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

[Conrad Chircop]

Prakash,

Congratulations and thanks for the excellent post. I will be having my CISSP
exam on Sat 18th April.



2009/4/9 Prakash <prakash2757 at yahoo.com>

>   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 [image: Smile]. 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 [image: Smile]
>
> Hope people find my exam experience useful. My best wishes to everyone
> preparing for exam.
>
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>
>
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