Hello again !!
Thank everyone for your wishes.
Luke Ahmed, first of all thank you for creating this group, amazing platform for cissp aspirants to exchange there thoughts,ideas, experiences and discuss topics.
Here is my experience about this exam
It totally took me 3 1/2 months to prepare for this exam.
I started with watching CBT NUGGETS videos. These were not that great, technical explanation was good but other things not that good. Then I referred Sybex 7 th edition this was my primary resource. I also used
Shan Harris for SDLC chapter and federated identity ,Sybex has not covered this chapter in detail some of the topics are missing. I watched cybrary videos by Kelly Handerhan. This videos are absolute gold, brilliant explanation about all the concepts . There are MP3 audio files of these videos I used them extensively, every day to and fro from work I used to listen to these audio files. Even the ppts are available for download.
I used cccure practice tests, these are comparatively better than Sybex tests. I took 5 to 6 full length tests and my score was between 75 to 80%.
I used brain maps created by Matheus Vasconcelos de Oliveira this are very useful in revising. I also solved practice questions from CBK BOOK, these were little twisted.
Coming to the exam experience the exam was tough, when I answered my last question I just had 2 mins left. The biggest difference between the practice tests and actual exam is the way the options are given, in the practice tests you are given most of the time 2 detractors and 1 wrong answer and 1 right answer so it’s easy to find the right answer , but in exam you are given 4 right answers and are asked to choose the BEST answer or step that you MUST do or a step that you must do FIRST. So unless you know the concepts well you can not judge the right answer.
You will get few straight forward questions which are straight out of the box questions but majority of the questions will be twisted.
Topics that I got lot of questions was from Risk management and Info sec, bcp/drp, SDLC, CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT.
Federated identity related SAML,SPML AND XACML and Oauth this seems to be a hot favorite now a days.
Few suggestions
When preparing for the exam and when you are reading a topic, remember the synonyms , this is very important, in exam they kinda play with your mind. Ex: Unit testing instead of using the term unit testing they use the term individual testing.
When you come across a question which you feel you have never heard off or a technology that you have never come across, don’t panic, take a min, read the question multiple times at least try to understand the context of the questions, try to look for technical terms that u can identify. Then try to find an answer , use your technical instincts.
That’s all folks, I am not that great with writing long notes and blogs I have done my best to share my experience.
Once again thanks everyone for all the posts and explanations posted here,really helped me in understanding few concepts.
I wish everyone all the very best and a happy weekend !!!!!