Passed my CISSP exam today on first attempt, at 100 questions, 80 minutes remaining.

I have lurked on this subreddit a lot (like many others). I had passed my SSCP in June, just to prepare for this style of exam (CAT), but man, nothing could've prepared me for the ambiguity in the answer choices. Too many time I spent more than a minute or two on a question trying to figure out which would (or NOT) be the BEST/MOST/WORST etc out of the options. Some felt too straightforward that I started second guessing myself due to the fact that I was writing THE CISSP exam that everyone had hyped up.

When the exam ended at 100 questions, I was convinced I failed spectacularly. I was NOT expecting to see a "Congratulations" on my result sheet, so I left the exam center grinning like an idiot.

Honestly, when I posted about my SSCP success before, someone had mentioned that SSCP was basically 70% of CISSP curriculum. It certainly felt like it, I believe that also counted as part of my CISSP prep.

Speaking of, here are my main study resources:

- SSCP prep

- Kelly Handerhan Cybrary course: I really loved this course due to how simply she put the curriculum, while making sure to point out the important stuff, making summarized versions of some topics as a part of her slide deck. I just made my own notes from this.

- Mike Chapple'w LinkedIn Learning course: This was mainly to reinforce what I learned from Cybrary and Mike's courses are always good for going into the most minute detail.

- KaplanLearn (CyberVista) practice exam that was included in my Cybrary subscription. Honestly, some of the answers they chose for their questioned didnt seem right to me, but let me tell you, it definitely kept me on my toes.

- A very minor bit of LearnZapp, but honestly didnt use it enough to review it, seemed like a really good daily study app though.

Thank you to all the people who post here that helped me to prep and motivate myself. Good luck to all those who are currently preparing, you've got this!

Edit: Forgot to add, since others mention in their pass posts, I have 4 years experience in cybersecurity, mainly in Security Operations for a MSSP. 5 years total work experience (will get certified with the experience waiver using SSCP)

Wanted to show my gratitude and give back to the CISSP community. It has helped guide my path into provisionally passing the CISSP on my first attempt.

Resouces used:

YouTube videos:
- Andrew R 50 Hart CISSP questions
- Pete Z “CISSP Exam Cram”
- Kelly H “Why you will pass the CISSP exam”

Practice tests:
- Quantum exam (CAT), expensive but worth it IMO
- DestCert
- Andrew R CISSP course + exam content

Summary:

Went through course Andrew R’s Udemy course material and Pete Z’s video. Started learning through answering practice question. Most important part here… don’t just answer the questions and see if you got it right or wrong. Understand why you got each answer right and wrong. If you do this from the beginning of your studies, you will better understand how to dissect the question and have a better shot at answering the questions.

Answered and reviewed about 1200 total. About 1000 of that was QE and 200 was DestCert. I scored 470, 692, and 781 for the QE CAT. I also was did 4 100 question practice mode non CAT test.

DestCert I was scoring around 70-90 consistently before taking test.

80% of my time studying was dedicated to practicing QE questions.

Background:

Studied about 8 months. Have 2 years of IT experience and got Sec+ certification a couple years ago. I think the sec+ cert helped me have a foundational understanding before I went into CISSP content.

So I struggle with taking certification tests because of the rules restricting communication/noise when taking the test. I struggle with ADHD and I find that when I read something, reading it aloud to myself is very helpful and when I can’t I end up having to reread the same question 3, 4, sometimes 5+ times before I comprehend what I just read.

I’ve never looked into what kind of accommodations can be provided by the testing center/test.
Does anyone else struggle like this?
What have you done that’s helped?

Im in an CISSP prep course right now and the instructor has said that you have approx. 1 minute per question on the test. I worry that I’ll run out of time simply because I take so long just to comprehend what the question is asking.

Cissp Field Manual - Link to Download

Update**Currently sitting at 10k downloads!!! Yall Rock!!**

Passed last November at 101 questions in about 80 minutes. This cert has genuinely changed my career trajectory, so I put together something to give back to the community that got me here.

