Re: CISSP Study Strategy?

[Herndon Elliott <alabamatoy () gmail com>]

We have lots of folks in our organization struggling through the study
regimen and testing for CISSP.  What *seems* to be the most successful
approach is the boot camp.  This removes the student from the daily
workload, phone calls, interruptions etc.  The material is presented in a
thorough fire-hosing, with practice tests and reviews, limited discussion
etc, then its all consummated with the exam itself.  Of course, not everyone
has an employer willing to foot the bill for this.

I went through 6 days of 7AM to 9PM prep/review sessions Monday through
Saturday, and it took place is a ratty hotel away from home.  I reached a
point of saturation somewhere mid morning on Saturday, and actually left the
sessions and did some completely unrelated activities (ran a few miles, went
shopping for high-grav beer that's not available in Alabama etc).  The
instructor said that most people reached a saturation point somewhere on
Saturday.  I came back and reviewed some areas that I knew I was weak on
Saturday evening, then went to bed early.  The exam started at 8 on Sunday.


About taking the test:  When I took it, there were many questions on the
test that I read and I knew *exactly* what the answer should be, but that
answer wasnt available as a choice.  They present you over and over with
questions where you must choose the most correct answer of 4 wrong ones.

They escort you to the bathroom, BTW.  And they did allow us to go quietly
to the back of the exam room and stretch, which I took advantage of about
halfway through.  My ass was starting to hurt, physically as well as
metaphorically.

They also seemed fond of the double- triple- or quadruple-negatives - what
technique is not the least effective encrytion algorithm of the following
4?  That kind of thing.  Those questions make we want to kick something - I
had to draw flowcharts.

When I took it there were 275 questions of which 250 counted, 25 were
evaluation questions.  Some of these were pretty damned obvious....WTF?
Where did that come from?  Or they were written like English as a second
language.

My hat's off to people who pass this test in a non-native language.

HTH

Herndon Elliott
Madison, Al
"Washington is broken and we need clear leaders and patriots, not polished
political hacks."  -- Ginni Thomas

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