Passed at 130 Questions with about 60 minutes left

I provisionally passed the much anticipated and dreaded CISSP exam a week ago on 27 October.

BACKGROUND: I have 9 years of experience in Software Systems Engineering, and just over 5 years in Cyber Security Engineering. My Cyber experience is predominantly in Risk Management, and limited technical.

I first took the CISSP back in April 2021, and did not pass. The status was as follows:

• Below Proficiency on Domains 2 & 4
• Near Proficiency on Domains 1, 5, 7
• Above Proficiency on Domains 3, 6, 8

Thanks to the tons of posts sharing exam prep tips, I created an outline that worked for my learning style (listening and doing instead of reading), and limited time to study.

I studied roughly 1-2 hours a day for five weeks. The first two weeks I focused on watching all of the Mind Map and Kelly Henderhan videos (details below). For the remaining three weeks, my daily goal was to complete a set number of practice questions, and squeeze in time to listen to the above mentioned videos, YouTube videos, and take short quizzes on the IT Pocket Prep App.

RESOURCES:

1. Rob Witcher’s CISSP Mind Maps. What helped me the most was actively watching the videos- taking screenshots of each Mind Map and then taking notes of Rob’s explanation of the key concepts. I printed and bound my 62 pages of notes, and this became my go to book to casually read. YouTube provides captions to each of the Mind Map videos. If the formatting was better, one could copy and paste what Rob says to save time.

2. Kelly Handerhan CISSP Courses on Cybrary. The most recent version released in 2021 is vastly different from the version released in 2018. There’s value in listening to both- as Kelly’s tips on what to watch for on the exam, and the slides/tables are different for each class.

3. Official Study Guide Practice Test Book. After completing items 1 & 2, I completed all 100 questions for the Domains that I scored Below/Near Proficiency. For each question that I got wrong, or guessed correctly, I focused on understanding the explanation for why each answer option was correct/incorrect. If you haven’t taken the test, I recommend planning on doing the 100 questions for all of the Domains.

4. IT Pocket Prep App. The app provides a breakdown of scores by domain which is very very helpful in confirming your strong/weak scoring Domains, and references the the Domain and page number of the ISC2 Official Guide book that is associated with each question. I started using the app back when I was studying to take the exam in April 2021, and got through about 400/850 questions. I picked up where I left off to eventually complete all 850 questions (about 1-2 weeks prior to the exam). After I completed all 850 questions, I focused on doing “Weakest Subject” and “Missed Questions” quizzes randomly throughout the day.

5. Boson Exam Questions. I completed Exams A, B, C. The first one was in Study Mode, and the last two were timed. Taking the timed tests was extremely helpful, since I didn’t manage time well during my first attempt and ended up rushing to get to the end (which was 150 questions at the time). While studying for the exam, I read many posts on here stating that Boson exams were more technical than the actual CISSP exam, and I agreed based on my first attempt at taking the CISSP exam in April 2021. HOWEVER, my second exam seemed to be more technical than my first so the experience and studying I got out of using Boson was extremely helpful.

6. CISSPREP.NET. Like most, I also had a love hate relationship while using this exam platform. I had instances where I felt that the “correct” answers to the CISSPREP.NET questions were wrong, BUT, I strongly feel that the success of me passing on the second attempt was largely because of the hands on experience I got from reading and responding to the poorly written CISSPREP.NET questions, which is very much like the actual exam.

7. Coffee Shots by Prabh on YouTube: This was a last minute add to my study plan, based on a few posts I saw with mention of these videos. The way that Prabh reviewed potential CISSP questions while explaining key concepts, and ways that ISC2 can make questions in a specific topic tricky was very helpful.

I hope that the above helps anyone that is struggling with reading material/studying for the CISSP while juggling a busy work-life situation.

Best of luck to everyone preparing to take the exam! And, many thanks to everyone that has shared their experiences on here!