Failed CCSP

[CyberAF]

Failed CCSP exam last week.  I felt like the exam was not related to CCSP or the materials I had studied for over 4 months.  I am a CyberSec with over 5 years now and 20 years in IT. the exam questions I read IMO was not related to any of the books I have read.  I did not even understand most of the questions.  Unclear questions.  I read  :

1) The Official (ISC)2 Guide to CCSP CBK

2) ISC2 CCSP Official Practice Tests-sybex

3) CCSP Official Study Guide

Took a number of online exams scoring 90% and above.

I mean I was ready and aimed to score high in the exam only to find out I FAILED! and $599 in the toilet!

How did you guys who pass studied and what materials you used?? 

[Radioteacher]

CyberAF,

Failing a test is difficult but recoverable...trust me.  I have been there before.

You do not state if this is your first (ISC)2 test or if you have other (ISC)2 certifications.   The reason to know is that these tests are very different from any of the over 25 tests I have taken in my career. 

Novell, IBM, Microsoft, Compaq, HP, VMWare and the Cloud Security Alliance all had very different tests that all had unique points of view.  

The tests all have unique points of view of their slice of the industry.  (ISC)2 takes that to a whole different level from my point of view.  They throw you as a manager in the field and you have to think like a manager of the situation and not as an engineer.  Like you I had the background as an engineer.  

So if an answer to a question says to block the attack at the firewall with an ACL.  That is an answer that I would be drawn to like a bee to pollen.  It most likely be wrong as well.

WWaManagerDo?  A manager might consult policies or procedures before acting.  An engineer would want to find the right code and use only technical fixes.

The hardest part for me was what right answer do I pick?

Below are links to articles on studying for the CCSP.  One I wrote a while back.

This document really helped me prepare for the test.  
"One document that seems to stand out is "NIST Special Publication 800-146" while reading Chapter 4, I created scenario questions in my head and answered them."

https://community.isc2.org/t5/Exam-Preparation/CCSP-Test-Preperation-Passed/m-p/3502 

https://community.isc2.org/t5/Exam-Preparation/Passed-the-CCSP-exam-my-recommendations/m-p/4090

Good studying!

Paul

[CyberAF]

Paul thanks for the tips.  

[Radioteacher]

@CyberAF 

Did you get a chance to take a look at NIST Special Publication 800-146" Chapter 4?  If you did, what are your thoughts on the content?

Paul

[CyberAF]

Paul,  I have not read it yet.  A quick scan it shows it dated in 2012.

https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-146.pdf

I will spend the time to read it.  Was there something specific that caught your attention that help us in the exam?

[owaisakhan]

Absolutely same feeling, I failed the exam a day ago on 8th December 2020 😞

I actually passed my CISSP last year and just after a month or so of passing my CISSP I started preparing for CCSP exam, I was a bit on and off in my preparation but I was certainly updated with concepts. I used the exact same materials that you used for preparation along with CSA Security Guidance v4, and practiced almost over 4000 questionnaire including CCSP Official ISC2 Practice Tests, still what I understood from the exam, is that exam is no where close to the way course books have been written or any of the Practice tests that I took, (they are all generic and covering only concepts) instead it is more of Tactical knowledge and real life implementations, that is what I felt as almost all the questions I noticed required deep understanding of the specific domain along with some sort of hands on experience in that specific domain. Unlike CISSP, where thinking like a manager works for most of the time, it was quite opposite for CCSP, where a lot of technical understanding was required.
Anyhow, I will now be testing my knowledge with CCSK exam instead of attempting CCSP again, if that goes well, than CCSP next stop 🙂 But this time, I will try to speak to various people working in separate domains to to understand the concepts even better.

[owaisakhan]

Just to add, my preparation material also included skimming through various NIST documents, not cover to cover actually.... such as 800-37, 800-40, 800-53, 800-145, 800-146

[CyberAF]

failed it 2nd time. 12/29/2020

I honesty thought I did very well.  I flagged 15 questions and changed about 5.  It was easy to narrow the questions to the best two choices.   To my surprise I get " We regret to inform you ..."  

28 years IT experience.

8 Years Cloud and Federal Cloud One / IT Security / FEDRAMP/FISMA/Security Controls Assessment

SEC+ certified 

AWS Cloud Arch Certified

I am going for a 3rd time and spend another $599.  Wish me the best. 

Then I will tackle CISSP.

[lazzarom]

I feel the same. Studied a lot. Did all the books below. Graded on all tests ~90% and felt I was ready.  To my surprise all 95% of the questions were new scenarios with not much option to eliminate a few.  I also didn't have option to mark a question for later review?! I am puzzled how to prepare for next attempt if these below are not sufficient.

1) The Official (ISC)2 Guide to CCSP CBK

2) ISC2 CCSP Official Practice Tests-sybex

3) CCSP Official Study Guide

[bpdelacruz]

@CyberAF, did you pass on the third try?