Please help: CISSP Failed after attempting all 150 questions - Need advice

[rvinodh86]

 I am an Info Security professional with 11 years of experience. I took the CISSP CAT 2018 exam day before yesterday after 4 months of tremendous hard work. Studied 8 hours per day for the last one week. I failed after getting 150 questions. It was a nightmare and I was really disappointed. I am trying to figure out where I could have gone wrong. I had known from people that the exam ends at 100 questions if it can determine with certainty that the candidate is above or below the passing standard. I do know of people who had their tests ended at 120ish questions and passed and the others failed at 120 odd questions too. When I crossed the 100th question, I knew I was not doing good enough for the computer to determine that I was above the passing standard. I decided not to lose my cool and answered every question patiently expecting that the exam would end at some point of time. After 125 questions, I seriously lost hope. It was like a roller coaster ride. It kept giving me questions that invariably had key words like "BEST", "MOST", "LEAST" and so on.. While I was able to eliminate 2 choices, it was really hard to narrow down on one. And I also feel like it kept hitting me on areas where I did not fare well. After attempting 150 questions, the test report said that I failed and provided me with a report that said I was above proficiency level in 4 domains and was near or below proficiency in the remaining 4 domains. One thing, I can say for sure was that the exam clearly determined the areas that I personally felt I was weak at. But there are certain confusing aspects that I need clarity on...… My questioning is merely in pursuit of understanding. Please enlighten me on the below

1. If the CAT could fail a person at 120ish and pass another candidate at 120ish, why does it throw 150 questions for a few?. Does that mean that I could have got the last 5 questions and still passed ?? Was my answering so unpredictive that the algorithm was not efficient enough to determine my capability until the 150th question ? If yes, it contradicts with my testing report where it says I was near or below proficiency in 4 domains. Why does an algorithm have to wait till the1 50th question to finally determine I did not reach the proficiency in 4 domains ?

2. Can a candidate be below proficiency in 1-2 domains and still pass at the 150'th question ? I see people posting that they had 150 questions and came out thinking that they surely failed but passed to their surprise. Quite a gray area

3. If a candidate has cleared the exam at 100 questions, is it mandatory that he should have received all 25 unscored questions ? If yes, does it mean that of the 75 that were scored, he/she could have answered merely 70 percentage of them correctly(close to 50+ questions) and still passed ? If yes, this seems not ok.

4. The difficulty level of a question is relative. What is difficult to one could be easier to another. How does ISC2 determine that a question is difficult or easy. 

5. If ISC2 had a way to determine the set of difficult questions, the exam could throw only questions from the difficult pool to all candidates and determine if the candidate scores 70% of ISC2's difficult questions correct? That would be a much fair way. Why even give the easier ones ?

I can read the Sybex 2018 edition twice before my next attempt, but I don't want this scaring experience again 🙂 Can someone enlighten me on the above questions asked and the test taking strategy

[anonym]

How did you prepare for the exam?

[anonym]

Did you read any new book before 2nd attempt or did you just read the same book again ?

[denbesten]

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@rvinodh86 wrote:
... Honestly I don't understand why I failed at 150 questions the first attempt and passed at 100 questions in my second attempt:-)

The test ranges from 100 to 150 questions.  The length varies depending on how well you are doing.  Testing stops once it knows for sure if you will pass or fail.  Kinda like the way a baseball game does not necessarily play the bottom of the 9th.  

If you finished at question 150, you just barely passed/failed.  If you finish at 100 questions, you passed/failed by a wide margin.  I don't know the actual ranges, but think of it like this:

• Pass at 100 -- your score was > 90%
• Pass at 150 -- your score was 71%
• Fail at 150 -- your score was 69%
• Fail at 100 -- your score was < 50%

So in your case, it sounds like your first attempt taught you to how to more effectively study and/or take the test, resulting in a much better score.  Good job.

[anonym]

Thanks 🙂

[j_M007]

1. Huge kudos @anonym 
2. Thanks for the calculations @denbesten 

[jsavlen43]

After spending $700 and countless hours preparing using the official and plethora of recommended study materials then failing after going the distance / 150 questions I think it a fair request to disclose the "actual number of pass / fail questions" per domain.

It would also like to know exactly how the algorithm selects experimental / sample questions. Is it possible that a pseudo random algorithmic selection could choose answers that were a Pass?

[AlecTrevelyan]

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@jsavlen43 wrote:

After spending $700 and countless hours preparing using the official and plethora of recommended study materials then failing after going the distance / 150 questions I think it a fair request to disclose the "actual number of pass / fail questions" per domain.

It would also like to know exactly how the algorithm selects experimental / sample questions. Is it possible that a pseudo random algorithmic selection could choose answers that were a Pass?

---

The closest you're likely to get to knowing the ins and outs of how the CAT algorithm works can be found on the following page - particularly in the FAQ section:

https://www.isc2.org/certifications/CISSP/CISSP-CAT

[rslade]

> rvinodh86 (Newcomer I) moved a topic in Exam Preparation on 07-27-2018 12:37 AM

>  I am an Info Security professional with 11 years of experience. I took
> the CISSP CAT 2018 exam day before yesterday after 4 months of tremendous hard
> work.

[Sigh.]

> Studied 8 hours per day for the last one week.

First of all, you won't pass the cert by putting in intensive study. You have to
solidly know the material and understand the basic principles and concepts.

> I failed after getting 150
> questions. It was a nightmare and I was really disappointed. I am trying to
> figure out where I could have gone wrong. I had known from people that the exam
> ends at 100 questions if it can determine with certainty that the candidate is
> above or below the passing standard. I do know of people who had their tests
> ended at 120ish questions and passed and the others failed at 120 odd questions
> too. When I crossed the 100th question, I knew I was not doing good enough for
> the computer to determine that I was above the passing standard. I decided not
> to lose my cool and answered every question patiently expecting that the exam
> would end at some point of time. After 125 questions, I seriously lost hope.

Don't stress on the numbers.

> It
> was like a roller coaster ride. It kept giving me questions that invariably had
> key words like "BEST", "MOST", "LEAST" and so on.. While I was able to eliminate
> 2 choices, it was really hard to narrow down on one.

Check out
https://community.isc2.org/t5/Exams/CISSP-questions/m-p/18626

> And I also feel like it
> kept hitting me on areas where I did not fare well.

Yeah, the CBT is designed to do that. Don't think of it as hitting you when you're
down, think of it as giving you another chance to get it right.

> After attempting 150
> questions, the test report said that I failed and provided me with a report that
> said I was above proficiency level in 4 domains and was near or below
> proficiency in the remaining 4 domains. One thing, I can say for sure was that
> the exam clearly determined the areas that I personally felt I was weak at.

Learn from that. What areas do you need to study?

>   I can read the Sybex 2018 edition twice before my next
> attempt, but I don't want this scaring experience again

Read "Security Engineering" by Ross Anderson
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html

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