u/Sweaty-Fish4030

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.