Well, to be honest there really aren’t any “tricks” to the CISSP exam, but I do have a couple tips to share to help with your studying. Of course, everyone learns differently, here are a couple things that worked for me and might work for you.
Study, Don’t Test:
I found that if I took practice tests while I was reading that it would end up being counter productive. If I missed a couple questions in one of the quizzes I got discouraged. Missing 2 out of 10 questions looks way worse than 2 out of 150 questions. Instead focus on the material, you may need to read it more than once but it makes a difference.
Too Much is Not a Good Thing:
Lets face it, we can only absorb so much material, especially material like this. For this reason its important to make sure you are studying in manageable “chunks” so that you can process what you need too. It depends on the book but a good example is the Official Sybex Study Guide, about an hour or (for me) half a chapter was best.
Study Material That Works for YOU:
This may seem like a “no brainer” but it can be a little tricky, especially if you are taking things that other say “as gospel”. What works for me, may not work for you at all and even worse, it may hinder your study progress. I recommend Simple CISSP by Phil Martin, I listened through this before reading anything. I found that listening to this in the background prepared me a bit for the actual reading. Someone tried this on my recommendation and only got through Chapter 1, not everything works for everyone.
Test v. Material:
No doubt you need to know the material, that’s pretty much a given, but you need to know the test too. The CISSP exam itself is notorious for its difficulty and its not an exaggeration by any means, its tough! The best way to prepare for a test though is to take the test, or at least a reasonable facsimile of it. Take a few full length tests just to see what its like. The CISSP exam is adaptive and you may only take the minimum 100 questions but if you practice for max of 150 then you are prepared. For 2 weeks before the exam I took 1 full length test each night, I passed some and I failed some, but I knew what it was going to be like sitting for the exam.
Take a Break:
The night before your exam, or maybe for a day or 2 before don’t study at all. You need I break, if you study feverishly now you are going to add stress. Instead have a little fun and reduce your stress so that you can go into the exam “fresh”, for lack of a better word. Believe it or not, attitude will end up playing a big role in that exam room.