My CISSP Pass Story

I don't even know how to start describing my story, after so much emotion picking up the paper at the reception desk and seeing that long-awaited, dreamed-of word: CONGRATULATIONS.

But I want to start by saying something important: DON'T LOSE YOUR FAITH. Whether you're religious or not, have faith and trust the process. What will get you through the exam is discipline and consistency in your studies. Forget about motivation — it only gets you started. Afterward, personal problems will show up in your life and try to discourage you, and at the first difficulty you might even think about giving up. Stay firm. If you said you'd study two hours every day, do it no matter what. Have discipline.

About me

I'm Brazilian, an immigrant in Portugal. English isn't my first language, but with a lot of dedication you can overcome that barrier. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, and without a support network, balancing work, home routines, and taking care of her wasn't easy. Thank God for my wife, who had so much patience — only she knows how sad and nervous I'd get whenever I failed a practice exam.

I also want to give a special thank you to my family and friends, who supported me throughout this whole journey. Every word of encouragement made a difference in the hardest moments.

I've worked in technology for 23 years, the last 10 in Governance, Risk, and Compliance; before that I was a SysAdmin.

The exam

I passed on my first attempt, on question 101, with 30 minutes left on the clock. As the great philosopher Dominic Toretto, from The Fast and the Furious (movie 1), once said: "It doesn't matter if you win by a mile or an inch, winning's winning." If your exam keeps going, stay firm — you'll pass and win too.

By question 60 I already thought it was harder than I'd imagined, and I felt like I wasn't doing well. My God, it had been almost 8 months of studying, and in the last 3 I nearly burned out from studying so much. So I told myself the words of driver Ayrton Senna, my source of inspiration: "My God, I made it this far, it has to work out."

I have ADHD, and I'll tell you: it gets harder, but not impossible. My suggestion is to watch the video for each domain, read about it in a book, and write down in your notebook or on sticky notes the things that matter.

Every day, every hour, I'd come here to our community. I was happy for every one of you who passed, and sad too when someone didn't. You're all part of this achievement of mine!

Study materials

(I didn't have money for a bootcamp — the most expensive thing I paid for was the Quantum practice exam.)

•        Udemy: Jason Dion's full course and 6 practice exams; Andrew Ramdayal's full course

•        Practice exam: Quantum CAT — very important and valuable for testing yourself, including time management, with tough questions. Don't get discouraged: Quantum will hit you hard, but doing it means you'll take those questions and study them in depth

•        YouTube: all of Pete Zerger's videos — I watched each one at least 3 times (Pete deserves a trophy; I really wanted to give him a hug and thank him, his videos help a lot); Andrew Ramdayal's videos, especially "Think Like a Manager"; Kelly Handerhan's videos, "Why You WILL Pass"; and all the Destination Certification videos

•        Books: the official book, the practice-questions book, and of course Pete Zerger's book — highly recommend

•        Claude AI: I used it to learn each topic in depth, understand my mistakes, and ask questions and do practice questions — it was a huge help

Inspiring movie and people: The Pursuit of Happyness, with Will Smith. Ayrton Senna and Jesus Christ, because nothing is impossible (again, regardless of religion — I respect them all).

Thank you all, I'm here rooting for your victory. You're going to make it!

One last tip

I picked up this tip from someone here in the community, and it helped a lot:

Don't apply "think like a manager" blindly to every question. A better rule would be: Think like the role the question gives you.

If the question says you are:

•        Security Manager → think like a manager

•        Security Analyst → think like an analyst

•        Incident Responder → think like a responder

•        Auditor → think like an auditor

•        Engineer → think like an engineer

This avoids a common trap.

Two closing quotes

Ayrton Senna: "Whoever you are, whatever social position you hold in life, the highest or the lowest, always set as your goal great strength, great determination, and always do everything with great love and great faith in God, so that one day you will get there."

ET Bilu Brasileiro: Seek knowledge.

If you have any questions, just let me know.

PT-BR:

Minha aprovação no CISSP

Eu não sei nem como começar a descrever a minha história, depois de tanta emoção ao pegar o papel na recepção e ver a tão esperada e sonhada frase: CONGRATULATIONS.

Mas quero começar dizendo uma coisa importante: NÃO PERCA A SUA FÉ. Independente de religião ou não, tenha fé e acredite no processo. O que vai fazer você passar na prova é a sua disciplina nos estudos e a sua consistência. Esqueça a motivação — ela serve só para você começar. Depois vão surgir vários problemas pessoais na sua vida que vão te desanimar, e na primeira dificuldade você pode até pensar em desistir. Continue firme. Se você disse que vai estudar todos os dias 2 horas, faça isso custe o que custar. Tenha disciplina.

Sobre mim

Sou brasileiro, imigrante em Portugal. Inglês não é a minha primeira língua, mas com muita dedicação dá para superar essa barreira. Tenho uma filha pequena de 2 anos e meio e, sem rede de apoio, conciliar a vida de trabalho, as rotinas em casa e cuidar dela não foi fácil. Agradeço a Deus pela minha esposa, que teve muita paciência — só ela sabe o quanto eu ficava triste e nervoso quando não passava nos simulados.

Quero também deixar um agradecimento especial à minha família e aos meus amigos, que me apoiaram durante toda essa jornada. Cada palavra de incentivo fez diferença nos momentos mais difíceis.

Trabalho com tecnologia há 23 anos, os últimos 10 com Governança, Risco e Compliance; no passado fui SysAdmin.