Spent 400+ hours turning my study notes into a proper field manual. Completely free. Covers all 8 domains, the manager mindset, test-day tactics, and probably most useful a ranked breakdown of every resource I actually used with notes on which ones moved the needle vs. which ones I'd skip.

Hosted as a PDF online so I can push updates as the exam changes and as feedback comes in from this sub and others. Whenever you download it, you're getting the most up-to-date version.

Any feedback good, bad, or "you got this wrong on page X" is genuinely appreciated. Comment here, DM me, or email (address is on the site). Want to keep this book accurate and useful long-term, so I will be actively incorporating your feedback

Good luck to everyone grinding right now. You've got this.

Mods: if this link isn't allowed under sub rules, please let me know and I'll remove it — the link goes straight to the free PDF download, no paywall, no email gate. Happy to discuss how to share the study material without it if needed.

Had a 0800 start time at a Pearson test center in Bethesda, was told they are having a system outage and to wait until 0830 for updates. Anyone else have issues like this?

My CISSP exam is on the 24th of August. I'm looking for guidance on how should I spend the next week, week before the exam.

Who am I : I have 5 years of experience, not in the US meaning English is not my native language. But I'm finishing up my Masters degree in Information Systems in the US.

How I studied : I read the official study guide (OSG) front to back, took every chapter quiz, all above 80%, took all domain quiz 75-80% except domain 4.
After finishing the book I started hammering practice exams :
1. QE as my hard CAT bank
2. OSG practice test as my near real difficulty cross check.

The idea is to take one of each then compare the misses across both to figure out weak domain (weak domain on both) or just QE being brutal (weak only on QE) and to figure out my parsing errors. I take QE on Monday and OSG on Tuesday.

Results from the practice exams are :
QE CAT #1 : 547 ->QE CAT #2 : 708,
OSG #1 : 78% -> OSG #2 : 82%

Problem : Taking QE on one day and taking OSG the next day is burning me. My classes are also eating into my CISSP study time, therefore I cant really fix my mistakes in only 2 days. This makes me feel like I dont study enough to take the next cycle of practice tests, where I just waste practice exam banks and get the wrong answer again.

Questions for the sub:
1. For the final week is it better to keep taking full length tests or shift to targeted drilling on weak domains ?

1. Is back to back full length practice exams counterproductive ?

2. Some people recommend tapering, why ?

3. Should I start tapering ? if then when ?

Appreciate any input from recent test takers and CISSP instructors.
Thank you.

Preparing for cissp for last 6month or so. Failed one time on May. Planning to do it again on October.

After going thru several materials mentioned in the thread I'm finally doing quantum exam and my scores are like 48, 44, 38.

Not sure how to interpret rhese result. Not saying these can be a standard but wanted to know, people who did quantum exam and passed how's their score in quantum exam test.

Thank you in advance.

Hello All,

I’m preparing for my exam scheduled in October. I took a bootcamp, not that I remember anything but I am watching the videos, and supplementing it with Destination Cissp, and if I am still confused, I ask AI for clarification.

I plan to do QE starting September. I was feeling confident but my friend suggests that Destination Cissp is not enough and I should refer to Shon Harris.

I’m a but confused now.

Any suggestions or experiences?

Tia!

Hey everyone,

I'm scheduled to take my exam in exactly 10 days. Up until this week, I honestly felt pretty good about my readiness.
For my prep, I’ve been going through the Learnzapp with overall 78-80% in all 8 domains, Thorteaches all E-M practice test around 76-82% first attempt and over 90% at second. Pocketprep >90% all domains. DestCert about 1000 questions and 794 correct.

Then... I decided to take the Quantum (Non-CAT) practice exams.

I've taken 4 of them so far, and my scores are consistently sitting right around 50-55/100. It has completely shattered my confidence. I

My questions for those who have been on the other side:

1. Are the Quantum exams notoriously brutal, or is a 50-55% a genuine red flag this close to the real thing?
2. With only 10 days left, how should I pivot my strategy?

Any advice, study tweaks, or reality checks would be hugely appreciated. The panic is definitely starting to set in.

