CISSP Study Plan and Time Budget

[Tingting_Lu]

Hello everyone 🙂

I'm studying to take the CISSP out of career need. I am wondering if my schedule is good. May I ask for suggestions regarding the plan?

I have a master degree on IT Security field. After graduateion, I have worked as IT developer for one year and IT Audit for a year and 9 months.

Since I am not very experienced, and the exam content seems quite challengeable for me. I plan to read over and fully understand these two books 'CISSP for Dummies' and 'Official CISSP Sybex', then practice around 4-5 exam simulation.

I budget 200 hours on CISSP for dummies(approx 25 hrs per domain * 8 Domains), 336 hours on Sybex (16hrs * 21 Chapter), and the last 3 days for exam simulation. All together 560 hours (approx. 6 months

preparation).

Does this plan sounds reasonable and good?

Thank you in advance!

[JKWiniger]

For me this is a hard question to answer because everyone learns and retains differently. Some due great with instructor led training, where someone like me does better by reading a book. In the same light, I read very slowly, but retain what I read without the need for notes. The best thing I can say is that it is not about reading and memorizing, but rather comprehending the material so it can be applied to any question or situation you might come across.

I will be entered to see what others have to say.

John-

[Tingting_Lu]

Hi John

Thank you for your experience and suggestion input.

My brain could really remember things only after understading it throughtly enough(e.g. why it is like this, how to do it). Alike you, I do better by reading books. I couldn't read swiftly neither since the brain need to digest the content. Thus I came out the study budget as mention above, 560 hours mainly for read and understanding the 2 books.

Do you think the time budget (560) sounds reasonable or it might consume me more?

[JKWiniger]

I have actually never tried to budget my time in that way so I have no idea.

John-

[Beads]

I've always considered the CISSP to be an experience test based more on operations and management rather than the other way around. Generally, I suggest that freshers plan for a baseline of 500 hours of study time and labs before taking the exam so your time budget of 560 sounds in line with what other successful examines have reported in the past. 

Good news is that two domains have been dropped and your facing as few as half the number of questions than in the past but still a good amount of material to digest. Overall, it will depend on not only how comfortable you are with 3rd party examinations but with the ways these questions are asked.

Look for any YouTube/webinars on either test taking or test question writing techniques. If you do well by quizzing, find a good quiz book to practice for both speed and accuracy with CISSP test questions as well. Just don't do the entire book to the point of memorizing the questions but learn to ask why the question is being asked. Same for studying. You should be able to ask yourself questions that may or might come up on a test as a matter of practice. Not saying that everything you come up with will be found on an exam but it does help prepare you for such questions.

Good luck.

- b/eads

[Tingting_Lu]

Dear Beads

Thank you very much for the insight and suggestion. 

"learn to ask why the question is being asked", that sounds very thoughtful. I will learn and practice as so. XD

Best regards,

Tingting

[Steve-Wilme]

Have you considered time boxing your effort instead?  It's the same principle as a boot camp. 

Back when I took the CISSP I time boxed it to 1 week of effort.  So that'd be 16 hours x 7 days or about 112 hours effort or about 3 weeks normal full time work.  Compressing the timescale ensures that you are focused solely on the task, because the deadline is right there.  Maybe your circumstances don't allow you to do that, but it's worth considering that sitting the exam with the material still fresh in your mind as an idea.

[akhanna]

Thats quite over exhaustive. I won't recommend it

[abhattac5]

Unfortunately, for the CISSP, "no size fits all" - it is a very hard test, but there are many variables involved. For some, it's much easier than for others.

That plan is probably the very bare minimum in my opinion. It took me a good eight months to really prepare enough to get any sense of confidence to take the test, and even then I didn't think I passed until I got the result! My plan basically used the same materials you used (with a few others too). So I would budget at least 700-800 hours personally to get a better footing with the test.

If you're interested in my experience, please check it out if you have some time. I go through my strategy and the materials / timing involved that I used to pass.
https://community.isc2.org/t5/CISSP-Study-Group/Passing-the-CISSP-My-Experience-Oct-2021/m-p/48366#M...

Hope that helps. Good luck!