Should I give up on the CC Exam?

[Schewniie]

Hi all,

I just took the CC exam this morning and failed it with 3/5 "below proficiency". I took and re-took the training exam until I got to the 90's, Mike Chappelle's class on LinkedIn, and Thor's Course on Udemy still failed. I am very discouraged, especially knowing I can't afford to retake the exam. I thought I studied well and took my time answering the questions, most of them were " Which is the MOST ..." 3 answers look acceptable for various reasons. The wording is not being reflected on ISC2, I understand they want you to use critical thinking, but seems like they are trying to make second guessed you at every question feel very very stupid failing something that most see as a "entry-level" certs .

What should I do

[dcontesti]

Sorry to hear that you were not successful.  Please, never feel stupid (your word). Unfortunately not being successful, does happen for a number of reasons.

- You may tense up in an exam situation, I do this all the time.  I know the material, etc. but it has caused me to fail more than one exam

- You might be overthinking the questions

OR

- Like many of us, you may speed read the question (thus missing words or inflections)

You do not mention your experience only your study materials, so it would be difficult to make a recommendation on next steps.  Also, you do bring up financial issues.

If your are new to the field, I would recommend that you stay the course, keep studying, maybe gain some first hand experience in the field and then try the exam again at a later date.

If you have more experience, take time, and potentially study for the SSCP or even Security+.

MHOO

d

[Schewniie]

I am not new to Cybersecurity and I have actual professional experience working in the industry, which makes it even more depressing. That may actually not be for me at all.

Thank you for your advice

[ericgeater]

"I am not new to Cybersecurity and I have actual professional experience working in the industry"

Feel free to cut yourself some slack.  But know that "entry level" doesn't mean it will be a walk in the park, either.  Did you use the training tools offered here?

[JoePete]

I wouldn't give up, but you can always take a break. One of the challenges is trying to learn material in domains with which you may have limited experience. Rather than asking how do I improve my studying, seek out opportunities that might help round that experience. A simple example, find some non-profit in your community and volunteer to do something outside your current experience (e.g., governance, risk, business continuity, etc.). What you might find is all the vocabulary and concepts you're trying to learn become more digestible when you can connect them with something you've done.

[juvuderm]

I took the exam almost same time as you, getting very similar questions like what you quoted. It is not an easy exam to me, many questions not direct came out from ISC2 online course, takeaway sheet and Mike Chappelle's LinkedIn class.

This is how I deal with the exam (tricky) questions.

- I used elimination approach to eliminate the answers that is out of CC domains. e.g: some keyword is totally out of scope (never appear on ISC2 online course), most of the times you will get 2 close answer, pick the best answer fit to the question.

- Used my networking experience to cover some questions related to networking which I'm not seeing on online materials & managed to clear the exam.

Finally, will this certification value-add to your career/profile? If yes worth to have 2nd attempt by studying something out of scope but which is related to 5 domains.