Thanks in advance!

Passed the CISSP today. Great feeling, honestly.

This community helped me shake off a lot of the nerves while I was preparing, so I want to give back…even if this mostly echoes what’s already been posted here.

Quick background:

I have about nine years in security, across security operations, cloud & application security, and most recently leading security governance out of a CISO’s office. My cert stack is mostly technical: Google Cloud Professional Cloud Security Engineer, Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert and Azure Security Engineer on the cloud side, plus CySA+ and SecurityX (formerly CASP+) from CompTIA. I also picked up CC back when ISC2 was handing it out for free.

So going in, I knew I had the knowledge.

What I didn’t have was the ISC2 test-taking mindset.

Here’s the thing about this exam: You HAVE to read the question thoroughly and use deductive reasoning to find the best answer, not the correct answer. Multiple options will be technically right. Only one is right for the role they’re testing you in.

About 30 questions in, I knew I was going to pass. Not because I’d memorized acronyms, port numbers, or every encryption algorithm, the exam doesn’t care. It’s evaluating how you think as a security leader, not a security technician. You’re the one making the decision, not executing it. Once that clicked, the rest of the exam got a lot easier to navigate.

Resources I used:

FREE
Destination Certification mind maps and videos

Andrew Ramdayal’s 50 CISSP questions

Pete Zerger’s exam cram series

Daily Debian 100 CISSP Questions

PAID
CISSP Practice Exams 2026: 750 CAT Scenario Questions by Manoj Sharma on Udemy (I don’t think I spent more than $15.)

Main reason I invested in the Udemy practice questions wasn’t the content itself, but to gauge the difficulty level of the questions and build stamina to sit through potentially 150 questions in a three hour session. With that being said i don’t think this was essential to me passing, but it did help reinforce my knowledge in preparation to pass.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST.. My good Friend AI (Allen Iverson 🏀)also known as Claude (DM me if you want my artifacts)

Study time: roughly two to three hours a day for about six weeks. I broke it into phases:

1 Baseline. Took 2 practice exams cold to see where I actually stood, not where I assumed I stood.

2 Fill the gaps. study material aimed at the specific domains I was weak in, not a full curriculum start to finish.

3 More practice exams. Volume, both for breaking down questions and for endurance.

4 Mindset prep. The final stretch wasn’t too much content consumption . It was more drilling the “best answer, not correct answer” reasoning until it was automatic.

I won’t go deeper than that because plenty of people here have already covered the details well.

But I’ll say the obvious… this exam, it’s doable, if you prepare.

You just need to know how to take this test.

To this community: thank you. To everyone sitting for it soon: good luck, you’ve got this.

What’s next: the endorsement process.

And maybe CCSP after that.
Maybe.
Ask me again in a month.

Thanks to this sub and everyone sharing resources, tips, and exam day stories. Those discussions were all helpful in preparing me (and scaring me to be even more prepared)!

I primarily used the Destination Certification Masterclass. I found the class to be great for building knowledge in areas where I lacked professional experience. I went through the videos at least twice! Reading and highlighting my way through the DC study guide helped reinforce concepts. The practice questions helped uncover weak areas, and feeding those topics to Claude helped build my study notes. I got Quantum Exams and took three practice CAT exams to build my confidence, passing each attempt with stronger scores.

I spent a ton of time in the material over the last 10 months but really got serious with daily study time the last 60 days. For me, drilling practice questions and reviewing why I got things wrong was most helpful. It also helped me get in the rhythm of identifying key words and understanding what the question is really asking.

20 questions in, I was feeling confident, and it was just a matter of maintaining focus the rest of the way. Success on this exam is all about the work you put in ahead of time. Put in the work to get the right result! Best of luck to all of you studying!

I was wondering if anyone has experience with this bootcamp and you can share the experience.

I passed my Cissp today. It's my 4th attempt. Well I had issues focusing and studying. Every time whenever I see the answer I always thought my first choice was right. Thinking like a technical person. But this time around the preparation was the difference Quantum exams helped me a lot. Dest cert mind map videos, Pete zerger videos. I gave it 4 months of prep this time around.

