Passed At Q124 After Running Out Of Time.

Hello everyone. I wanted to share my experience in the hope it helps others who also find studying really difficult and feel overwhelmed by the CISSP journey like I did.

I passed on the 4th March and I was in shock all week! I've always struggled with studying and academics. Im not great at reading, retaining and understanding information straight away and have to re-read and go over content a few times. I had to literally put my life on hold to focus on passing this exam.

My course was early December so did very light study until Xmas and New Year had passed. I made myself a study timetable for the next 3 months, blocking out 3 evenings a week and every other day doing a quick 10 or 25 question test, with a bit of weekend study.

My main prep was:

- Referring to the course recordings often to go over areas I was struggling with.

- Had the Official Study Guide open each night with the aim of reading the whole book but started to skim/skip bits so could target weak areas as I didnt think id cover it all in time.

- Sybex (Wiley) practice exams, I completed 3 of the 4. I also did Chapters 1-3s practical tests.

- Used the CISSP Official LearnZapp. Paid the £15 monthly sub to unlock everything, it was extremely worth it, I know others have their thoughts on the app but I can honestly say this directly contributed to me passing, I found it to be the best tool in my study materials. I completed 5 of the 8 mocks but easily done 50+ Custom Tests, mostly targeting my weakest areas at the time. I did a quick random 10 almost nightly.

Thats all I used up until 2 weeks before my exam where I suddenly felt woefully unprepared and started to panic. I hit google, looking for CISSP Exam questions and finding out the mocks are different (which didnt help my panicked state!) and thats when I found this subreddit. I read lots of posts about experiences and the vast wealth of materials out there. I realised my brain was looking for more info about the exam experience to settle the nerves. From all this, I then added in the below:

- I looked up Jeff Kellum on LinkedIn learning and watched a bit of "ISC2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) (2024) Cert Prep", it gave me 24 hours free access but I just did not have the time to go through it.

- I watched the YouTube video "50 CISSP Practice Questions. Master the CISSP Mindset" by the Technical Institute of America (Brilliant by the way, highly recommended). I also watched a random selection of Destination Certification videos, mostly on the exam mindset and experience.

- Skimmed through Memory Palace CISSP Notes powered by Prashant, CISSP Process Guide by Fadi Sodah (Madunix) and Cheat sheets for studying for the CISSP exam on https://www.comparitech.com

- Used various sites offering "10 mock exam questions and answers" and such like as well as downloading DestCert and looking at some flash cards for a few evenings.

This got me to a place where I felt passing was actually achievable. I made peace with myself that if I didnt pass first time it was ok, and at least id know what to expect on the resit giving me a better chance. Panic gone, this allowed me to sleep at night!

On Exam day, I watched "CISSP exam tips and tricks: Avoiding common mistakes | Cyber Work Hacks" from Infosec while eating my breakfast for one final nerve buster. The exam experience is what everyone tells you, including this video. I started off ok, recognising familiar terms and answering from a managers point of view with the business interests in mind, as well as the people - process - technology mindset. Around Q60 and 90 mins down, the exam started to get in my head. The questions felt foreign, I quickly wrote down the topics from each question done so far on the wipeable board to try remember it for my resit, thats how convinced I was that I was going to fail. After I got to Q101 and it wasnt an instant fail at 100 I thought maybe I have a chance here, and carried on. Got to Q110, 115, 120... again convinced I'd failed. Time ran out while I was reading Q124 and it asked me to collect my result from the front desk. To my absolute amazement, it was a pass!

To some, this whole process might be easy and no big deal, but to me, I cant emphasise just how life changing this is to me. Not just the fact iv proved to myself I CAN study and pass an exam at this level, but this starts a new journey for me into a Security career. I have been working as a System Engineer the past 5 years, and before that 10 years of 2nd and 3rd line technical support. (Another thing I had to overcome, wrestling my technical brain to not always go for the technical answers!)

Thank you to everyone who has posted in this group before me, your experiences, shared information and knowledge truly helped me.

For everyone gearing up for the exam, my advice would be:

- Create a balanced study schedule if you can. I started off studying 5+ nights a week but it was too much and was frying my brain. Build in free time for yourself!

- Don't worry about the exam, its just a normal exam. Study across all domains, that is the content, and expect cross domain questions and answers. Just think of it as Mock Exam HARD MODE.

- If something seems foreign, dont panic, it could be one of the unscored test questions. Just apply the same logic and answer best you can. The exam is a bit of a rollercoaster for your brain with ups and downs, try not to doubt yourself and your knowledge.

- Never give up! Continue on past Q100, and dont keep looking at the timer like I did! If the time runs out past Q100 you absolutely still have a chance to pass.