There are lots of test exams, so you can get a feeling for progression and areas needing work. Having read my books several times (even listening to CISSP audiobooks as I go to bed in the hope my subconscious is better at grasping Cryptography than my conscious self is). I started to go onto YouTube to see if videos will help. There are so many “How I passed my CISSP in 2 weeks” which just made me angry (again). However, there are some great tools out there. My favourite is Luke Ahmed’s “Study Notes and Theory”- he has some really difficult exam practise questions and videos where he goes through how to answer a question and the answers the exam wants to see. His videos on the different concepts have been a life saver – they are informative, but conversational, with amusing asides and have helped turn theories into concepts that I can understand and hopefully apply in the exam.
My exam is next month and costs £700. Now failing an exam is a kicker, but the idea of failing a £700 exam – well, there aren’t words….. tears will be shed!
Whilst this is not fun, I have learnt so much. Thankfully, there are physical security aspects to the qualification (as there must be, you can’t secure a network without securing their physical environment) which means the content isn’t 100% new to me. I genuinely believe it will improve how I design systems and will make me more confident when having to work with IT colleagues on projects.
Keep your fingers crossed for me…….
