MY CISSP SUCCESS JOURNEY

(Lalit Kumar, CISSP, CISA, ISO 27001 LA, CEH, ITIL, DBA, System Admin)

I was planning to take exam for several years. But due to change in my role from IT to Banking business,
I left InfoSec and focused only on business for around 4 years. However, life has taken one more turn and
I landed in InfoSec again as Head of IS Audit. I was on and off preparing for the exam for past one year,
however, took it seriously only in February 2022 and took passed exam in June 2022. It was a solid prep
work while going through lot of stuff. Studying tons of pages and other material and sleepless nights
finally paid off.

Books and notes I used for preparation:

1. Read CISSP official Study Guide 9th edition cover to cover and prepared hand / typed notes /
shortcuts to remember terminologies and process steps. Revised several times.
2. Shon Harris All in one Exam Guide 8th edition (For few topics of First and Second Domain)
3. Thor Pedersen - Lead trainer at ThorTeaches Pedersen CISSP Notes – available as part of
Udemy course resources
4. Adam Gordon notes [Discord Channel]
5. Structured Cyber Security Brainmaps V1.0 By Haseeb Nasir
6. The Memory Palace - A Quick Refresher by Prashant Mohan, CISSP

Online resources -
1. Udemy - Thor Pedersen - Lead trainer at ThorTeaches - CISSP Certification: CISSP Domain
Boot Camp
2. Youtube – Pete Zerger 🔐☁️ - CISSP Exam Cram Full Course
3. Youtube - Rob Witcher - Destination Certification – CISSP Mind Map series
4. Youtube – Prabh Nair vCISO – All CISSP related topics and coffee shorts
5. Youtube – Mike Chapple – All CISSP related topics
6. www.studynotesandtheory.com

Practice Questions:
Referred around 3500 questions, CISSP Official Practice Tests Third edition, LearnZapp – CISSP
(ISC2) Official App around (Very useful for revising CISSP Study Guide), ABC E-Learning CISSP
Test App
Boson Exam, Wentz question QOTD, Thor Pedersen - Lead trainer at ThorTeaches Hard CISSP
question, Think Like a Manager by Luke Ahmed
Tips / steps –
1. Do not follow any shortcut read CISSP official Study Guide 9th edition and prepare your own
hand written or typed notes.
2. Listen to YouTube resources while traveling / walking.
3. Start Adam Gordon QOTD Linked in profile.
4. Attempt questions in CISSP (ISC2) Official App, it has all the questions of ISC2 Official Practice
Tests.
5. Update your notes with learning from questions.
6. Take Udemy Thor Pedersen - Lead trainer at ThorTeaches CISSP course. It will help you
revise official study guide.
7. Take Boson Exam sets. It will help you revise cover very important concepts.
8. Read Think Like a Manager by Luke Ahmed
9. Do not miss Kelly Handerhan - Why you will pass the CISSP (CISSP Mind set). Whenever I was
not sure of answer I applied 10 rules of Kelly Handerhan and 'Think like a Manager' concept of Luke
Ahmed.

Keep revising concepts till last day of exam. Refer different books, videos, and article. Solve as much
question possible. Do not attempt hard question like Wentz question in least two week of your exam.
Wrong answers at this moment may put you under unnecessary pressure. Only attempt ISC2 official
practice tests, Adam Gordon question, Prabh Nair vCISO Coffee Shorts in last / second last week of
your exam to remain confident. The best thing is to keep condensing your notes so that you can revise
all the domain in 6-8 hours, this will be very useful for your last week / days preparations rather
attempting questions during this period.

Plan you exam properly keeping in mind the time you need to go through books / study materials /
questions / boot camps etc. in mind. No harm taking more than six months for preparation, however,
unless you book the exam you may not feel pressure of preparation so book your exam. Don’t focus too
much on score when you attempt practice questions, check whether you have truly understand the
context and concept of the question.