My Cybersecurity journey pitstop – CISSP

CISSP : A JOURNEY

There are very few certifications out there which genuinely makes you feel exalted about your skillset and makes yourself believe more in yourself. CISSP Certification is not exactly something that you just achieve. You need to be really worthy of its code of ethics and embody those principals in the real life to make your day to day decisions.

I started preparing for CISSP start of the year 2020. I still remember how optimistic I was to take on this new challenge.  I was certain that before I see the middle of this year, I’ll be Certified Information Systems Security Professional. Then as with many other things in the year 2020, life had other plans for all of us. I enthusiastically scoured various blog posts, websites and forums to come up with the ideal reading list for CISSP for a working professional like me with an experience of few years in system administration. After reading good number of personal experiences, I decided to read through below books in the given order:

1)     CISSP For dummies 6th edition

2)     All in one CISSP

3)     CISSP Official practice tests

4)     11th hour CISSP

5)     CISSP Official Study guide

6)     Supplementary CISSP Practice questions

CISSP for dummies was a good primer as far as CISSP concepts are concerned. As with any other dummies book, the concepts explained through this book are extremely easy to digest and this book boosted my confidence to take the CISSP challenge. What should’ve been a month’s easy read, turned out to be a 2-month reading experience. I diligently put at least one hour each day after dinner to familiarize myself through the 8 CISSP domains through this book.

After I finished with CISSP for Dummies, I was certain that CISSP is something that I’m interested to pursue further. That’s when I felt the time was ripe to dig further dip in the world of security. I started reading through All in one CISSP book and all in all, I truly perceived the depth and width of different CISSP domains. This giant 1200+ pages book covers each and every aspect of CISSP domains in a depth that truly surpasses the stringent of the requirements for this exam. Going through each topic, understanding the concepts and taking concise notes took lot of time and I was working my way through this book till the middle of the year. I also made sure that as soon as I finish any domain through this book, I complete questions corresponding to that domain from CISSP official practice tests book. After finishing up both All in one CISSP book and domain specific questions from CISSP Official practice tests I was confident that I’m on track to my exam. Then there was period in my life where something came up and priority of CISSP preparation took a back seat. During this time, since I was not able to pay 100% attention to my CISSP preparation, I started watching Thor Penderson’s videos as the time permits.

I was back on track in the month of November. I did a quick revision of all the domains through my personal notes and 11th hour CISSP. After brushing up all the domains, I re-focused my attention on CISSP official study guide. Instead of going through this book page to page, I attempted one full length practice test through CISSP Official practice tests And determined which are the specific domains where I’m really weak and I read through those corresponding chapters through CISSP Official Study guide. After completing all  21 chapters from official study guide I decided that I’ve familiarized myself to an extent where I can think of taking up the exam. I changed my mode of preparation from study mode to exam mode.

For the longest of the time, I was contemplating whether to go for the paid memberships of  any of the popular websites like ccure and studynotesandtheory.com. Based on all the reviews I read, I knew they were worth it but I was bit short on time since I wanted to go for my exam before the end of this year. So, I purchased exam simulation from Boson and started giving full length exams in simulation mode.  I also purchased official CISSP app through apple store and was also attempting full length exams. I found Boson exam questions very though provoking. Initially I was not able to pass any of my Boson exams for the first 2 exams.  Despite no apparent success, I diligently went through questions that I got wrong and understood what went wrong. Also, I started revising memory palace, Sunflower and comparitech notes. Each of these notes helped me drill down facts that were so easy to forget over the course of the preparation. At the start of December, I selected Dec 21 as the final date where I’ll test my preparation and fate. Even though I was periodically giving tests and revisiting domains where I scored poorly, my score was barely reaching 70% and I was afraid that this won’t be enough. Since it was end of year, soon we hit change freeze in my place of work and I was able to put in more and more hours in my preparation. I rescheduled my exam again to Dec 23 and entered into the final stage of my preparation where I was revising notes multiple times of the day and attempting at least 1 full length of test prior to going to the bed. After rigorously testing and preparing for last 2 weeks, I attempted my test on December 23.

Exam day:

I booked an appointment to a testing center which was around 35 miles from my place of residence. This particular Pearson center was in the middle of major metropolitan city on the East Coast and I knew that parking will be an issue from the beginning. Just to familiarize myself with the test venue I drove to this testing center a week before and already looked up a nearby garage where I can leave my car without any worry. My exam was scheduled at 8 AM on a weekday. Expecting a delay in commute, I kept half an hour margin on the day of the exam. I reached to my exam center at 7.30 am and I was asked to visit restroom and clean up my hands prior to testing center. Since this particular exam center was in a major east coast metropolitan, there were 6 other test participants before me on that day and it was around 8.15 that I was finally completely checked in. After carefully going through Non Disclosure Agreement I hit I accept and all the period after it was one of the most challenging time period I had in recent times. I felt that understanding of my each and every CISSP domain specific concepts is being put into test and at the end of it, I’m glad that I emerged out victorious.

For those of us who wish to foray into the world of information security, this certification is certainly a place to be and wish the best luck to those who are willing to go for it.