Re: CISSP Study Strategy?

[PJ McGarvey <pj_mcgarvey () hotmail com>]

I only took the test on Friday, so I figured I'd also offer my opinions... 

 

Tough exam, and I used all 6 hours, pacing myself the whole time.  Time management was a bigger issue than I expected.  
I didn't feel too rushed, and answered all the questions with some time to spare, but I could've used an extra 15 
minutes to review (second guess) some questions I was unsure about.  You will need to move through the questions 
relatively quickly.  In some cases, you will spend more time reading the scenario than answering the 2 questions that 
apply to it.... Boo to that.  I didn't notice any of the "not" questions, so I guess they've eliminated them, good for 
you ISC2!
 
I used a combination of the All-In-One book and video training, practice exams I found online and in document form, the 
material from the SANS boot camp I took, and spent a few days reading through the ISC2 CBK study guide a coworker had 
given me.  


I felt like I was asked the same basic question in multiple different ways in some cases, and then on others I found 
the answer very difficult to choose between two possible answers.  Maybe they were "research" questions, or maybe they 
were softballs...  Mostly I was surprised by how many questions were very easily answered if you did the studying, 
which I feel I did.  If the "think like a Manager" trick is how the exam is truly framed, then I think it will work to 
your advantage. 
 
I had to travel a few hours to take the test, so stayed in a hotel away from the family, reviewed most of the day, got 
a good nights sleep, a filling breakfast with no coffee just a few glasses of OJ, and stayed off any alcohol the night 
before.  Strangely I was able to go from 7:30 - 4ish w/out eating, just some sips from iced tea I had.   Very unlike 
me...  so I think I was running on some sort of adrenaline to stave off the hunger, and somehow stayed mostly focused 
throughout the test.  
 
I know two other people who did boot camps with the test day immediately following, and they passed, but felt 
overwhelmed after all was said and done.  I had 10 days between the SANS boot camp, which wasn't too intense, and the 
test, and I think that may have me time to rest a little and review more, but not too long that material wasn't fresh 
in my mind. 
 
I'll also say that scheduling a test was tough for me, my goal was to get it done before the summer got into swing.  
Many of the test dates you see on their site are private tests, you can't schedule it unless you are also going to 
their boot camp.  On the East Coast at least, ideal test dates (date/location) were hard to find.  I suggest setting a 
date about 3-4 months out and work out a scheduled to cover the material, etc. building up to the test date.  


-PJ
 

Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:27:20 -0500
From: lonervamp () gmail com
To: pauldotcom () mail pauldotcom com
Subject: Re: [Pauldotcom] CISSP Study Strategy?


I took and passed the test just over a year ago and they made a point to eliminate the negative questions like, "all 
but one of the following," or the double negatives. I'm sure they did this largely for non-native speakers of English, 
but those are nasty questions even for native speakers.
 
Honestly, if you see practice tests with questions like that, you probably want to skip those practice tests. They 
prepare (and frustrate) you for something that won't happen.
 
I'd love to give study tips, but how we learn tends to be somewhat personal. For me, it really helped to just read up 
on and be around the security community and deal with security on the job over several years, and augment gaps with 
relaxed reading and note-taking sessions. If you can, role-play in your head how concepts may apply to your 
company/job/manager and how that conversation may go.                                       
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