How I passed CISSP exam

From time to time, my friends and colleagues often ask me , How I passed the CISSP exam.

Back in 2015 I heard about CISSP for the first time. At that time I didn't have too much experience in information security field. So I thought not today but perhaps some years down the line I would definitely give this exam.

Fast forward 2020, covid pandemic was creating havoc world wide. I came back to my hometown. since because of WFH I could save lot of time which I was spending everyday?in commuting and on food and obviously I could not go any where, so I started studying for CISSP exam. I bought the exam voucher however because of covid Initially I couldn't reserve the slot in any exam centers. But eventually I could reserve one exam center in August 2021 (with the fear that the exam may get postponed since 2nd wave was on its peak in India)

I studied seriously everyday for 6 hours after office hours and on weekends I studied for 8-10 hours. I stopped anything and everything which could distract me.

I followed the sybex official study guide and All in one (AIO) by Schon Harris ( this book is like an encyclopedia . It covers every topic in a descriptive manner)

In addition I subscribed to Study notes and Theory, Udemy courses of Thor pedersen, CCCURE, boson, YouTube and other pocket friendly apps.

I practiced around 7k-8k questions. Not to check how much I know,?rather to check where I am making mistakes. Each question which I answered incorrectly,?I checked why I gave the incorrect answer and what's the right answer and above all why that particular answer is correct.

This way I could find the domains where I was weak and studied even more on that domain

Once I started getting more than 80% in the practice exam I decided to sit for the exam. though the hard practice exams were really tough and it was really difficult for me to get above 70%

On the exam day I woke up at 5 AM (honestly, I couldn't sleep out of excitement). Since my exam was at 8 AM IST. I reached the exam center?an hour before the exam, the officials at the exam center captured my biometrics and I was allotted a system. The exam started sharp at 8 AM.?the exam engine squeezed my confidence as a pin removes the air from a balloon.

The exam stopped by itself much before the last question.?A message popped up in my computer screen asking me to collect the result from the reception. with a fear I headed towards the reception. the guy in the reception handed me over the exam result.

After getting the result sheet the first word which I was looking for was congratulations/thank you.

Congratulations means pass and thank you means better luck next time. And for me it was "congratulations".

As it is said,?cissp course is a mile long and an inch deep. you wont have to have the in depth knowledge of any domain rather you should have knowledge on all the domains as per CBK

The beautiful thing about CISSP is that it is vendor neutral, unlike any other vendor specific certification . It does not cover any particular technology but rather it makes you eligible to fit into any domain and makes you think differently from a security perspective. The exam is so difficult that even if you study everyday for a whole complete year still you would feel that you didn't study at all.

But yes its worth it studying and passing the exam. there are just 150K (Appx) CISSP around the world and in India there are only 3K (appx) CISSP certificate holders.

Honestly, things will not change overnight but yes, a CISSP certificate may land you to more job opportunities and helps you to grow professionally.

Now I have got some more domain specific certifications to pursue.

the study material and the test exam materials which I used

1. Sybex official book 8th and 9th edition (read it cover to cover thrice)

2. All in One?Shon Harris (read it cover to cover once) ( and?topics which are more descreptive than sybex)

exam materials

1. Thor pedersen's boot camp in Udemy and CISSP questions (both mid difficult and difficult )

2. Study notes and theory of Luke Ahmed

3. Boson test questions

4. CCCure CISSP

5. Sybex test bank

6. Mc graw hill cissp questions (old syllabus but still relevant)

7. AIO question bank (old edition)

8. youtube references (there are many videos available)

9. Mind Map videos

10. CISSP free and paid apps ( downloaded from play store)