Passed! First Attempt
Excited that I passed this week on my first attempt. The test stopped at 100 questions. I found the test to be very challenging, but not as bad as I imagined it might be. Read closely and answer the question that's being asked.
I've been working as an attorney with a cyber and information law portfolio for three years, including advising pentesters and network defenders. I have several more years of collateral privacy and electronic discovery work. I do not have a tech background. I have done some privacy certs from IAPP and Security+. This was harder that any of those.
I started studying around new year. I read about eight chapters of the OSG, then stalled out. About six weeks ago, I put the test on the calendar and got much more serious about studying. The time crunch was motivating. Objectively, I'm a good test taker, but I still put in a lot of hours every evening after work and most of the weekends.
Resources I used:
-Cert Mike video course on LinkedIn. Very Good full-length video course.
-Cert Mike's "Last Minute Review Guide." Helpful for cram on the go.
-Peter Zerger Cram Videos. Great short videos for review. I watched several of them multiple times. I wish he'd re-record the whole thing for 2024, though.
-Zerger Last Mile Book. Like the videos, good, condensed explanations and went through it a few times for reinforcement and memorization.
-Official Practice Tests - Did lots of these. I was scoring in the high 80s before I took the test. Not as hard as the real thing, but good for IDing gaps.
-Official Study Guide - As I said, I read eight chapters and got really board with it a few months ago. Finally, I broke down and read it all about two weeks out from test. I actually got more out of it with some understanding I think.
LearnZapp - Not bad. Very technical questions though. Made me feel unconfident though, as the tech is not my strong suit.
ChatGPT. I used it to coach me through technical concepts. Very helpful to break things down and Q&A them. It wasn't always great on the steps of models and the like, but general tech concepts, it was very accurate.
Andrew Ramdayal TIA (Technical Institute of America) 50 CISSP Questions. I did this very late in the process, right before test. Helped reframe from technical practice questions to the mindset. I quibble with some of his questions, but the mentality/method was very good. Zerger's Mindset video was similarly good.
Kelly Handerhan "Why You'll Pass short video. Very helpful on the mindset.
I didn't use QE or Boson. Nothing against them, I just didn't go there.
I knew there were some questions I was not getting as I went along, but I used the methodologies Zerger, TIA, and Handerhan suggested. I didn't lose heart when I came across stuff I didn't know at all. I told myself it might be a non-counting question and moved on with a best guess.
Thanks to the community for the resource recommendations posted here. I found most of these through this space.