Question: CISSP Passing score

[kalhassan]

Preparing for my CISSP exam, I haven't been able to clarify this point out of all resources that I checked:

-Number of questions is 100 questions (or 150 if didn't pass within 100),

-There is a 25 not-scored questions, that makes number of scored questions 75.

-The passing score is 700 out of 1000. 

The question: Is the passing score 700/1000 is for the 75 questions (100 - 25 not-scored questions)? or is for the entire 100 questions? thank you.

[AlecTrevelyan]

I think you've answered your own question!

Check here for confirmation:

https://www.isc2.org/certifications/CISSP/CISSP-CAT#accordion-3865ccfbb7b648e1b88984cf89cd25c2

[CraginS]

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@AlecTrevelyan wrote:

I think you've answered your own question!

Check here for confirmation:

https://www.isc2.org/certifications/CISSP/CISSP-CAT#accordion-3865ccfbb7b648e1b88984cf89cd25c2

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@kalhassan Khaled,

Also, please note that the exam will cover all of the eight CBK domains, but you will probably not see the same number of questions for each domain. You have to achieve passing score on each of the domains. Quoting from the page that Alec linked to:

"The content for each CISSP CAT exam is constructed in compliance with the domain weights stated in the CISSP exam content outline regardless of exam length."

Craig

[AppDefects]

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@kalhassan wrote:

Preparing for my CISSP exam, I haven't been able to clarify this point out of all resources that I checked:

-Number of questions is 100 questions (or 150 if didn't pass within 100),

-There is a 25 not-scored questions, that makes number of scored questions 75.

-The passing score is 700 out of 1000. 

The question: Is the passing score 700/1000 is for the 75 questions (100 - 25 not-scored questions)? or is for the entire 100 questions? thank you.

---

Is there a statistics major in the house?

[kalhassan]

Thank you very much everyone for replying and my apology for the delayed response!!

I read all these points!! CISSP-CAT#accordion mentions that you "must answer a minimum of 75 operational, or scored"

those 75 items equal 100% of the score, one needs 700/1000 to pass which makes answering about "more or less" 60 questions correctly enough to pass!! that was my point, doe it make any sense?.

Thanks again.

[kalhassan]

Just following up on my last reply, I failed - ran out of time on questions 113 and the report was 6 domains above passing score, 1 domain near and 1 domain below.

I feel very discouraged and not sure if i will have the well to go through all of this again.

I have been in IT for 19 years, 10 of which are in security. 

I worked on this this exam for long time and tried finding answers to all questions that i could think about and took my time to make sure that I am ready.

-Used the BOK 4th and 5th editions and read them very carefully with questions

-Used the Sybex 8th edition and read carefully

-Used the 11th hour.

-Used the Sybex official practice exam and did it all, many times

-I took the CCube and the Boson and did a lot of questions

-I took online course of one of the well known instructors

-I took the ISC2 "Self-based-training" and passed all modules 

-I watched a lot of other free courses on youtube

-I read every shortcut, mnimonics or memory trick

-Think like manager, test is all about language and many others 

any suggestions or advice would be very much appreciated.

thank you

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[TimLab]

I know I am replying to nearly a year old post from you.  But if you did continue to pursue it I hope you passed.

The key takeaway from this test is it is "Cognitive".  The vast majority of the questions that where asked of me were not directly linear to information provided in the study guides but the information garnered from the study guides allowed me to identify the "Best" answer to the questions.  So for example knowing the network topologies and how they work could be applied to answering a question that doesn't involve anything to do with a computer based network because fundamentally they are using the same topology.

Additionally, you need to make sure you understand exactly what the question is asking of you.  Is it asking you to eliminate the "worst" or find the "best" scenario.

And finally, you need to identify the point of view of the question.  Is the point of view Management, a user, a programmer, an IT professional, a criminal etc.  What is the best option for an IT professional isn't always the best option for a Manager while both options are technically correct.

[Mike1]

Two things I did which I think really helped were:

(1) I spent a lot of reviewing practice questions - while focusing on WHY each wrong answer was wrong.  I think that gave me a deeper understanding of the area being tested.  That, in turn, helped me when I took the actual CISSP exam. 

(2) I built my own flash cards focusing on the difference process steps - and what's happening in each one.  Again, a lot of extra work to build them, but it helped me remember the process steps and where we were in that process whenever I saw an exam question describe a situation and ask what to do next.  If I recognized the process and what step was being described, then it seemed to help me understand which of the possible answers could be the best answer.

Something else I think helped during the exam... many people have commented many questions seem to come out of left field or they don't show the answer they expect to see.  That happened to me, too.  My approach was to remember they were not asking me "what's the best answer based on the study guide(s)?"  They were asking me "what's the best answer out of these four choices?"  That simplified my problem a bit because I realized it really wasn't the end if I couldn't remember what was covered in the study guide; I knew one of the four possible answers was correct.  Now I just had to focus on coming up with reasons why one was better or why three of them didn't make sense.

For what it's worth, I passed at 107 questions and I think the above things really helped me.

Good luck!