Passed At 101 Today With 80 Minutes Left!

Background: 11 years of IT experience, 7 of them in cyber, and currently an enterprise ISSE. Certs held prior included CISM (obtained 3 weeks ago), Security X, Sec+, Net+, A+.

Just an insight on my study materials and prep. I obtained CISM on my second attempt 3 weeks ago. I honestly will attribute my success largely on my preparation for CISM. I had already adopted the managerial and business oriented decision making mindset, so my primary focus this go round was almost purely technical refreshers.

After checking this subreddit, i chose to read the destination CISSP concise guide (10/10), and watched Pete Zergers 2026 CISSP playlist (10/10). Then I did learnzapp practice quizzes (6/10) for about 5 days, and i was consistently landing between 60-80. I felt the app wasn't providing accurate test formatting so I bought the non-CAT QE (8/10, a bit wordy but great practice) and stuck to the 10 question quizzes. Did those for about 5 days and i was consistently getting 50-70% correct.

CISM was a full 150 question test so I figured my mental endurance had already been battle tested. Scheduled my exam after about 16 days total of dedicated reading and practice. Watched the "you will pass CISSP video" on the way there to solidify my gameplan.

Test was pretty stressful, but again, I felt like I had been there before. Got to question 100 and took a deep breath, preparing for the last burst of focus for the remaining 50 questions, then the test stopped. I passed! Thanks everyone for sharing your tips and recommendations!