5 Steps to Summit CISSP , Part I

Introduction

Do you get uncomfortable even with a thought of picking up the most honored challenge in the world. Well, making to the base camp which is technically considered the starting point, is not an easy task either. Usually, it is a 2 weeks of physically taxing journey from Lukla to the foot of Mount Everest. It is an incredibly 4000 meters higher than your familiar grounds and hence, expects more out of you than just being a good planner and an enthusiastic explorer.? People plan a lot in advance and be on a lookout for a perfect window when the mountain warms up between the month of April and May. Often, people manage to create a plan and also possess an ability but, lack enough enough torque to make their first move. In other words, an idea of ‘Let’s do it now’ is usually the missing ingredient. You always thought of doing it, and a couple of times you even gathered yourself together but, Mr. Procrastination always puts your fire off. If you want to break free from the lethargy, then you need to crank up the right amount of NOS needed to propel your racing car like never before. Things as simple as putting posters in your personal space could help remind you about your aspirations and goals that are yet to be achieved. You want to be organised, motivated, collected and focused to ensure that you have a plan and purpose for the journey.

You may have a day job, kids to look after, other family duties and promises with friends. And let's be truthful that there is no near end to these. So, don't expect that a most perfect window of opportunity will come knocking at your door. Give your best to create one. Also remember, doing things at right time will give you more purpose and joy than otherwise done. As an example, doing river rafting at the dusk of your life is unlikely to please your bones. So, don't miss the boat.

Base Camp

Finally, you managed to defeat yourself and made it to the base camp. You are trying to caress your optimism and want to prove the rightfulness of your decision. You close your eyes and see yourself to the top of the unforgiving Mt. Everest.?

Perhaps you might rush to call the onset, a trivial phase. But, we should always remember that, "Well begun is half done". Unfortunately, the cramming formula will not work here for good, so better go slow and steady. People typically spend 1 to 2 months at the base camp, because their body needs time to acclimatise in the foreign climate. The major cause of altitude illnesses ties to the act of going too high too fast. A quote from Benjamin Franklin "If you Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail" famously assert the importance of planning. Therefore, It is vital to do solid planning first instead of rushing and demoralising yourself without having one. Also, don't get carried away by making too specific plans. At this point in time, a high-level plan should do.?

Most of us would remember the first day at gym. Our body say 'Yes' and an instructor say 'No'. Naturally, 'No' falls on our deaf ears and we continue to bump up the weights. Needless to say, it leads to sufferings. Temptation seek shortcuts and lure you with a quick success. It might work but usually at a cost of derailing your long term mission. A proper plan and a discipline to obey, do help to subdue a temptation. They are like lane departure warning system. As long as you have it enabled, you can be the beneficiary of the guidance to stay safe within your lane. It is important to assess and give sufficient amount of time to prepare. For an example, if you don’t devote to the stretching rituals before running, biking or any physical activity, you are likely to strain your muscles. The point i want to make is that, you need to understand your mind and body. Everyone is unique and therefore their preparation regime and attack strategy would be different as well. You need to build endurance to ensure you remain robust and keep yourself tuned to run a marathon, not a sprint.?Probe yourself and find out what works best? Do you excel in the morning or in the evening? Try to understand your mind and body.?Working in the morning might have been proclaimed as the silver bullet, but it may not be true for everyone. Some brains outperform at sunset. Therefore, identify your super spot of the day, and stick to it.

Another hindrance to deal with is Distraction. We are living in a world where information is in abundance and comes from everywhere. While you can't stop them from following in, you can always filter them. Creating schedule and obeying to it would help. Removing noisy social media or any such trivial feeds from your routine will make you focused and strong. Read Secrets of my Survival , If you want to learn about some technique that may help you navigate your life through distractions. Negativity is another kind of distraction that demotivates. If people from you league are withdrawing due to their own personal reasons, this event may be enough to weaken your confidence. You need to remember that every one has dissimilar mindset and physique and therefore their tolerance level would be different. If you are doing alright, then keep going without worrying about failures in your surroundings.

