Part 3
IN THIS PART …
Plan your test preparation strategy.
Get ready for your test day.
Chapter 11
IN THIS CHAPTER
Taking steps to prepare for the test
Studying efficiently and effectively
So much information, so little time! In this chapter, we recommend ten (mostly) long-term planning tips for helping you prepare for that special day. (No, not that special day; read Wedding Planning For Dummies, by Marcy Blum and Laura F. Kaiser, for that one.) We’re talking about the CISSP exam here.
Know Your Learning Style
As you anticipate your study and preparation for the CISSP exam, it’s important for you to understand your personal learning style. You might prefer a long-term study plan as opposed to a one-week boot-camp training course, for example, or you may learn better by participating in a study group or by studying and reading alone in a quiet room. Your studying might be more fruitful if you do it in short, frequent sessions (say, 30 minutes a couple of times a day), or in less frequent and longer marathons (such as four hours a few nights a week).
To make the most of the tips in this chapter, you need to know in advance what works best for you so you can customize your study plan and pass the CISSP exam with flying colors!
Get a Networking Certification First
The Communication and Network Security domain is the most complex and comprehensive domain tested on the CISSP exam. Although its purpose is to test your security knowledge, you must have a strong understanding of communications and networking. For this reason, we strongly advise that you earn a networking certification.
If you already have a networking certification, you should find most of the information in the Communication and Network Security domain to be very basic. In this case, a quick review that focuses on security concepts (particularly the methods of attack) should be sufficient for this domain. We dedicate Chapter 6 of this book to the Communication and Network Security domain.
If you haven’t taken a computer-based examination before, getting a networking certification first will also familiarize you with the testing-center location and environment, as well as the general format of computer-based exams. You can take a generic practice computer-based exam at https://home.pearsonvue.com to get used to how these exams work.
Register Now
Go online and register for the CISSP exam at https://home.pearsonvue.com/isc2 — now! Committing yourself to a test date is the best cure for procrastination, especially because the test costs $749 (U.S.). Setting your date can help you plan and focus your study efforts.
Make a 60-Day Study Plan
After you register for the CISSP exam, commit yourself to a 60-day study plan. Your work experience and professional reading should span a much greater period, of course, but for your final preparations for the exam, plan on a 60-day period of intense study and review.
Exactly how intensely you study depends on your experience and learning ability, but plan on a minimum of 2 hours a day for 60 days. If you’re a slow learner or reader, or find yourself weak in many areas, plan on 4 to 6 hours a day and more on the weekends. Regardless, try to stick to the 60-day plan. If you feel that you need 360 hours of study, you might be tempted to spread this time out over a 6-month period for 2 hours a day. But committing to 6 months of intense study is much harder (on you, as well as your family and friends) than committing to 2 months. In the end, you’ll likely find yourself studying only as much as you would have in a 60-day period.
Get Organized and Read
A wealth of security information is available for the CISSP candidate. Studying everything is impractical, however. Instead, get organized, determine your strengths and weaknesses, and then read!
Begin by downloading The Ultimate Guide to the CISSP from the (ISC)2 website (www.isc2.org/Certifications/CISSP) to get an idea of the subjects on which you’ll be tested and to find helpful links to official CISSP study resources. Then read this book, use the online practice at www.dummies.com. (See the introduction for more information.) CISSP For Dummies is written to provide the CISSP candidate an excellent overview of all the broad topics covered in the exam. Next, focus on the areas that you’ve identify as being your weakest. Read or review the pertinent chapters in this book. If necessary, obtain additional references on specific topics. Finally, in the last week before your exam, go through all your selected study materials at least once. Review or read CISSP For Dummies and your study notes one more time, and complete as many practice questions as you can.
You can download the free (ISC)2 Official CISSP Flash Cards from the (ISC)2 website at www.isc2.org/Training/Self-Study-Resources. You can also purchase the (ISC)2 Official CISSP Study App from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Join a Study Group
You can find strength in numbers. Joining a study group or creating your own can help you stay focused and provide a wealth of information from the broad perspectives and experiences of other IT and security professionals. You can find a study group, discussion forums, and many other helpful resources at https://community.isc2.org/t5/CISSP-Study-Group/gh-p/CISSP_Study_Group_Hub.
Take Practice Exams
No practice exams are available that exactly duplicate the CISSP exam. And forget about brain dumps (actual test questions and answers that others have unscrupulously posted on the Internet); in addition to possibly being wrong, brain dumps violate the CISSP exam’s nondisclosure agreement. But many resources are available for practice questions. You may find that some practice questions are too hard, others are too easy, and some are just plain irrelevant. Nevertheless, the repetition of practice questions can help reinforce important information that you need to know to answer questions on the CISSP exam. For this reason, we recommend taking as many practice exams as possible and using the results to focus on your weak areas. There is an (ISC)2 official practice questions book and several resources available at www.isc2.org/Training/Self-Study-Resources.
Take a CISSP Training Seminar
You can take an official (ISC)2 CISSP Training Seminar. The online, instructor-led, classroom-based, and private on-site training seminars are intense five-day sessions that will definitely have you eating, drinking, and sleeping CISSP. The online training seminar gives you the same benefits as the classroom-based or private on-site training seminars with a more flexible schedule, including options for weekday, weekend, evening, and self-paced courses. Schedules and additional information are available at www.isc2.org/training.
Adopt an Exam-Taking Strategy
It’ll be difficult to assess whether you’re going too fast or too slow as you work through the exam questions, because the test is adaptive. You’ll have a minimum of 100 questions and a maximum of 150 questions. If you’re going too slow on the exam — perhaps 2½ hours have gone by, and you’ve answered only 50 questions — rushing through the remaining questions could make matters worse. If you start making careless mistakes and getting more wrong answers, it’s likely that you’ll get more questions rather than fewer, so the test and the clock will both be working against you. On the other hand, if you rush through the exam — perhaps you’re 30 minutes into the exam, and you’ve already answered 80 questions — you can’t go back to check or change your answers.
With an adaptive exam, you need to develop a more in-depth strategy than simply managing the clock. Think about what you’ll do when you don’t know the answer to a question. How will you eliminate answer choices to make a better guess? What will you do if you start feeling overwhelmed by panic or anxiety? Have a strategy to deal with these and other possible scenarios during the exam.
Take a Breather
The day before the exam, relax, and plan for a comfortable night’s rest. If you’ve been cramming for the exam, set your study materials aside. At that point, you either know the material or you don’t!