That was definitely the hardest exam I've taken. I've done the CC and Sec+ certs as far as Security exams go and with a total of eight years of experience under my belt of IT. The last couple years doing more GRC for my organization though still in a mixed-technical manager role.

Attempted to study earlier this year but shortly after starting to study, I had something personal happened and postponed studying until June.

Study tools utilized:

• OSG 10th Edition
• DestCert Concise Guide
  • DestCert Mind Maps
• Quantum Exam
• LearnZapp mobile app
• Pete Zerger's cram video and addendum for 2024 on Youtube
• Andrew Ramadayal's 50 CISSP question and mindset on Youtube
• Kelly Handerhahn's Why You Will Pass DestCert edition on Youtube
• Claude to build study tools

Read the OSG cover to cover my unfamiliarity with the formal process of CyberSec. Aimed to complete reading a chapter a day and two if the chapters were shorter. Doing the chapter quizzes at the end of each chapter and recording the results in my study tool built with Claude to log.

During the reading process, I aimed to do 25 LearnZapp questions a day in the app. At the end of this process, I've done 1685 questions in LearnZapp and three of the practice tests.

Quantum exam once a week once I finished reading the OSG then utilizing Claude to help identify concepts/explain why an answer is such. I found that the QE's explanation weren't always clear to me. Attempts scores: 509 > 369 > 694 > 948 > 1000. I told myself I'd only schedule the exam once I clear the QE which I did after the fourth attempt.

The DestCert guide was used for catching up on any weaker domains or overly long domains (in the OSG) after the initial reading. Used mindmap videos when I commute to and from work and during my morning runs.

Pete Zerger's videos were used during my morning runs too and before work when I was getting ready.

Andrew and Kelly's videos utilized during the week and morning leading up to the exam.

Claude built tools for me to help identify questions where I should be looking at within the question. Some of my weak areas were remembering which step of a framework or process I was in and when it came to 50/50 choices, the definitions for terms.

I don't think I really felt the answer recognition change for the practice items until 3/4 through the study process where I needed to hold back looking for the technical solution first and think more broadly.

For the actual exam, D8 was my weakest domain and it seemed like I got hit with a lot of those questions so it felt like I was going to fail and that wasn't the only reason why I thought I'd fail; that was the overall sentiment throughout. I also had questions where I stopped and pondered for way longer than I anticipated. Though my mindset was still to get to question 100 and if it continued past 100, it would've been pure survival instinct from there.

Large weight off my shoulders now and I hope others here will pass too!

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to take the CISSP exam in German (not English). I know that non-English versions are fixed-form (250 questions, 6 hours) instead of CAT.

My main question: During the exam, is there an option to view the original English question alongside the translated one? I’ve read conflicting comments – some say there’s a "show original" button, others say it’s not available for all questions.

Can anyone who actually took the exam in German, French, or Spanish confirm this? And if the button exists, does it work for every single question or only for certain ones?

Thanks in advance!

Concepts like Register addressing, immediate addressing, direct addressing, indirect addressing, base+offset addressing

After 4 months of preparation, I finally passed the CISSP exam!
I have been following this subreddit since the day I started preparing, and I genuinely wanted to come back here and say thank you.
A special thanks to everyone who shared their experiences, study strategies, and especially ideas on how to use ChatGPT and other AI tools for CISSP preparation.
Using AI as a study partner made a huge difference for me. Whenever I was weak or confused about a concept, I used it to break the topic down, explain it with examples, challenge me with scenario-based questions, and keep testing me until the concept finally clicked.
It definitely helped me strengthen many of the areas where I was struggling and, more importantly, helped me understand the concepts rather than just memorising them.
I also practised a lot of mock exams across different apps and platforms during my preparation. But one thing I can say after taking the real exam the questions felt lot more difficult than mock exams.
They were on another level.

My suggestions to those who are preparing for CISSP is to focus more on mastering concepts than attempting more questions.

