Just wanted to post here and say thanks to those for all the comments made over time. The key thing that got me through today was that I read this over and over again in many areas throughout this forum:
"I felt like I failed and I had to keep pushing through it" or words to that effect. I honestly felt like that too... but I kept pushing away. There is nothing... like close to nothing that you can just pick up and just ACE the test.
Here is what I did in this order and nothing else.
1.
Watched the CBT Nugget CISSP Videos (All of them)
2.
Read the 11th Hour Book (this was to get a better understanding of how this was going to be broken down)
3.
Purchased a 20 Pack of 5 Hour Energy's and a continuous 3/4 hours sleep a day.
4.
Listened to all of the audio's (YES, in your CAR... when eating... in the shower)
OFFICIAL FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD (THANK DANIELM7) - DL each Chapter's MP3s: McGraw-Hill Education | CISSP Practice Exams
5.
Read Shon Harris Book ALONG with her VIDEO. Yes, I had her video on the big screen and wrote in the book.
6. Every-time I
finished a video series, I
read the rest of the chapter and finished up.
7.
No/Very little use of CCC and No VCEs. I just did the questions in her book and in the 11th hour book.
TIP: Doing the questions will let you know if you understand what you read, but by no far... will any of these questions ...anywhere match the level on the exam. The method on you how you study and comprehend the information is what matter most; not how much you just read and watch.
TIP2: If you feel very very weak on switches and routers, watch the CBT Nuggets CCNA series. You can dwell a-bit into CCNA security, but I would advise this if you have the time to squeeze this in. If you watch the videos on just the concepts, not the configs, you can get most of it done in about 3/4 days.
TIP3: Ok, another point I can make. I read stuff out of order... and even the book is not setup in a good order. Another thing I realized is that I made the mistake of attacking this with a SEC+ mindset.
TIP4: Another point... do not get overly technical. You need to focus on the business aspect and channel the information that you know in order to relate. For example, the Shon Harris book is long winded. If you read about RAM, she goes on about the DDR and several other types. Do you need to go this far into the weeds? No, but be comfortable to observe what RAM generally is if that makes sense. I would only squeeze in the EXTRA, when you have the left over time to do so. Do you need to know your protocols... yes... but do you need to be knees deep in it? NO. Do you know the difference between the protocols? Then yes. I'm not going to lie, I still went overboard and went too deep myself.
TIP5: So how well do you have to understand the life cycle, disaster recovery, business continuity, and risk management. You need to understand and study the heck out of it. Shon Harris did say in her video that students overlook the chapter. Most of these chapters are smaller, so do not let it fool you. Since you have to THINK LIKE A MANAGER, you have to apply what you learned from these chapters. You'll find yourself facing questions as a manager and have to know at what step you are sitting at or make a decision based on risk factors (which include the tech crap). You do not have to memorize the words heart by heart, but understand how they all flow. Such as where do you emphasize safety at which of planning (which is on cccure)?
If your servers go down, do you fix it yourself? put in through change request? investigate with a team?The order I would recommend is to Watch/Read:
1. Access Controls
2. Sec Architecture and Design
3. Software Development Sec
4. Crypto
5. Telecommunications Security
6. Physical Security
7. Ops Security
8. Info Sec & Risk Management
9. Business BCP / DRP
10. Legal
So why this order? Well, I read what was comfortable first... but that's a bad way to start. What I realized after reading this entire book is the whole point is to SECURE GENERATED DATA that SERVES a PURPOSE. So if you understand how data is first generated, how it moves in a cpu, then how it coded... then you understand how to encrypt it... and then security it through telecommunications. Steps 6 - 10 provide a better in how to tackle it in a business aspect.
SUMMARY: Study your heart out and care about why you want to take this test. DO NOT JUST take practice exams! Do the READING! What's the point? Every time I read or watched a video, I learned something.
