topic Passed the CCSP exam - my experience in Exam Preparation

Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

raj-andy1 — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 06:49:49 GMT

I passed the CCSP exam today. Here is my experience to help others

Background - I have some experience working with various cloud providers and virtualization technologies. I do not have a CISSP or have not taken the CSA exam. I chose to do the CCSP since it was more relevant to my work (and I know I cannot sit for 6 hours to take CISSP).

I passed in my second attempt. I took the CCSP training class offered by ISC2 and it was an utter waste of time. The instructor was knowledgeable however he spent hours on irrelevant topics - such as calculating the cost of AWS EC2 instances in various regions..etc. I ended up sitting at home and studying rather than wasting time in the class. The class supplied me with CBK training guide, the flash cards and a question bank (which I found totally useless since the questions are framed without any thought and are incorrect). I got pressured into taking the exam the first time since most of my class mates took the exam on the Saturday after the class and passed. Most of them had a CISSP and/or passed the CSA certification. I took the exam a week after the class and I failed - I got 679.

I took the second attempt today after studying seriously for a month. Here is what I did - I studied the CBK book twice. I took the preparation exam (which are preparation questions by ISC2) a couple of times to check my own knowledge. I tried the CCCURE one day package. Most of the questions in the exam plays on subtle differences which one might skip or not pay attention to. Its easy to narrow down 2 incorrect answers out of the 4. However it is very hard to choose the correct answer out of the remaining 2. Pls note almost all questions are worded as - Choose BEST suited, BEST possible, LEAST likely, LEAST effective choice. So unless you know the subtleties in the topics that are in the CBK, you would not be able to pass.

Summarizing - though the CBK is extremely dry and has inaccuracies, it is the single source of knowledge for the exam. I studied the CBK twice and still felt I did not thoroughly study it. A lot of ppl in the forum suggest the CSA guide or ENISA document or the Jericho model but in both my attempts I did not see any questions that were out of the CBK and covered by the other documents. IMHO if you study the CBK thoroughly and use the preparation exam questions (which mirror actual questions on the test) you should be able to pass the exam. Hope that helps and Good Luck!!

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

Caute_cautim — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 07:19:18 GMT

Thank you for passing on your experience. Invaluable.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

Ravenshroud — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 13:15:32 GMT

This is how the CISSP exam was in 2000. They had JUST come out with 2 study guides and none of the questions really seem to be easy to understand or answer.

I took the CISSP again in 2016 and it was very well written with distinctive answers and a lot of the same BEST/WORST/MOST/LEAST experience=based questions.

More guides will be coming for the CCSP and here is the chance for you to write one and capitalize. 🙂

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

cyberpro — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 15:07:00 GMT

Raj-andy1,

Thank you for sharing your experience, I am struggling to finish with the book. Currently at chapter 13 from Darrel book, I may have to dedicate one month and just get it done. My problem is that this is first cert I didn't schedule and then study to make the deadline.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

blaytrail — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 15:42:15 GMT

Congratulations on passing the exam. Thanks for the information. I passed my CISSP in October. Its such a good feeling.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

Caute_cautim — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 18:29:24 GMT

Just a thought, did you pass in 2000 and then re-take it in 2016 to update your skills? Or to challenge yourself.

I wondered, given that I found that the concentrations, really require to go back to basics and re-examine your original learning and experience.

Regards

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

jeffevett — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 21:31:39 GMT

Thank you for posting your experience. I am studying for this certification as well and have my CISSP. I've downloaded the whitepaper from Cloud Security Alliance which is good reading and also using the ISC2 study guide from Sybex.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

huntercg — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 20:09:50 GMT

Thanks for the info. I was considering a bootcamp style course but have had similar experiences to yours in the past when preparing for the CISSP.

I will definitely take the time to focus on the "basics"!

Thanks again!

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

ALK — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 21:18:27 GMT

Thanks for the write-up. I've got my exam in March following 6 months of self-study.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

dswomley — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 08:29:59 GMT

Thanks for the details of your experience. I took an (ISC)2 class last summer and had a similar experience. The instructor was a nice guy, very knowledgeable, but the format of the class, as established by (ISC)2 I found to be less than helpful. I hold the CISSP and have been working working full-time, struggling to find the needed time to really "fill-in the blanks" I think I may take off a month as well, even though I am an active CISO and working on Cloud Projects. I encourage our colleagues to continue expressing your concerns about the ROI for the training offered --> as an aside, I think 120 days access to the online course materials just isn't adequate - people have professional, family, volunteer and perhaps even academic commitments to arbitrarily limit to 120 days, IMHO is just plain insensitive. I believe 180 days would be more realistic, and frankly, don't believe it will cost (ISC)2 anything to offer it.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

Caute_cautim — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 18:26:51 GMT

A very good point, and one worth pointing out to ISC2. Just about to kick off a 12 week study group, to assist candidates, because here in New Zealand cloud is a key skill requirement.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

khurtwilliams — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:53:00 GMT

Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m studying for the exam.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

blaytrail — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 01:03:41 GMT

Thanks. How long have you been studying and what materials are you using?

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

khurtwilliams — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 01:05:53 GMT

Using the official CBK. Also took an AWS course. Will use flash cards to practice.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

blaytrail — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 01:22:52 GMT

Good Luck. When are you taking the exam?

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

PBatenburg — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 11:06:22 GMT

I (provisionally) passed the exam on Feb 22 2018, I do agree with most of your conclusions, but I put it to words slightly different.
I don't think it is possible to pass the exam on studying the CBK + practice questions only.

Somehow ISC2 does manage to do some testing on the level of how well you get the concepts instead of one being able to answer questions for which answers could be directly found in the CBK. To really understand concepts, impact of choices being made and have some feeling on how things might work in practice having a good look at those 3rd party documents increases the general knowledge and simplifies answering the questions. Having some real life experience instead of just picking up the theory helps too. So you do not really need another book than the CBK, having some Practice Tests gets you up to speed, but getting the additional knowledge from reference documents and experience increases the ease and chance of passing.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

Mel218 — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 14:32:31 GMT

Congratulations! I've tried the CISSP twice. I have read the book, took the course, studied the questions, done everything I could possibly do. And failed both times. It's very discouraging. I'm going to try one more time...

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

Zonker — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 14:49:18 GMT

I would encourage you to keep studying. It will come. Good Luck!

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

djgio02 — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 15:30:37 GMT

Excellent sharing experience and congratulations. I will take this exam after summer. I'm taking cloud+and itil first. I also do not have CISSP but have taken some courses. I have aws and azure certificate, engineering degree in telecommunications and 3 years of experience in cloud. Does my background is good enough or I must take CCSK first? Thank you and congratulations.

Re: Passed the CCSP exam - my experience

yrevyakin — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 16:08:46 GMT

Congratulations,

Excuse me, could you answer a little question? During ordering an exam Pearson VUE requires to fill the "Employer" field as mandatory (*). I can't see this in ISC2 requirements. What do you think it's possible to order the exam being unemployed?

Thanks