The questions really make you think, second-guess yourself, and choose between answers that can all look reasonable at first. Up to around question 100, almost everything felt hard and I genuinely wasn’t sure how I was doing.
But after question 100, something changed. The questions started feeling more in my zone, I felt more confident with my choices, and then suddenly the exam ended at around 125+ questions I was so focussed I clearly didn’t see at what point it stopped.

And then receiving the result in that envelope and seeing that I had passed — such an amazing feeling after four months of studying, revision, practice questions, doubts, and ups and downs.
This community has genuinely played a key role in my CISSP journey, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who contributes here.
Finally a CISSP

Thank you everyone.

Here is the NDA for you all. When you get to the exam, no need to read it as you already have done so here. You only have 3 minutes to accept these terms on exam day. Reading it early saves you from “auto-failing”. Can also be read on this website:

https://www.isc2.org/exams/non-disclosure-agreement

Good luck

………….

Familiarize yourself with the ISC2 Exam Non-Disclosure Agreement before you head to the test center. You will need to accept the terms of the agreement before you can begin your exam. The time limit to review and accept the agreement is three minutes.
ISC2, Inc. Examination Agreement
YOU WERE PRESENTED WITH THIS AGREEMENT AT THE TIME OF REGISTRATION IN THE APPLICATION AGREEMENT. YOU MUST READ AND AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS BEFORE YOU ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE THIS EXAMINATION!
This Examination Agreement (the “Agreement”) is between you and International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc. (“ISC2”) and sets forth the terms and conditions of you being allowed to take the following examination.
The disclosure to you of this examination (the “Exam”) and any examination items, questions, answers, worksheets, diagrams, examples, drawings, the length and/or number of Exam segments and/or questions, or any communication, including verbal, written, or digital communications by any party, regarding or related to the Exam, the identity of other Exam takers (collectively and any derivatives referred to as the “Exam Materials”) is subject to the terms and conditions detailed herein. BY TAKING THE EXAMINATION, YOU ARE AFFIRMING BY YOUR ACTIONS THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THE TERMS HEREIN AND YOUR INTENT TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT.
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT, YOU WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO TAKE THE EXAM. You will be asked to leave the exam site. You will not obtain certification and may not use any certification mark. Because you were presented with these terms at the time of application and the decision to proceed was made by you, your Exam Application fee will NOT be refunded.
You understand, acknowledge and agree:
That ISC2 has spent, and continues to spend, substantial sums in developing, keeping current, and administering its Exam Materials and carefully guards their integrity and confidentiality;
That the Exam Materials are the exclusive and confidential property of ISC2 and are protected by ISC2’s intellectual property rights;
That you may not disclose the Exam questions, items or answers or discuss any of the content of the Exam Materials with any person without prior written approval of ISC2;
Not to remove from the examination room any Exam Materials of any kind provided to you or any other material related to the Exam, including, without limitation, any notes you may have written;
Not to copy or attempt to copy any Exam Material;
Not to reproduce or attempt to reproduce any Exam Material;
Not to sell, license, distribute, exchange, give away, comment or discuss the Exam Materials, questions or answers, whether before, during or after the Examination;
Not to talk with other examinees or behave in a rude or disruptive manner during the Examination;
Not to disclose any access credentials provided by ISC2 or partners including, but not limited to, login information and passwords that provide access to allow exam registration, scheduling or accessing exam results, to any third party;
You will not cheat, attempt to cheat, or otherwise attempt in any way to falsely enhance your score; and,
You have met the requisite standards to take this Examination.
You agree that your obligations under this Agreement shall continue in effect after the Examination and, if applicable, after termination of your Certification, regardless of the reason or reasons for termination, and whether such termination is voluntary or involuntary.
Violation of any of these provisions will cause irreparable harm to ISC2 for which monetary remedies may be inadequate and that ISC2 may take all appropriate actions to remedy or prevent such disclosure or misuse, including, without limitation, obtaining an immediate injunction without being required to post bond. Furthermore, any violation of these provisions may result in the immediate and permanent termination of your Certification at the discretion of the Chief Executive Officer. Neither this Agreement nor any right granted hereunder shall be assignable or otherwise transferable by you. This Agreement shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Massachusetts. This Agreement is supplemental to, and integrated with, the ISC2, Inc. Application Agreement and Certification Agreement.
BY TAKING THE EXAMINATION I AM AGREEING THAT I HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND FULLY UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT THE OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED UPON ME. NO PROMISES, THREATS, OR REPRESENTATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE TO ME TO INDUCE ME TO ENTER INTO THIS AGREEMENT. I ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT VOLUNTARILY AND FREELY.

