My CISSP Study Plan · CISSP Study Group

Duane Leem

May 3 (edited) in 🚀 Success Strategies

My CISSP Study Plan

Title: Making a Study Plan

Are you a busy person with a family? You have a job? Do you also do other jobs (or run clubs)?

I do all these things:

- I have a big family

- I work 40-50 hrs a week

- Volunteer and join other clubs (Project Management Institute and Toastmasters)

When I embarked on studying for the CISSP back in December 2022, I initially thought: I don’t have enough time to put into studying for this.

Then I thought: Well wait a minute, just like anything, this can be planned.

## Study Plans

I set out to create two simple study plans (2 phases): 1 year study plan, 2 month study plan

1st Study Plan (Dec 2022 - Dec 2023), 1 Year

- 1 Pomodoro daily (25 minutes focused sessions), 4-5 days a week

- 2x-3x Week: 25 Mock questions

- 1 full 4 hour mock exam at my local library (once a month)

- Study Materials:

- FRSecure

- ISC2 CISSP Official Study Guide

- ISC2 CISSP Official iOS App

- CISSP Exam Cram Full Course (Pete Zerger – YouTube)

- https://youtu.be/_nyZhYnCNLA

2nd Study Plan (Feb 2024 - March 2024), 1.5 Months

- 4 Pomodoros Daily (2 hours focused sessions), 6 days a week

- 5x-7x: 25 Mock questions

- 1 full 4 hour mock exam at my local library (once a week, every weekend)

- New Study Materials

- Destination CISSP

- ChatGPT: I used it to quiz me and looked up explanations

- ISC2 CISSP Official iOS App: Asked me only new questions

- WannaPractice: Brand new questions bank

- Thor (Udemy)

- CISSP Exam Cram Full Course (Pete Zerger – YouTube)

- I paid a lot more attention

- Anki: Create flash cards on subjects I was weak at

I did 2 attempts (I purchased the peace of mind). When I was going in my first attempt, my mentality was, “Don’t sweat it, you have a 2nd attempt. Think of this as a mock exam.” I wasn’t too stressed if I failed, but more importantly my mentality was that I would get a sense and feeling of the test.

I thought I did great the first attempt. I really wanted to pass on the first attempt, but didn’t. I took it at a lessons learned, took a whole week and some for a break.

I buckled up for 2nd phase and invested in new CISSP content, more hours, more determination. When I walked into the 2nd test, I already knew how the test environment was and since I’ve done so many mock exams, I felt used to the environment and felt more relaxed.

## Reflection

Reflecting back on what made the largest difference: Determination

I know that sounds cliche, but that single word means several things to me:

1. I need the CISSP to be taken more seriously at my public speaking events. Holding a CISSP will hold more credibility in my talks

2. My organization works with Cyber securities and several of them are CISSP. By getting the CISSP, vendors/sponsors who we work with we can say “we have a CISSP in our ranks” which greatly changes the way how our relationships work

3. I’ve been in IT in many different roles. It will be a victory to attain the CISSP after 24 years of service

## Conclusion

Whatever the reason is, I thought finding my “why” was extremely important. It served the foundation on keeping on keeping on. After I failed the 1st try, it was a blow to myself. I kept repeating why I needed to continue and doing phase 2 was much more hardcore, but also much easier since I found my “why”

With that said, I’ve used many resources, plus experience, to get to the finish line. I hope I can help others attain the CISSP, it will only make it more secure by promoting Cybersecurity best practices 😊

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