How Nish Cracked His CISSP Exam (August 30th, 2017)
Hi everyone. I wanted to share the good news with you all. So many hours of prep and study paid off. Just coming out of the test centee.
Thanks to Luke and the guys who have shared their views.
Few Tips 1. Don't panic, you might doubt yourself on your responses during the test ( I did too for the first few), but quickly you will get a hang of it. 2. Make sure you flag as much as you want. You will have an option to review questions you flagged. I did flag 25 questions. Changed answers to 2 questions. 3. Practice practice practice. Can't stress this enough. Do scenario based questions. Study the fundamentals and apply that in scenario. Why you would choose that over this, what is it drawback and strength. 4. Just don't read one definition of something. Try to think how that might be re-worded differently, and than put in practice. 5. Don't memorize, it wont be necessary and trust me wont help either. 6. Last but not the least, trust yourself. Your brain will work must better.
Book and Material Isc2 official guide Shon Harris MP3 (listen to it please) Exam Cram and
numerous cups of my wife's special tea.
Goodluck Cissp wannabes.
How Tazviona Cracked His CISSP Exam (June 21st, 2017)
Provisionally Passed today!
Academic Background: Social Policy and Politics IT Background: 5/6 years in IT mainly Security Admin (user ID management/access provisioning/a bit of network troubleshooting/change management) 2014 - ITIL certification.
Decided this year that I will work towards becoming an IT professional since Mugabe appears to be going nowhere.
Passed CompTIA Security + on 2nd of Feb 2017 Started studying for CISSP on 4th of February.
Read the whole book ISC2 Official study guide... except 1 chapter which I had a good grasp on.
Wrote several notes and marked/underlined in the actual book. I studied when I could - (I have 2 energetic boys one 7 one 3 years old.) Last week the boys and I caught a bout of Scarlet Fever- nearly spoilt my exam prep.
Did several tests including the ISC2 official practise test book . I feel like I wasted money last week on CCCURE after owner/admin stated that he had posted several scenario based questions in new test bank.
The link someone here provided for FREE was actually sufficient.
EXAM - was tricky. Not super hard - but tricky. One needs to have read the material and understood the main concepts. It wasn't too technical - but the technical ones required either experience or deeper thinking. I think I marked over 100 questions and changed about 15-20 answers. I used 5:30hrs. Took 4 breaks. After first 100 questions then 150..then 200..then again after completing..then started reviewing all the ones I marked.
None of the questions were in any practise tests I took. I used CCURE, ISC2 official practise tests, Mcgrahill, eric conrad 500 Questions, various free ones online.
Useful resources : Listened to Shon Harris ; Cybrary lectures - really good and various youtube videos.
I ATE loads of blueberries and magnesium in the last 4 days.
I watched Les Brown motivational videos EVERYDAY. :)
It's an interesting field I have chosen to pursue (My original plan was to become president of Zimbabwe :) ). Key is to study hard watch loads of videos.
Know the technology.
Many thanks for all your help folks. Too many NAMES to mention.
P.S. I got a parking ticket when I was in the exam! Also ANOTHER point regarding exam. I had 2 choices: pass, or fail and face the wifey. The later was a dangerous prospect so I HAD to pass!! :)
How Sudhakar Cracked His CISSP Exam (June 24th, 2017)
Hi all,
I passed the CISSP exam on my first attempt on 6/24/17. The credit should go to this group who encouraged members like me to focus on the right material with occasional quiz questions posted time to time. Many thanks to Luke Ahmed, who started this wonderful group.
Here are the books/ notes, I referred:
(a) CISSP Study Guide, Third Edition, Dec 3, 2015 by Eric Conrad and Seth Misenar - Excellent book to provide A-Z information on the domains.
(b) Official Guide to the CISSP CBK from ISC2 - Very detailed; I encourage one to read as much as possible as it has tons of useful information.
(c) CISSP Practice Exams, Fourth Edition Shon Harris
(d) CISSP Official (ISC)2 practice Tests_Sybex_Mike Chapple, David Seidl
(e) Study Notes and Theory - Excellent resource to get the concepts absorbed; These notes, I read many times; It was my pillow companion in the final week for quick reference:-)
(f) Of course, other useful websites/search engines like OWASP.org, SANS.org, Google search engine.
The exam is long and very tiring (I could barely stand up and take steps to the front desk to collect the exam result!). I practiced taking long tests starting from 2 hours and increased it gradually. The key is to focus our brain on the question in front of us. (In the beginning, I used to fade out within 60 minutes, but could stay focused by practicing lengthy tests in the last 3 weeks before actual exam.
The actual exam is more practical oriented. Lot of thought process should have gone while selecting the questions. I can not say whether the actual test is adaptive or not. But I could feel that at times it is so. The material what we study for the preparation provide basis to understand the questions, for us to answer intelligibly.
I enjoyed the whole 3.5 months of fruitful preparation leading to the exam. Roughly, I spent 5~6 hours every day and double that time during the weekends.
Good luck to all of you! You all will come out with flying colors!