Distraction does not always come from outside but also from within ourselves. Problem like boredom which can make you sleepy. So, what's the fix? Well, you may have 2 options; either discover an alternate way or just stop doing it. A lot of heavy content reading can easily put you off. Specially if it is a new thing that you are trying to learn and your brain is looking for more flavours. In that case, an alternate way of understanding the content helps. However, if an alternate way fails due to an excessive tiredness, then in those cases it is okay to be submissive then being resistive. Let's understand that in a plain language, let’s say, you are reading on a couch and feeling droopy already. You might try to get up and read. Or switch to an alternate mean altogether. How about watching study videos instead? This is what I did during my own studies. I used to cycle through different study forms ranging from a hard copy, digital copy, videos, flashcards and notes. This strategy does help bring back your consciousness. Like how the roads that often turns rather than being dead straight, jazz up your consciousness. Although, switching between different study methods may give you the winding road like consciousness, it is paramount to identify your breaking point. Pull over for a rest. Take a break and reward yourself. Shake it up. Go play. Watch your favorite TV series. Chat with your friends etc.?

Most CISSP concepts are applied learning, and hence can be related in a real life. Moreover, the study itself is so impacting that it changes ones behaviour naturally. Changes like shredding parcel labels before binning them, relates to the preventative control against dumpster diving. Restlessness about a software being out-of-date, relates to possible exposure to security breaches if the vulnerabilities are not patched. Ensuring all the doors are secure before going to bed, relates to exercising due care in testing a preventative control.

Many people profess that booking an exam is what you should do first. It is widely considered as a formula of lighting a fire under the bottom. And, for cases where you have a tight deadline to meet, this may be the only choice for you. My stars were aligned and I chose to defer booking the exam, until I metaphorically completed my training at the base camp. I wanted to get familiar with the content and at least attain 50% confidence that I can do this. As I mentioned earlier, if you are at the base camp you have already gone through much pain, mind games as well as building various countermeasures to cope up with them. At the base camp you do rigorous training and prepare for the real ascent. Common training programs include learning and demonstrating climbing on the ice. Getting familiar with all the accessories and gears and how to use them.?You might develop your own strategy to deal with emotional breakdowns.

If you lack self motivation and require a push to stay true to your study plan, then being a part of a group may help. You are likely to push your limits to be at par with your team mates. While it is okay for learners to share their learning and technique among themselves, it is also important for one to keep validating these free information with the horse's mouth. Joining multiple study groups and forums may sound lucrative but can sometime be a source of unreliable and duplicated information. Be mindful of sparing too much of valuable time on trivial debates. Have a clear objective about how you are going to leverage the group discussions into your studies. It is good to have a schedule to ensure that you are not hooked up to these for more than necessary. Ask yourself a few questions. Are you going to refer to the groups for casual questions/answers? or Are you seeking clarification on something? or Are you simply looking to tap into other's study plans and exam tackling approaches or precisely want to know about how candidates are going with their exams. Throughout my entire studies, I barely used a study group. I soon realised that this is not for me and any benefit from there is far-fetched. No offense, if it is likely to work for you. Perhaps you may have figured out an art to filter out the distraction, duplicate information and extract the real benefit.?

We already discussed how everyone’s body and mind are different and can impact the exam preparation. In addition to those, there is one more element - Industry experience. Some people need more time to prepare while others (with a great degree of past experience) tend to be quicker and faster to adapt to the challenging schedule. Let's say , if you have in-depth knowledge in 4 domains out of 8, then you will spend relatively less time filling in your remaining gaps, than someone being unfamiliar across the majority of the domains. There are people who claim to have cleared CISSP in 2 weeks. What if they were the ones who already had enough knowledge and experience. Or perhaps they got lucky. Every individual is different and may have varying industry experiences, dissimilar endurance levels and unique technique of absorbing and retaining new skills. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Assess yourself and your shortfalls. COME at your own pace, SEE through your own strategies and CONQUER when you are at your best.