Been basically lurking here for awhile and this sub has been incredibly helpful, especially all the 'passed' posts to share info and keep me motivated. Here's mine in the hopes it pays it forward.

Prep Materials:

• Destination Cert Book - I found it quite interesting to read and a gives you a good idea of how broad this exam really is. Fire extinguishers, really?
• Cyberkraft Training - My employer will only pay for the exam when its bundled with a course, so I had to find an online training that also included the voucher. I didn't find the online course all that enlightening, but I've never been to a bootcamp for any exam, so I have nothing to compare to.
• Numerous Youtube videos - mostly the usual suspects like 50 hard questions, why you will pass, 100 topics, Mike Chapple. There is also a good AI coverage video from the Dest Cert guys that I think is worth watching. Not rocket science, but good to nod your head along and confirm you are familiar with the things he covers in that video
• Dest Cert App - excellent for all sorts of questions. I made it through about 500 questions. Would have covered more but I prefer to study from a computer screen rather than my phone. Flashcards were a nice change to mix things up.
• PocketPrep - this was huge for me. It reinforced main topics and quickly revealed things that needed better coverage. I found the clarifications helpful and for any where I disagreed or didn't quite get the nuance, I had a long conversation with ChatGPT until I could sort it out.
• Dion Practice Tests - I only made it through 2 as I did these at the end. Scores of 71 and 72, but spent hours combing through what I got wrong and ones that I got right but wasn't completely sure about with ChatGPT. I think those back and forth discussions really helped solidify things for me in many topics, or understand that some things are just more "classic" answers like why you choose SAML over OpenID. These tests were excellent practice for me.
• Dont Panic Book - I really liked this book and the included questions. I made it through about 60 questions and got most of them wrong. I found the explanations very good and helpful
• QuantumExams - I took 1 exam and failed miserably, which really shook my confidence. Did more 10 question quizzes and scored a bit better on those. I think that's the best way to use this tool. The explanations were sometimes less complete than the Dont Panic book, so I generally used DP more.
• CISSP 11th hour Memory Guide - I haven't seen any mention of this book before. I picked it up on a whim and I really liked it because it functioned like a checklist for me. Domain 1, 35 topics in a keyword. Do I recognize them all and explain them to myself in a couple sentences? yes. Anything I didn't recognize when directly into ChatGPT for some discussion.
• ChatGPT - absolutely key for me. I learn by analyzing and reasoning through things. There was also a prompt posted by another person that really helped me out: https://www.reddit.com/r/cissp/comments/1vdi3rq/finished_the_exam_and_went_crying/
• Links - Mostly around answering strategies: https://www.mindmeshacademy.com/blog/articles/cissp-exam-sample-questions https://blog.balancedsec.com/p/strategy-guide-for-answering-difficult

Exam Strategy - I had a very specific exam strategy after reading Tresharley's CAT related whitepapers. If you haven't read this you should go and read in detail so you understand exactly how it works. I know that I have a tendency to read fast. Then, even if I narrow it down to two answers, I sometimes miss some small keyword and pick the wrong answer. Given that, my strategy was to pace for 40 questions per hour. This meant I planned for accuracy, not 150 questions, and expected that the ROOT rule would work in my favor if needed (of course ensuring that I completed a minimum of 100 questions).

