How to Pass the CISSP Certification Exam in the 1st Attempt in 2021?

28-Dec-2020

The CISSP certification exam is extremely difficult. Although its failure rate has not been released publicly, it is well above 50%. The subject matter of the CISSP certification exam is security and information technology. These are two very broad as well as obscure fields that are difficult to understand and highly technical. Thus one can reasonably expect the CISSP exam to be very demanding and tough.

Also Know Top Reasons to Choose CISSP Certification Training

So it is only natural that many CISSP aspirants are worried about how to clear the CISSP exam. Keeping this in mind, we have prepared a list of tips that will help them to do so. Of course, the foremost tip is to take a CISSP certification program online.

1. Don’t Try to Cram The Study Materials.

This is a very important tip for passing the CISSP exam. Many candidates try to cram the study materials. They try to study all the information with the approach of rote learning or rote memorization. This is a big mistake as it has been proven scientifically that rote memorization or cramming is not an effective way to study anything. It also keeps the candidate from understanding the concepts at a fundamental level. Many of the topics that the CISSP exam tests require extensive study and practice as they involve many practical components. Simply trying to learn them by heart will lead to the candidate performing poorly on the actual exam. In order to study the topics in a holistic way, one should opt for CISSP certification training.

2. Make a Preparation Strategy After Studying The Syllabus of The CISSP Exam.

Many candidates try to prepare for the CISSP exam by studying each topic on the syllabus one by one in a sequence. This is again not a good way to study for the exam. There are many different topics in different information domains and all of them do not carry the same weightage in the exam. There are more questions asked from some of the information domains compared to others in the exam. Also, a candidate may possess prior experience and knowledge in some of the information domains and should therefore try to specialize in those and make them his strong points. So a candidate should make a detailed preparation strategy that takes into account the different weightage of different information domains and his own prior experience and knowledge. A CISSP course will help the candidate create such a preparation strategy.

3. Try to Perceive The Traps of The Test Makers.

Even if a candidate has spent hundreds of hours preparing for the CISSP exam they are sure to encounter material which they are unfamiliar with on the exam. This is because of the nature of cybersecurity. It is a vast field and new breakthroughs, discoveries, and innovations are constantly being made in it. It is simply not possible for anyone to know all the content of the field thoroughly, let alone a CISSP aspirant preparing for the CISSP exam. So instead of trying to answer each question, a candidate must learn to detect which questions are beyond his knowledge or ability. In addition to this, several questions will have similar answers which look correct. The candidate should use the process of elimination and other multiple-choice question tricks to find out the correct answer among those. Any decent CISSP online training will help the candidates spot such traps in the exam.

4. Try to Draw Upon Your Breadth of Experience While Taking The Exam.

The syllabus of the exam consists of 8 knowledge domains. This makes the exam questions very difficult to predict. This is because they can come from any of the 8 knowledge domains and the candidate is left with little warning as to what the questions will entail. Though they mostly tend to be real-world scenario-based questions, there can also be technical questions that ask for specific pieces of information in the exam. Not all of them are made using the official CISSP study guide. Therefore a candidate should not expect that they can pass on the strength of their bookish knowledge alone. They will have to draw upon their breadth of experience as Network security managers, software developers, Information security managers, or something similar for answering the questions of the exam accurately.

5. Attempt as Many Sample Tests as Possible.

A candidate may be led to think that a preparation strategy of just studying the official CISSP study guide and revising the study materials will suffice but it is not so. They might acquire a lot of bookish knowledge in this way but when they will appear for the actual exam, they will find that their speed of answering the questions is too slow. Even if they have studied very hard for the exam and know the answers to most of the questions, it will not help them much if they are unable to even reach the questions before the time period of the exam elapses. 

Therefore just as important as studying the study material is to attempt as many sample tests as possible. This will give the candidate solid confidence in their abilities as a test-taker. They will be exposed to the different kinds of questions that are asked in the exam and will be able to familiarize themselves with the pattern of the exam. A good way to obtain many sample tests is to get CISSP online training.

6. Become a Part of a Study Group to Better Prepare For The CISSP Exam.

What candidates typically do is this – they purchase a lot of resources related to the CISSP exam and they make a preparation strategy to cover all the study materials they possess. They spend many months doing this and then take the exam. When they take the exam, they find that they are unable to answer many of the questions and that their preparation was woefully inadequate. Often they score poorly even in the knowledge domains in which they thought they were strong. This happens because while preparing for the CISSP exam, they never consulted another candidate in the same position as them. So they never discovered the areas they were weak in or the shortcomings in their preparation strategy. 

This is why we strongly recommend joining a CISSP exam study group. By interacting with candidates in a similar position as one’s own, one can get valuable feedback about their preparation strategy. They can also find out which areas they are not as strong in as they originally thought they were, by solving questions together in the study group and discussing the answers. Such study groups can be found in any CISSP certification online.

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