The way most of us watch the trailer first, before committing to the full length movie? I started my self-study by watching Mike Chapple's videos on LinkedIn learning. It is a catalouge of intriguing videos that will give you a great kick start. The author explains various concepts and also demonstrates some of them through simulation. The graphics and slides are so much aligned to the subject that, I bet you will enjoy them. It is really indispensable to have a good and a steady start. Remember, Slow but steady wins the race.?

Once you have acclimatised, go for hiking and immerse yourself into the surrounding. Alan Arnette, a climber says "Everest is a climb to be savored and enjoyed, not rushed". Usually, people make at least 3 trips up from the base camp. before going for the final push. After watching Mike Chapple's videos, your logical part of your brain will try to create a first draft of your CISSP mindset. You are doing well and now can start reading the official study guide from Sybex. No matter, whether you like to smell the book or glare at a screen, start short and try to build a connection. There would be time, when you feel that you are forgetting almost everything that you have studied while you turn to the newer topics. This happens to many people, because at that time, we lack an essential connection among all the 8 domains. Trust me, nothing is wasted. Future revisions will certainly fortify your understanding. Just surrender yourself and enjoy the journey. Going easy and attentive at this phase, will not only bring you a lot of strength but also provides a broader base to your study triangle. CISSP covers a plethora of concepts without going too deep. It is famously referred to as a mile wide and an inch deep education. Don’t try to cram too much stuff in any day. Rather distribute it across multiple days.

The "I don't have time" philosophy always comforts but at the cost of piling guilt. Are you saying you don't have time, because mostly you are too busy with your day job. Well, it is certainly possible to remove time for CISSP studies alongside of your personal and professional commitments. Trust me, It is just a matter of unleashing your passion and purpose. The moment you have achieved those, scavenging time from your busy schedule will not be a problem. Your passion and madness will seize more slice of time from your trivial routines. Every chapter has trailing review questions. So, it is highly recommended to attempt those that, will help build confidence and testify your understanding.

Khumbu Icefall: You are looking to ride on your adrenaline leap, test your gained knowledge by walking through some deadliest glaciers. This is for the first time when you will have some level of confidence to take challenging steps ahead. On the other hand you are also scared of the unknowns ahead. You don't want to go back. You have a complete faith in the ladder bridges and believe you can walk across the horrifying deep crevasses. Your head may need more content and context to get around some topics, which is normal. Bridge the known gaps. Browse online, read articles, watch videos and all that will help to reinforce those seemingly difficult concepts.

Camp 1

Great work. You made it to the Valley of Silence. Despite being tired and overwhelmed with all the stuff you have crammed in so far, you feel that you are now getting the hang of the subject. You have figured out how to stay focused and distraction free at your will. A lot of unimportant materials are not required to be dragged over to this point. Most stuff have been left at the base camp. This would not only ease your climb but also limit your scope of anxiety. Be prepared for all sorts of problem and risks including headaches, sinking crevasses and avalanche. Believe in yourself. All those endurance training and countless practices are certainly going to give you a remarkable edge.

Having built a sustainable knowledge bank, it is now the best time to do an initial assessment using the Sybex questions on Wiley Learning. Test your knowledge and confidence. There are chapter specific tests and some full exam length tests. Don’t despair if you can’t answer 50% of the questions correctly. Unlike other industry certifications, CISSP requires a mindset of a manager rather than an engineer. Here, you often use your intuition alongside of logical thinking. This is why, cramming enormous information in a short span, isn't an effective way to study. Instead, prepare little but do it everyday and let your mind immerse into the mystical mindset at an easy pace. Regarding the question tackling strategy, we are not just looking for an accurate answer but also a precise one. This strategy coupled with the managerial mindset, subject knowledge and English linguistics will give you a perfect blend. Once you have attempted all the questions from Sybex, move on to expand the breadth of your knowledge by referring an another book. ‘Shon Harris’s All in one’ is a great book which would fill in any remaining gaps. Studying the same concept in another way really amplifies the depth of an understanding.?

To be continued in Part II release ....