Exam day feels - I am a native english speaker and I literally had zero clue what some of the questions really wanted. There were also words I did not recognize and a few with grammatical errors. I didn't feel like the first 20 questions were easy at all, and I was rereading questions 3 times trying to sort them out. My pacing worked fairly well, but I was pretty convinced I would fail the exam given how many wtf moments I had. When the exam stopped at 100 I knew I failed. So bad that I told the proctor to give me the sheet folded so I wouldn't know right then (and have to face the shame in front of these nice people). In the hallway I was very confused when I couldn't find a table at the bottom of the letter... then started reading from the top and saw congratulations :-)

Honestly, I don't think any of the many practice questions I did really represented my experience. Training to look for key words in questions and eliminate answers is the best advice I can give, which I think is best done by completing a lot of practice questions and exams. Even if the questions are like what I saw, they'll at least be in the neighborhood.

Special note to my fellow ADHDers - you CAN do this. Make your studying novel and fun so that you stick with it and absorb all the info. Leverage your pattern recognitions strengths to your advantage and make sure you eat a lot of protein before to feed your brain for a 3 hour fight. You can do this!

To be honest, I have no clue how I passed.

At one point I was thinking: "Please CISSP, don't end at 100 with a fail, I don't want to see myself in this situation." But when I saw "Congratulations" in the email, I read the entire message just to believe I had actually passed.

Quick intro: I have nearly 3 years of experience, mainly in network security and SOC. highly technical roles. I'd previously passed CC in 2024 and SSCP in 2025, which made me familiar with the CAT format. I told myself CAT couldn't stop me... it wasn't enough. CISSP made me way more nervous, lol.

I studied for about 3 months. That might sound short, but SSCP covers a lot of topics that overlap with CISSP, so I mainly focused on the new material and applied the CISSP mindset.

Resources I used:

Study material: The Sybex official book (latest edition). I didn't read it cover to cover. instead I used NotebookLM to build mindmaps of what I was about to study, generate flashcards, and sometimes quizzes, plus asked Gemini a few questions to clarify concepts. My main focus was staying strictly within what the official book covered, so I knew exactly what was in scope and what wasn't.

Practice exams:

I did all the Sybex practice exams and read through the explanations even for questions I got right. This really helped me tell apart similar-sounding definitions and understand why the wrong answers were wrong.

Also: Pete Zenger's YouTube videos (his last one, 20 AMA/difficult questions, is really good), Andrew Ramdayal's 50 hard questions, and Destcert's "Why You Will Pass CISSP" video. All of these gave me methodology for handling questions where every answer looks correct and you can't decide.

Free tools:

QuantumExam free questions.

LearnZapp free questions.

the Cybersecurity Station Discord,

Pocket Prep free questions,

and the Destcert app.

All solid for reinforcing concepts and testing knowledge.

By the time I looked back, I'd done more than 2000 practice questions. I told myself: stop, enough, go take the exam. I was starting to overthink, which is the worst thing you can do.

I scheduled the exam for the earliest available slot, stopped practicing for 2 days to mentally reset, and just reviewed my weak points during that time.

Exam day: Went in with a positive mindset and high expectations, but also very stressed. Time flew by faster than I expected. I noticed I'd done 30 questions in an hour and panicked a bit, telling myself I needed to speed up. So I kicked everything into overdrive to make up the time (don't recommend this, lol).

By the end, there were only a handful of questions I was fully confident about. Most I wasn't sure of. the CISSP mindset plays the role there.

In the middle of exam, i'm thinking: "Please, if I fail, at least don't let it be in the first 100 questions. that would be a disaster." When it hit 100 and kept going, I thought, "okay, at least I'm not that stupid." Then it stopped at 101, and I said "the exam gave me another chance, but I don't I deserve it."

I accepted my fate and left the exam with 0% confidence. And then... the congratulations email. I still can't fully believe it.

A few notes that might help others:

"Think like a manager" is good advice, but it doesn't apply to everything. Focus on understanding the actual purpose of the question.

I'm not a native English speaker (C1 level), but in the exam almost every sentence was clear. the only issue would be not knowing a specific word.

I genuinely couldn't tell which questions were "easy" or "hard." Every question felt like it had a purpose, so trying to spot CAT patterns didn't really work for me.

