Hi all,
I took the CISSP exam in Dubai, UAE on Nov 24 2004.
And this morning I received mail from (ISC)2 that I passed..
I want to share the story, hopefully it will inspire other people to pass too.
If you don't like it, pls just press [Delete] button in your keyboard
and don't spam me ;)
Background:
1. Five years field experience in networking and security solutions.
2. Already obtains following technical certifications: Cisco CCIE,
CCSP, Sans/Giac GCFW, Planet3 CWSP, Ec-council CEH, Sun Security and
SCNA, Checkpoint CCSE.
3. Two months fully preparation before the exam, 2-3 hours reading on
week days and more than 6 hours reading during weekend.
Library:
1. Information Security Management Handbook, 5th ed
2. Shon Harris' All-in-one, 1st ed
3. Krutz's CISSP Prep Guide, with ISSEP, 2nd ed
4. Official (ISC)2 guide
5. Krutz's Advance CISSP prep guide
6. Mike Meyer's CISSP passport
7. Well-known security books: Osborne Hacking Exposed and Hacker's
Challenge series, O'Reilly hacks series, Syngress Stealing the Network
series
8. CISSP-Discuss and CISSP-Dubai mailing list
9. Cisco SAFE blueprint and security knowledge base
10. cccure.org
11. Free cissp webcast from searchsecurity.techtarget.com
Step-by-step:
[first month]
1. I started by light-reading about CISSP presentation from
cccure.org. I forget from which authors because I read a lot of them
and all of them are highly valuable.
2. Checked the free Shon Harris' webcast (I can't afford her DVD training :))
3. Started reading All-in-One and (ISC)2 Guide at the same time, 1
domain at a time, with 1 domain per 3 days.
4. Everytime I finish reading 1 domain, I tried my luck with 10
questions cccure pro/close and always got 50 - 60%. I didn't push
myself and by now I have already had a good idea about CISSP exam,
which domain I probably strong at (network and crypto) and so on.
[1st two weeks on second month]
5. Time to deep drill using Krutz Prep Guide. I put 2 weeks to
complete all 10 domains. Those domains that I had already strong at,
like network and crypto, I skipped and got focus on other domains.
6. Everytime I finished 1 domain, I tried 25 questions cccure pro -
close, combine with Krutz Advance CISSP, and average I got 70 - 80%,
above 80% for network/crypto, and 50 - 60% for my 2 weakest domains
(Application and Law, they are not hard but I'm not a programmer and I
can hardly remember the contents of US Law!)
[third week on second month]
7. I started reading Information Security Management Handbook. Since
it's 2000-pages book, I did random reading in chapters that I'm
interested with.
8. I refreshed my mind with CISSP passport. The book is very small so
I could read it anywhere: toilet, bank, during lunch break, parking
slot, aeroplane, shopping mall, server room, airport, toilet.. have I
mentioned that I love reading in the toilet? ;)
[last week before the exam]
9. Cccure is your only friend. By now I had able to reach 80-90% for
all domains in cccure 25 questions pro/close.
I even tried 250 questions pro/close from all domain in one shot.. and
the result? still above 80% and almost fainted :))
For any questions I didn't understand, I tried to googling to find the
explanation.
[last day]
10. Had a good dinner, check the exam location, prepare the clothes,
prepare the admission letter from (ISC)2. I even tried to find good
pencils, then realized it might not the same with the one required for
the exam.. slept for 6 hours, the 1st time for the last 2 months...
Comments:
1. The first book to read must be All-in-one, easy to read and in
simple language, very good for starter.
2. (ISC)2 book is very good but very very very deep detail, if you can
afford time to read it.. read it! it's the official guide, dude! :))
3. CISSP prep guide is not as boring as (ISC)2 guide, and covered
other site All-in-one doesn't cover.
4. cccure.org is the best preparation site for CISSP..and it's free so use it!
You have to register now, but for online quiz just bookmark
http://www.cccure.org/quiz/quiz.php
so you don't have to login everytime.
5. The certification is very good for any person working in
Information Technology: engineer, database admin, programmer, manager,
consultant, auditor etc etc
And hey, from my story it needs only 10 steps to pass..what are you waiting for?
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for this group.
Thank you for inventing cccure.
Thank you, God.
Regards,
Himawan Nugroho
CCIE#8171, CISSP, GCFW, CWSP, CEH
CCSP, Sun Security/SCNA, CCSE, Infosec
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/kgFolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CISSP-Discuss/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CISSP-Discuss-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
