CISSP at 11:54 AM

I'm happy to say I received my CISSP results today and have passed.
Big thanks to Mark Gill for organizing a CISSP study group through AISA that really helped keep my studies on track. I hope I get the chance to replay him by assisting in the study group when it runs again next year. Thanks also to the guest speakers and my fellow students at the study group who offered their insights, experience and expertiese (and bad jokes!)

For anyone preparing for the CISSP who is interested, I used the Shon Harris 4th edition CISSP textbook, the ISC2 official CBK and the Exam Cram CISSP text for reading on the train.

The Shon Harris book is quite in depth, going too deep in some areas compared to what you need to know for the exam, but good as a reference text. I found the official CBK is very dry and hard to read, but useful as a companion to the Shon Harris book to compare the amount of treatment different areas received (it can vary widely between the two books). The Exam Cram book is, as you might expect, brief and to the point. I felt it was a good review book due to it's portability, but not enough to use as your only text.

I also used the sample review exams at cccure.org, but to be honest found many of the questions there to be quite dated (lots of 'Orange book' questions rather than Common Criteria for example) and a few answers to be incorrect. Better than nothing I guess, but I wouldn't take your results on their sample exams as a strict indication of your preparedness for the exam itself.

So what's next? So much to learn, so little time...