Dear study mates,
I am so excited that I passed my first industrial certificate before many more on the path. I want to share my experiences and some learning or exam skills with you to assist you in passing this certificate, too.
As a career changer in civil engineering and property development, it took me approx. 20 months to start cyber security from literally zero background. I participated and passed Certificate IV in cybersecurity and kept myself busy with a Master of Cybersecurity at the moment.
CC preparation took about three weeks until I passed it today (6AUG2024). I would say this exam helps me map out the blocks of knowledge and establish an architecture of the basic cybersecurity concepts.
Here are some of my study experiences that may be helpful:
Week 1:
- Understand what CC is about;
- Understand the Exam outline;
- Took the pre-assessment exam;
- Have a bigger picture of what are the five domains talking about;
- Find out which part is my weakest link ( domain);
- Start the self-paced online training;
Week2:
- Complete the Self-paced online training;
- Started google how other study fellows managed to pass the exam;
- Started doing and reviewing Linkedin Learning ISC2 CC practise exams ( there are 4 practise exams);
- After feeling more confident, I make the exam reservation;
Week3:
- Review the flash cards, review the concepts that is not very familiar with, review the wrong questions from practise exams
My personal suggestions:
- Try to understand the logic behind the concepts. For example, when you see the concept of Access Control List, think about which type of access control it mainly served for (DAC), then think about what other logical access control types are ( MAC, RBAC), what are the difference and similarities between the logic control types, then think about what other controls exists ( physical control, administrative control) , then think what other concepts are in the access control domain ? Least privilege vs Need to know ( what's the difference and the similarities) etc. Then you will find all the concepts are connected like the leaves on the branches of a tree. Whenever there's a concept, you will track the 'branch' to other related concepts.
- Do practise with LinkedIn Learning (timed) to familiarise yourself with the exam vibe. However, do not rely on it as an exam with archived questions and answers.
- Do use the flashcards, learn the lessons from CC course provided by ISC2. However, thinking of the concept with use-cases, examples, or even google the diagrams, or pictures to visualise the concepts.
- Compare and contrast similar concepts as they are similar but not the same. They are used under different context and/or in different scenarios.
- During the exam, review the question and answers, select the answer you think is correct , review again before your submit. Once you submit, you cannot go back. After the practise exams from above step2, you will find the time allocated to you would be enough.
So, Let's ROCK!!!
Best of luck to all of you.
Frank Jia Li
Feel free to add me on Linkedin as I am open to new roles now 🙂
https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankjiali/
