[Cisspstudy] Passed CISSP - My Journey to Oscars...

[Prakash]

Hello all,





I am really happy to share that I have passed CISSP exam. I have
learned a lot during my discussions with other members so its my time
to give back to community & share knowledge. It took me 1 hour to
write this mail.





Brief Background: 

6+ years of experience in IT & working on Security Consulting,
Penetration Testing, Ethical Hacking, Vulnerability assessment,
Security architecture, ISO27001 audits, IT Risk assessment, Forensics,
Cyber laws, Security advisories & Antivirus CERT.


Have 7 certifications (MCSA 2000, MCSA 2003, CCNA, CEH, ISO27001, etc etc)





Material Read/Purchased:


As a starter, I have gone though CISSP Exam Overview by Clement 


(An excellent video for free of cost)


CISSP Official (ISC)2 Guide (Read 2 times)


CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide By Shon Harris (Read 3 times)


Information Security Management Handbook, 6th edition by Tipton and Krause (Its a huge online book, Used as reference)


Reference material & blog posts of Sir W. Hord Tipton 


Reference material & blog posts of Sir Rob Slade


Request for Comments (RFC)


NIST Special Publication documents - 


SP 800-30, SP 800-111, SP 800-113, SP 800-115, SP 800-107, SP 800-106, SP 800-100, SP 800-97





Seminars:

I was not able to attend CBK review seminars due to financial
problem & no official sponsorship due to current economic
conditions. If you are 

fortunate enough for sponsorship from company or can afford on your own
then you can surely go with Official CBK Seminar from ISC2 / Seminar by
Shon Harris / Clement. It will provide great overview & refresh
your domains before exam.





Practice Questions:

I can not discuss anything on what exam had or might have. I
practiced with lots of sample questions (around 1500). One can also
purchase questions available like studISCope Self Assessment from ISC2.





Study time:


I had no time at all in office due to hectic work & projects. I
studied daily from 12 AM to 4 AM from past 6 months. Weekends around
8-9 hours.

There is no replacement to hard work. You need to work real hard,
interact with people who are already certified, Clear concepts. 




Dumps !!! - Are you kidding ? I am yet to find a CISSP who tells me he
passed using dumps. I personally feel its total waste of time &
money hoping questions from dumps. 




Exam Day: 


Got up at 5 AM, Reached exam venue at 7.30 AM. Had a good breakfast. I
saw lots of people doing last minute cramming, going through pages of 

various books. There was good arrangement made by MIEL e-Security. Good
& very helpful proctors. They thoroughly check your identity & 

dictionaries (if any). Hours passed by & you see people walking
out, smoking due to tension. I felt my mind will run out of strength in
4 hours. Its real tough to keep mind relaxed with needle of the clock
not relaxing. I am sure many CISSP will agree of having extreme
pressure on mind in last few hours. (Except few who can finish paper in
4-5 hours). Once exam was over my mind was totally tired &
exhausted.





If you think CISSP exam is tough then you are wrong, Its THE toughest among all. There are no shortcuts to pass the exam. 




According to me, CISSP exam needs perfect time management skills,
core technical skills starting from cryptography to physical security,
take best decisions under extreme pressure. 




Its all about "Thinking right using right knowledge at the right time"





Results:


Here comes the longest waiting period of life. This is the period which
kills. Checking mails each & every hour. I tried my best not to
post if anyone got results who gave exam on the same date .
At last, mail arrives from ISC2, took 10 minutes thinking of clicking
on it with heartbeats at highest rate. Just read Congratulations, You
have passed !!!! and almost cried. 




People might feel I am over enthusiastic but it feels too good when my months of late night preparations are paid off.





Thank you Clement, Nathalie and Alain for maintaining cccure with
amazing quality of material. Special thanks to each & everyone who cleared my doubts.





Thank you W. Hord Tipton & Shon Harris for writing excellent books.





I would not have gone ahead without support of my family for so many months. 




Thank you ISC, Its because of them I have learned so much in
security covering all major domains during my preparation which I would
not have 

learned even during my job. Hats off for maintaining top notch quality in certification.





I rate CISSP as toughest exam of my life in spite of having 7 certifications & It feels like holding Oscar in hand  





Hope people find my exam experience useful. My best wishes to everyone preparing for exam.


      
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