book start to finish, only answering the end of chapter questions. At this time I purchased the CCCure subscription and did a mock test of 100-200 questions. Scored mid 60's or so. This took me a couple of weeks.

Next I went through the Conrad book again and this time after each domain I would take 25-50 question quizzes from each of CCCure, Total Tester and McGraw Hill. Was getting around low-mid 70's at this point. I then did all of the ISC2 iPad questions and was getting mid 70's. I then did full 250 question exams from all test banks and did the first of the Conrad online exams and scored mid 70's here too. This took a few weeks.

I next switched to the 11th hour and the combined notes. I reviewed each domain and then took 100 question quizzes from TT, CCCure and McGraw Hill. Started getting into the 80's which felt nice but still there were a few domains lagging behind. This too a few weeks.

For the last 1-2 weeks I reviewed the 11th hour and combined notes AGAIN but by this time I had run through all of the quizzes I had so I decided to purchase Transcender and go through all of those questions domain by domain. My lowest domain was 74% and my highest was 88% and most were in the 80's. I then took the 2nd 250 question exam from Conrad and scored an 83%.

The key for me was not only reading why I got a question wrong but many times I read why I got it right if I didn't really know the material and just guessed correctly.

Total prep time about 2.5 months

For the Exam itself:
I was going in expecting all types of esoteric questions and was frankly shocked that they were pretty straight forward. I went through each question pretty quickly and marked about 100 for review. This took about 2 hours and I then took my only break of about 10 minutes. It took me about another 2 hours to go through the marked questions (I changed about 10) and I then ended the exam. I would say that I was fairly confident that I had passed but still nervous. Overall I thought the exam was very fair.

I hope this review helps future test takers. I know I learned SO much by going though every pass/fail review on this site going back several years.

Now onto Endorsement and teaching myself python to prepare me for the OSCP!

Eric

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Comments

cyberguypr

Congrats on the pass!

colemic

Congrats!

AverageJoe

Nice job, congrats!

cgrimaldo

Congrats! Python is on my to do list now that I just recently passed the CISSP. What are your plans for starting out?

impelse

Congrats

griffondg

Thanks everyone!

cgrimaldo wrote: »

Congrats! Python is on my to do list now that I just recently passed the CISSP. What are your plans for starting out?

A friend told me about codecademy.com which has free lessons and looks pretty good. But between the CISSP study and CEH study and exam prior to that I'm going to go slow over the next couple of months to recharge and then will hit the OSCP with a vengeance early next year.

cgrimaldo

I signed up for code academy as well. Have you looked at securitytubes videos? I think I might purchase the python vids.

griffondg

cgrimaldo wrote: »

I signed up for code academy as well. Have you looked at securitytubes videos? I think I might purchase the python vids.

Hmm, looks good. My friend also recommended Udacity but that's pretty pricey. My employer will pay for the OSCP but not sure about the training materials. I know I spent a good chunk of change on the CISSP materials!

cgrimaldo

Tell me about it...CISSP was a lot more than 600 dollars. lol

Spin Lock

Thank you for the detailed prep and exam review. It was very helpful! And congrats on passing!

voodoo26

Great review. Congrats on passing !

papadoc

Great review, congrats on your well deserved pass!

nawanis

Griffondg,
Shon Harris Practice Exams Book - Scenario questions were good
Where did you get scenario based question in this book...I have this book but unable to see it...unless I am missing something for sure.
Thanks for your help.