Earning the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) proves you have what it takes to effectively design, implement and manage a best-in-class cybersecurity program.
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Read The ISC2 Exam Candidate Information Guide
Before you begin your journey to CISSP certification, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the (ISC)² certification process. Earning the CISSP – or any (ISC)² certification – requires much more than passing a challenging exam that measures your mastery and skill across the relevant domains and subject matter. (ISC)² exams are experiential-based, which means they evaluate candidates’ knowledge, skills and abilities gained over years of on-the-job, in-the-field application of the tools, concepts and practices that other cybersecurity professionals deem essential for a CISSP.
Time Management
Next, you want to consider your time management on the day of. There are 150 (down from 200 previously) questions to be answered in four hours. This means that you have ~70 seconds per question. You may answer some quick, and you may take longer for others. Therefore, you must track the time periodically. There will be a clock in the exam room to help you keep track.
My suggestion is to allow 1 hour for every 50 questions. Depending on how fast/slow you progress, you can slow down/speed up accordingly. You can get an idea for how you will do on the mock exam practices, but you won’t know for certain until you’re in there on exam day.
Also, the questions do not appear based on the sequence of the domains, so don’t waste time figuring out which domain a question belongs. Just answer and move along.
Critical Success Factors To Pass
It has been observed that individuals with technical background constantly encounter complications in understanding the concepts of governance and auditing, as they concentrate more on the technical aspects. This is a strong reason for not being able to perform as an individual must also look at the holistic approach to thinking from a manager’s or an auditor’s perspective.
And on the other hand, it becomes difficult for an individual with auditing and accounting background to understand the technical topics. Such students/candidates need to work on the core concepts and objective of a technology being developed.
Whereas, the most experienced professionals try to apply their own techniques which turn out to be unreliable. It is recommended for you to solely consider ISC2’s techniques as these are globally accepted, practical and is standardized.
Many candidates have the knowledge required to pass the CISSP exam, but about half failed on their first try. Your knowledge, and probably, more importantly, your ability to pick the correct answer, is the key to success.
For the purpose of the exam, answer the question the “ISC2 way”. Don’t answer questions based on your personal experience unless it is in line with ISC2 thinking. This is all about thinking like the test creators. If you’re ever unsure about a question, or feel like there could be more than one right answer, use this policy to guide you.
Familiarize With The Exam Question Format
The CISSP Exam Questions can be broadly categorized as Conceptual that tests your knowledge of fundamentals related to technology and auditing standards and Practical that tests your ability to understand a scenario and apply concepts in real business situations
There may be few questions on core technologies, such as encryption, EDI, internet security and telecommunications control. You are however not required to study specific technology platforms, such as SAP, Oracle, and SQL.
Put On The ISC2 Hat When Answering Questions
As you go through the practice questions, learn how ISC2 asks the questions. First, read the questions very carefully – quickly but word by word. They can be quite wordy, tricky and sometimes, even appear subjective. Most tricky questions have at least one choice as the “distractor”. People fall into the trap if they don’t read the question carefully, not clear on the concepts, or rely on “gut feeling” when answering questions.
Therefore, for each question, you should read the question carefully, eliminate the distractor and obviously incorrect answer(s) to narrow the choice and pick the best answer.
CRISC Exam Content - Difficulty Level
The candidate has to study eight doimains for CISSP certification exam. A single exam for all eight doimains of 100-150 questions for CISSP CAT exam and 250 questions for CISSP Linear exam for 3 and 6 hours respectively is held. Candidate has to gain 700 points out of 1000 to get certified.
1
Candidates with neither audit nor IT experience
Studying for the actual exam may take up to 6 months. There are reference books listed at the bottom of this page if you need background information on IT auditing. It is better if you can get both the official CISSP Review Manual for core studying, and one of the supplementary books for further explanation on the concepts. The ISC2 Questions Database is a must for lots of practice.
2
Candidates with some audit or IT experience
You may need around 3 months for exam preparation. If you are an auditor, get the technology perspective; if you are an IT professional, get the audit perspective. Then, read the book and spend sufficient time in practice questions.
3
Seasoned IT auditing professionals
You probably only need a month to prepare. Start skimming through the CISSP book and get familiar with the terms used by ISC2. Then, focus on practice questions and mock exam.
