70 Tips and Tricks for Mastering the CISSP Exam

Book excerpt: Learn how to think and apply knowledge in a practical way. Tackling the CISSP exam is vastly different from simply understanding the subject matter. Even the most experienced security professionals can fail because the questions are tricky and ask the test taker to pick the best of the options given. The CISSP exam conducted by ISC2 is the hardest and most rewarded cybersecurity examination. The test has several domains and sub-domains and covers a wide range of topics on security, including cyber and physical building security fields. It also covers breaches, discovery of breaches, and how to report data breaches. Because the subject area is vast and the questions are almost never repeated, it is hard for the exam taker to memorize or quickly discover the correct solution. The four options given as answers typically have two very close matches to the question. With quick analysis, it is possible to discover from the verbiage of a question what is truly being asked and learn how to find the closest possible solution without spending too much time on each question. What You Will Learn Think outside the box (the CISSP exam demands this of candidates) Quickly discern the gist of a question, eliminate the distractors, and select the correct answer Understand the use of words such as MOST, BEST, FIRST, LAST in the questions Select the correct answer when multiple options look like possible solutions Who This Book Is For Experienced security practitioners, managers, and executives interested in proving their knowledge across a wide array of security practices and principles, including chief information security officers, chief information officers, directors of security, IT directors and managers, security systems engineers, security analysts, security managers, security auditors, security architects, security consultants, private contractors, and network architects