I failed at 150 questions. Had my weepy eyed drive home. Anger dance. And have now recovered.
I spent 4 months with Mike Chapple's book and Adam Gordon videos. I truly believe I had control over the concepts in that material and averaged 95% on any practice exam I could get my hands on.
With that being said, I actually felt like I learned concepts rather than memorized material.
The exam felt like it was not even related to the material I worked with. After reading a question and reviewing the answers, I could not associate the ask with any concept or discussions in the book/videos. It even mentioned models or threat steps not even mentioned in the books (my perception).
So what I am asking here is 'How can I get a grasp on whatever concepts they were asking in the test?'.
Truly a few questions landed near a book discussion and I felt like I worked those well. It was just those obscure subjects and sentence structure that threw me.
My current perception is that the book is stale to the current questions that have made their way into the exam. Probably wrong on that but it's what I feel at the moment.
Someone mentioned to read the NIST papers since they are the reference material that (ISC)2 observes. That sounds like a good suggestion.
Basically, it feels like I missed the point and need help finding material that will reframe my mind. By the way, it felt like 'thinking like a manager' and don't fix things did not apply to my answer options...as far as I can tell.
Thank you and hope someone can offer something to help!
In addition to @rslade's excellent suggestion, now you have an idea of the types of questions you'll see on the exam and the areas they cover, take a look at the suggested reference list for the CISSP exam and pick out some references that will help you fill any gaps in your knowledge. This step is recommended in the CISSP exam outline:
The respective exam outline is the place I always start when looking to pass a new ISC2 certification. You can use this to understand the topics that will be covered on the exam and identify any potential gaps in your knowledge. Then build out a study plan from there selecting appropriate references from the suggested reference list.
Good luck with your studies!