CISSP Passed 11/23/2015 - 3 weeks of focused Study

Firstly, I would like to say thanks for all those who contribute their knowledge, experience, and exam prep strategies on this forum. I've been procrastinating on taking the CISSP exam for over a year. On April 14 this year I passed the SSCP exam and wanted to keep the momentum going while the information was still fresh. However, I got sidetracked and didn't get serious until this month. On Nov 3rd I bit the bullet and scheduled the exam for 2.5 weeks out (which is today). The exam was long on there were some instances where I thought "I may fail this thing", but once I finished and went back through the items I marked for review my concerns dissipated a bit. I can't say enough about Kelly Handerhan and the Cybrary IT videos - her recommendations on where to focus your studies were very valid in my experience. For example, at no time in my study did I try to memorize any encryption key lengths/sizes - I did make sure I knew the common encryption algorithms and where they are best applied.

I've been in IT for about 10 years (3yrs - IT Deskside Support / 3yrs - Systems Analyst / 4yrs - Information Assurance[Host Intrusion Prevention, Least Privilege, Security Assessments, Vulnerability Scanning, etc...])

I've listed my prep materials below. I mainly used Cybrary vids along with the Official CBK (4th Edition). A lot of people talk down about the Official CBK but I found it to be very informative especially in relation to the new content. Sure, there were some grammatical errors and long winded explanations but I approached the book from the perspective of focusing primarily on the new content and honing in or areas where I felt a little weak.

I hope this review helps someone - this forum has been a great help to me. Thanks again!

Exam Prep resources:· Listened to the Official ISC2 CISSP Domain refresher webinar
o http://education.isc2.org/cissp-domain-refresh-webinar/
· Read about the newly added content
o https://cccure.training/m/articles/view/CISSP-CBK-2015-WHAT-WAS-ADDED
· Watched the CBT Nugget CISSP Series - 12hours 29 Videos
· Reviewed newly added material (Post April 15, 2015 content)
· Used Transcender Practice exams for practice tests (this is free with our Company provided CBT nugget access).
o Took notes/made flash cards on questions I missed
· Partially read the newest ISC2 Official Guide (8 domains); focused on the new material and my weak areas

[*]Completed all the end of chapter quizzes; took notes on any wrong answer and read up on my weak areas.

· Reviewed all CISSP flash cards on the official ISC2 website
o Made my own flash cards with terms / topics that were unfamiliar
· ***One of the best resources*** Completed Cybrary.IT CISSP computer-based training course taught by Kelly Handerhan (some really good material – and free!)
· Downloaded MP3s; listened while driving
· Reviewed the sunflower notes
· Added my own updates and new content
· Read as many relevant supplemental articles as I can find (NIST Series of publications are really good for BCP/DR topics)
· Completed Practice Exams in the Shon Harris CISSP Practices Exams Second Edition
· Listened to McGraw Hill - MP3s (Shon Harris)
· http://www.mhprofessional.com/sites/CISSPExams/exam.php?id=AccessControl

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Comments

sameoj

Congrats

clarkincnet

Congrats!

g33k3r

Congrats!! I've actually re-watched some of the domains from Cybrary. I know she commented on which domains she felt needed the most focus but I can't recall which ones off hand.

barman

I wasn't familiar with some of the links. Wonderful! Thanks.

cyberguypr

Congrats on the pass!

danny069

Congrats! What a nice Thanksgiving treat!

CLICK

Well done. Congrats on the pass.

kingholmes

Great work.

brchap

Now that you've taken the exam, did you find that the Cybrary information went deep enough? I am going through this material right now, and it seems like Kelly doesn't go very deep on things. This is in contrast to a old SANS CISSP audio course by Eric Cole that I found online somewhere... and it seemed to go a lot deeper.

Malex

Congratulations!

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

FwdMotion

brchap wrote: »

Now that you've taken the exam, did you find that the Cybrary information went deep enough? I am going through this material right now, and it seems like Kelly doesn't go very deep on things. This is in contrast to a old SANS CISSP audio course by Eric Cole that I found online somewhere... and it seemed to go a lot deeper.

I think that depends on how much experience you have with the material. I have about 10 years total IT experience and I took the SSCP exam in April of this year so many of the topics were familiar. However, since I paid for this exam out of pocket with no boot camp prep I made sure I put some good study hours in to ensure I did not underestimate the exam. During the week days I studied approx. 2hrs per night. On Fridays and the weekends I put 4-6 hrs each day. During the last week prior to the exam I took off from work on Thursday and Friday and studied 5 hours each day (took a practice test on each of those days and reviewed all answers), then took the test on Monday morning (made sure I had a good nights rest which helped). The biggest benefit I saw from Cybrary was the fact that Kelly recommends areas to focus your studies which in my opinion was very on point with what I saw on the exam. There were certain areas I do not deal with on a daily basis and had to really beef up on such as business continuity and disaster recovery planning...I don't deal with those items in my day-to-day activities. If there was an area I felt I needed deeper knowledge, I opened up the Official CBK (4th Edition) and read up on it... also found some of the NIST pubs to be helpful

glp61013

Hi All,

I am planning for CISSP in June 2016 & wanted to know that, is there any domain wise percentage for the questions like CISA ?
If yes, can anybody share the link for it or any reference material.

Thanks

fegbada

Thanks for the information - I failed my exam but plan to retake it second week of next month and with your post,I will have to restrategise on my studies.
I relied completely on the cissp CBK 4th edition but after the exam I realised that 80% of the exam has noting to do with the CBK book which was very sad to me.

Thank you once again for this information.

Jude Fegbada

krsvivek

Hi Fegbada, Sorry to hear that you have failed. Can you please tell me what sort of questions you got in the exam? I am going to take the exam this week. Thank you and all the best for your next try.

FwdMotion

krsvivek wrote: »

Hi Fegbada, Sorry to hear that you have failed. Can you please tell me what sort of questions you got in the exam? I am going to take the exam this week. Thank you and all the best for your next try.

Did you get a chance to review the Cybrary.IT videos? Kelly Handerhan provides some good tips on where to focus your studies and which areas are likely to show up on exam day.

parkyy

Thank you for valuable guidance. I have been searching this kind of guidance!

lucky0977

dpathi wrote: »

Were there any questions related to specifics NIST standard? Do we have to memorize the standard numbers?

Due to the NDA, I can't disclose whether there are exam questions like that. With that being said, don't waste your time memorizing NIST SPs and spend more of your time studying what is on the CISSP CIB located here: https://goo.gl/HnBEWV because those topics will definitely be on the exam.