Failed the new CISSP CAT exam on April-07-2018

[cyberset]

Hello all.  I took the new CISSP CAT exam on April 07-2018 and did not pass.  It was a big disappointment.  I studied the Sybex publisher of CISSP, (ISC)2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide 7th Edition three times.  I practiced both exams on the actual book and the online version of the exam multiple times and passed above 98% passing score.  The actual CISSP CAT exam test did not cover that much about the book I studied for.  I really don't know if the new CISSP CAT exam designed by (ISC)2 is to make people fail so that they pay more money either to take the exam more than one time or go through the authorized training centers?  I have no idea.  I called the (ISC)2 customer service and expressed my frustrations.  The representative told me that I should not just rely on one source for preparing the test.  "You should study other materials out there" the rep said.  When I asked what materials should I look for to prepare, the representative did not have a solid answer for it.  That was even more frustrating for me.  I any case, I ordered another book which is Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK, Fourth Edition ((ISC)2 Press) 4th Edition from Amazon to study and prepare.  Am I missing something here?  Is there a test engine out there to prepare for the exam besides the books I mentioned above?  Thank you

[Steve-Wilme]

Hi,

I used 3 different sources to prepare for the CISSP; the official ISC2 CBK book, the Shon Harris all in one book and a dummies guide.  It took 8 days to study and pass the old paper based exam, but then I had worked in InfoSec for 8 years and IT for 17 years when I took the exam, so had probably absorbed some of the information from practical experience already.

I think ISC2 are probably correct in that it's best to use a variety of sources to give yourself the best chance of passing.  

Steve

[stevelf]

I agree with Steve about using multiple resources. It's been almost 10 years since I took the test. I used the Shon Harris book along with a training course plus any material I could find to study.  I studied over a long period of time like 10 or 12 weeks pretty hard.  From what I remember, the study material only gets you so far and you have to reason out the rest yourself.  Experience helps too.

Don't be too discouraged.  It was a hard test.  I remember that after I answered all the questions that I wanted to go back and recheck my answers.  But I stopped because I started second guessing myself.  You can't just read a question and expect to answer it just like that (I guess some can but I can't).  It takes time to get in a frame of mind for a question.

Hope that is helpful.

Steve

[SamanthaO_isc2]

Hello @cyberset, 

I am sorry to hear of your experience, and I will be passing along your feedback to our teams. I did also want to provide you with the following link that has some suggested references for the CBK, broken down by certification (you will find CISSP at the top of this page).  While this is not intended to be a comprehensive list of references, hopefully, it will help get you some of the information that you requested. There are also many other posts throughout the Community (even a couple replies here in this thread) about different references that others have found useful. 

Good luck! Feel free to post here in the Community if you have any other questions, there are many helpful folks in here that are willing to pass down some knowledge in the hopes of seeing others succeed. 

[Suraya]

Hello

Me too I failed on April 11, 2018. I was frustrated and upset, I studied hard for more than 6 months.

I studied from official (ISC)2 book + practice exam book, Shon Harris AIO book. In addition, I bought questions and answers from Pass4Sure but it doesn't help too.

Now, I wish to do it again but no money,  I wish if (ISC)2 offered for free.

Mathematically,   as long as (ISC)2  reduced the time to 3 hours and the questions to 100-150, then we should do the exam 2 times,  we have already paid $699 US.

regards

I think we have to ask for another try for free

[cyberset]

I agree.  Even the exam is designed to have 100 to 150 questions, it threw me out at question 100 with failed result.  (ISC)2 should offer a second chance to take the exam for free.  $699:00 is a lot of money for this new CISSP CAT to lose for 100 questions.     

[N_Bakewell]

I recently took the CAT and passed, but I agree, it was a difficult test and I felt like a lot of the questions were not directly covered from the study material.  I believe that this is, however, on purpose.  The CISSP is more than just a memorization game, otherwise the certification wouldn't hold as much credibility.  You must know the material, yes, but in addition you must also know how to analyze and apply it - which is why you see a lot of questions framed in the "which is the BEST of the following..." format.  

For me, the best piece of advice I received while studying was "Think of everything in terms of capability and risk - what capability does this technology provide, and what risks does it introduce and/or mitigate."

[denbesten]

@cybersetwrote:

(ISC)2 should offer a second chance to take the exam for free.  $699:00 is a lot of money... 

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I too paid for my exam myself and stressed about "wasting" the fee if I were to fail.  If anything, it encouraged me to better prepare.

Realizing that (ISC)² needs to pay for your second use of PersonVue's facilities, you might get more traction recommending a discount (e.g. 25%), but I would not hold my breath.

There is an unpleasant reason for (ISC)² to disincentivize retakes. Free retakes encourage candidates to take tests before they are ready, just to learn the questions and then study to the test, completely devaluing the test (and certification).  There was a good blog entry on this a few years ago that explains how some shady test-prep organizations exploit this. 

As it is, other candidates might already perceive you to have an unfair advantage because you have seen actual questions. You probably saw the effects of this in your own preparation in that your 98% scores probably occurred on the third time you took the practice test, not the first time.

[denbesten]

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@Surayawrote:

...questions and answers from Pass4Sure...

With all due respect, you should avoid Pass4Sure and similar sites like the plague.  The use of brain-dump sites risks having certifications revoked.  

[mnorton]

Sorry to hear that, I know how nervous I was in the build up to taking the exam. A couple of people have mentioned Shon Harris' All In One book. Shon's book has lots of  extra resources like audio and video.