Failed CISSP Exam What Now?

stouch · March 2015

I failed my CISSP exam, I scored 680, so missed the passing mark by 20. I'm disappointed to say the least.
Study material: Official ISC2 training material, bought the Shon Harris book but didn't open it.
Other form training: 1 week long book camp CISSP training

I can't take the exam for the another 30days, my understanding is that the exam is changing the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure what the impact would be as far as new study material and new exam.

What now?

sbilal · March 2015

Sorry to hear about ur results. It was a close match. Anyways don't loose hope. As the exam is changing from 15th April, the best you can do is to wait and see the post for Passed Exam on this forum after 15th April. I think that will give you a clear vision how you should proceed for the second chance. The passed posts will make you prepare for the method you should follow for the next Chance. Till that time you can go through the domains for which you have performed least and figure out the weak areas. No matter exam is changing but it will not change the concept of security over night.
Stay focused and you will be succeeded.

GForce75 · March 2015

Continue to stay on top of it. I have seen people on here saying they went for it a third time. The official book is out, so you can order that to see if there are drastic differences and there will probably be someone who takes both version of the exams who can fill you in. In the mean time, keep studying and don't lose what you know. It can fall from the mind quick.

Khaos1911 · March 2015

Sorry to hear that. Keep at it though, you 're so close that tweaking what books your are reading and note taking will put you over the top.

I take this exam next week, now I'm starting to worry a bit. I really need to buckle down this week/weekend.

sifz · March 2015

I feel sorry for you, it was close. I also had my CISSP exam today and felt very uncomfortable at the begin of it.

For the preparation I used following materials:

-Took a CISSP boot camp 6+1 days (this was my starting point).
-Watched some CISSP related study videos (these helped me to understand things in a big picture)
-Read about 2/3 of the Shon Harris AIO book (skipped some topics e.g. networks & telecommunication, cryptography)
-Two weeks before the exam I also read the 11th hour CISSP: study guide by Eric Conrad (this was good one to wrap up things)
-Week before the exam I started doing some practice tests to find out CBK's that I had to learn more.
= In total 2 months of studying (and it was worth it)

In the exam I tried to tackle the easy one's first (which needed 30 sec - 1 min to answer) and flagged the rest. That approach gave me a lot of time to think the difficult ones. However I used the whole time available to review my answers and submitted when there was 1 min left.

I also think that the new exam won't change that much, you'll still need the understand a lot of same things / concepts to succeed. I'm sure you'll pass the exam in the future.

stouch · March 2015

Based on all the comments I've been reading, I think I wasn't well prepared for the exam. All I did was the book camp, and reviewing the training material from the book camp. Apparently I did poorly on (from most poorly, top 3) Legal, Regulations, Investigation and Compliance, Operations Security, and Software development Security.

E Double U · March 2015

stouch wrote: »

bought the Shon Harris book but didn't open it.

It is time to open it

I failed with a 676 in December and just passed on Saturday. You're almost there!

impelse · March 2015

You are almost done, keep going.

dustervoice · March 2015

stouch wrote: »

bought the Shon Harris book but didn't open it.
What now?

Sorry to hear you didnt pass.. give it another try and this time open Shon Harris. Her book is the recipe for success. Stick to the high level concepts when studying and please read all the "passed" thread on this forum they will guide you in the right direction

Khaos1911 · March 2015

What exact concepts are you referring to when you say "high level?"

E Double U · March 2015

Khaos1911 wrote: »

What exact concepts are you referring to when you say "high level?"

For example, I didn't try to remember everything AIO said about the Red Book. I did remember that it addresses network security.

AIO has about 2 -3 pages on IPv6, but from my Cisco studies I remembered the following and left it at that:

- IPng
- IPSec integration
- 128 bit address
- no NAT
- 6to4 tunneling

I focused on a lot less minute details this time around. I know about the ISO/IEC 27000 series, but I did not try to memorize each standard and what they do.

LionelTeo · April 2015

One advise I will give is to reread the content with highlighters and aim to highlight in a way make the book into a quick reference guide just by reading the highlighted points. For any practice you are currently using, drop it and switch to another one. I would recommend GISP pratice test to supplement your study. For other practice engine, try to forget the question so that you will not get it correct just because u had seen the question before, but got it right because you interpret and get the question correctly.

wyntech · April 2015

I know it's daunting, but Shon Harris's book is an excellent resource. Why not go through it and do the quizzes at the end of each chapter and then review the chapters where you score less than 70%? It wouldn't be a bit time investment but I am sure you'd find it valuable.

dustervoice · April 2015

Khaos1911 wrote: »

What exact concepts are you referring to when you say "high level?"

Remember CISSP is a management test not a technical one. For example if your on the cryptography domain focus on why encryption is necessary, hashing vs encrypting, whats a digital signature, PKI, symetric vs asymetric etc... don't focus too much attention on things like block size, rounds , blah blah blah

papadoc · April 2015

stouch wrote: »

I failed my CISSP exam, I scored 680, so missed the passing mark by 20. I'm disappointed to say the least.
Study material: Official ISC2 training material, bought the Shon Harris book but didn't open it.
Other form training: 1 week long book camp CISSP training

I can't take the exam for the another 30days, my understanding is that the exam is changing the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure what the impact would be as far as new study material and new exam.

What now?

Sorry to hear that. You need to drill, drill and drill. Test yourself. Use multiple test sources. I like Transcender and MH (McGraw Hill). You will get over the 700 hump guaranteed on the next attempt if you keep drilling.

beads · April 2015

dustervoice wrote: »

Remember CISSP is a management test not a technical one. For example if your on the cryptography domain focus on why encryption is necessary, hashing vs encrypting, whats a digital signature, PKI, symetric vs asymetric etc... don't focus too much attention on things like block size, rounds , blah blah blah

The above will come in handy for your MBA course load so study those concepts well and do it now so that they have time to sink in later. /s

- b/eads

seigex · April 2015

dustervoice wrote: »

Remember CISSP is a management test not a technical one. For example if your on the cryptography domain focus on why encryption is necessary, hashing vs encrypting, whats a digital signature, PKI, symetric vs asymetric etc... don't focus too much attention on things like block size, rounds , blah blah blah

I have to disagree with this assessment. You need to know the technical details before you can make an informed decision, not only for the test, but for whatever job you plan on getting after your CISSP certification. It takes more than just a certification to get (and keep!) a job in info security. A certification is more than just a test and a piece of paper.

GForce75 · April 2015

seigex wrote: »

I have to disagree with this assessment. You need to know the technical details before you can make an informed decision, not only for the test, but for whatever job you plan on getting after your CISSP certification. It takes more than just a certification to get (and keep!) a job in info security. A certification is more than just a test and a piece of paper.

I agree with you on this. I would say be more familiar with it. The test does ask some technical questions... but I would only squeeze that in after grasping the basic concepts of everything in the books.

Failed CISSP Exam What Now?

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