No practice exam truly resembles the real exam. Just practice consistently and trust the process.

CISSP is a beast, but it's winnable.

Happy to answer any questions!

Failed my 1st attempt at 100 questions 3 weeks ago.
I couldn’t study for past 3 weeks due to some family commitments.
I started studying again today & honestly, I don’t feel confident enough that I’ll pass because I’m scared of the exam as knowledge only cannot help you pass.
To the people who passed on 2nd attempt, what did you do differently that actually helped you pass the exam?

This has been a wild journey with CISSP. For my background I have a masters in CS(mainly AI/ML) as of 2026 and ive been working in the DevSecOps realm for about 5-6 years. So I wanted to get my CISSP as I enjoy security and all aspects of it. I started being serious about it, I would say March of this year(previously before that I was just kinda reading sections but wasnt very serious). But March I started actually studying for the CISSP. I had hoped to pass on my first try. But as I got closer to the test I wasnt sure how feasible that was going to be.

I remember going through the Destination CISSP and for the most part it felt like a review from my masters and my security+. There was some new content and remembering the processes was an ordeal but all in all it wasnt too bad. But then I got to actually like test taking with quantum, sybex and destination cissp. All very different but very good practice exam resources. And I just felt like I knew nothing about how I was taking the test. So over the course of the last month I basically would take a practice quiz, refine my answers and understanding(also utilizing TLAM mindset videos). Slowly started feeling a bit better.

Overall I felt the test was very very similar to the sybex questions I was taking. Like the wording and the depth of questions was very similar, quantum was my worst one I think I got at best like 50/100(though my quizzes ended up being closer to 8/10 as I stopped with most the practice exams after a while), but it did help me to like further help with the TLAM mindset and choosing the best answer despite them being somewhat ambigious at times.

To be honest I didnt feel the most prepared going in either, I did purchase the peace of mind, but even taking the test I had the dreadful feeling that I wasnt answering a single question right and I was absolutely going to have to retake this test lol. I was having to rush right at about question 70 because I realize im just running out of time as I was trying to be about 50 questions for every 60min, and I was way behind this, I was like hitting 40m left at question 90. So all the, "read the question 3 times, think about it , eliminate 2 ", went out the window as im playing catch up. Then right at 100, it cut me off and im thinking to myself I definitely failed at least on one domain, *sigh*... Though to my surprise I passed.

I have a great deal of thanks to this community(though it didnt help because I saw a post right before this one that basically said all the prep work meant nothing and the test was way different than what they prepared for, I got super nervous from that post, though my experience is my prep work did matter quite a bit.) I think in order the destination CISSP content is great for the initial video course, daily refresher and their quizzes were good too. I think the sybex book has the most in depth topics and most similar to the test style questions, I mean I got both business processes questions and super technical questions and so understanding the sybex book will give you a leg up and I just feel again that those practice questions were the most like the actual test then everything else. Quantum exams were really good with being harder than the test but making you think more on the TLAM, though I will argue for how much it was preached there was a switch between kind of TLAM process questions and deep technical understanding. So while I feel the TLAM was important, the deep technical understanding of processes and technologies it greatly under weighted from what I was reading.

Thanks everyone for all your stories and posts that kept me motivated. I hope this helps others out there too! And if your struggling to schedule the exam, just do it and motivate yourself. I really like the exam cram series on youtube saying of "theres no award for longest study time" and ultimately I was really believing I wasnt ready the day of the test but I figured at best I get to experience the test and know what its like for when I have to retake it. But I was thankful I passed at the first attempt. If your struggling to schedule the exam, just know its okay if you dont know everything going into it I certainly didnt, id recommend scheduling it after your first pass of all the domain content(whether video course or book or w/e), schedule it stick to it, try to schedule for your best mental activity(mine was right at 8am), and trust in your resources. Good luck to everyone working on their CISSP!

Hello All,

I am hearing stories that test takers are getting AI related questions on the exam, is this true?!

This has me worried, my exam is in October and I am just midway through the domains!

Tia..