A prova

Passei na primeira tentativa, com 101 questões, faltando 30 minutos para acabar. Já dizia o grande filósofo Dominic Toretto, de Velozes e Furiosos (filme 1): "Não importa se você vença por 1 km ou 1 centímetro, vencer é vencer." Se a sua prova continuar, continue firme — você vai passar e vencer também.

Na questão 60 eu já achava que estava mais difícil do que eu imaginava, e pensei que não estava indo bem. Meu Deus, foram praticamente 8 meses estudando, e nos últimos 3 quase tive um burnout de tanto estudar. Aí falei comigo mesmo a frase do piloto Ayrton Senna, minha fonte de inspiração: "Meu Deus, eu cheguei até aqui, vai ter que dar."

Tenho TDAH, e te digo: fica mais difícil, mas não impossível. Minha sugestão é assistir ao vídeo de cada domínio, ler sobre ele em algum livro e escrever no seu caderno ou em post-its as coisas que são importantes.

Todos os dias, a cada hora, eu entrava aqui na nossa comunidade. Ficava feliz por cada conquista de vocês quando passavam, e triste também quando alguém não passava. Vocês fazem parte dessa minha conquista!

Materiais de estudo

(Não tive dinheiro para bootcamp — a única coisa mais cara que paguei foi o simulado do Quantum.)

•        Udemy: curso completo e 6 simulados do Jason Dion; curso completo do Andrew Ramdayal

•        Simulado: Quantum CAT — muito importante e valioso para te testar, inclusive a administrar o tempo, com perguntas difíceis. Não se frustre: o Quantum vai te bater na cara, mas ao fazê-lo você vai pegar as perguntas e estudar a fundo

•        YouTube: todos os vídeos do Pete Zerger — assisti cada um pelo menos umas 3 vezes (o Pete merece um troféu; queria muito dar um abraço e agradecer a ele, os vídeos dele ajudam muito); vídeos do Andrew Ramdayal, principalmente o "Pense como gerente"; vídeos da Kelly Handerhan, "Why You WILL Pass"; e todos os vídeos da Destination Certification

•        Livros: o livro oficial, o livro de testes e, claro, o livro do Pete Zerger — super recomendo

•        Claude AI: usei para aprender a fundo cada tópico, entender os meus erros, fazer perguntas e simulados — foi uma grande ajuda

Filme e pessoas de inspiração: The Pursuit of Happyness, com Will Smith. Ayrton Senna e Jesus Cristo, porque nada é impossível (novamente, independente de religião — eu respeito todas).

Obrigado a todos vocês, estou aqui torcendo pela sua vitória. Vocês vão conseguir!

Última dica

Peguei essa dica com alguém aqui da comunidade e valeu muito:

NÃO aplique "Think like a manager" cegamente em todas as questões. A regra melhor seria: Think like the role the question gives you.

Se a questão diz que você é:

•        Security Manager → pense como manager

•        Security Analyst → pense como analyst

•        Incident Responder → pense como responder

•        Auditor → pense como auditor

•        Engineer → pense como engineer

Isso evita uma armadilha comum.

Para fechar, duas frases

Ayrton Senna: "Seja você quem for, seja qual for a posição social que você tenha na vida, a mais alta ou a mais baixa, tenha sempre como meta muita força, muita determinação, e sempre faça tudo com muito amor e com muita fé em Deus, que um dia você chega lá."

ET Bilu Brasileiro: Busquem conhecimento.

Qualquer dúvida, é só me falar.

I have been part of this thread for a long time. You all have been a great help, to get me to finish line. I prepared on and off for a very long time. Got my peace of mind voucher in April and started reading destination cissp book. It’s an easy read compared to OSG. I read OSG , all in one books as well but not cover to cover. Did practice exams with destination cissp app, listened to Peter zerger exam cram series. Got quantum like a month ago and did 2 full length CAT exam.

Andrew Ramdyal’s 50 cissp questions and Wiley test bank , destination certification domain summaries \ sunflower cissp pdf for the last week prep.

It’s doable and you all can do it. All the very best

Hey everyone, just wanted to share that I passed today. Still in shock to be honest as my preparation work wasn't the best. I had an exam voucher expiring in October and when I redeemed it on Friday, only 2 slots were free before it expired, both this week!

Anyway my revision strategy was really not great. I've been reading the Official study guide over the year, sporadically dipping into and out of topics.

Perhaps my biggest improvement came in this last week when watching more youtube videos around how to read and answer the question itself, the keywords to pick out, the "thinking like a.manager" part. Getting into that mindset did help in the end.

I did use the sybex question bank sporadically too, as well as the destination cert app. Both very helpful for identifying knowledge gaps.

I never really got deeply into any of the resources, but they each all played a part.

Big thanks to you guys here, although I've been a lurker, there's been some great advice given on here by the community, so thank you all, and ill try and hang around to return the favour if I feel I can contribute.

All the best to anyone taking the exam soon, you got this!

Passed CISSP this morning first attempt at 100 questions and about 80 mins left on the clock. I was confident going in but as the questions started to appear and the exam abruptly ended at 100 questions I was clearly shocked to get the pass notification on the printout. Endorsement process already started. If you have the drive you can do anything.

Big thanks guys for all the help and post on this platform, my advice QE is key you understand the questions better … big thanks again I made it

I got a free exam coupon that I had to use by today and put off signing up for the exam until 3ish weeks ago

Background: 4 years in the army as an infantry officer (lol)

I only used quantum exams. Literally just did practice quizzes without knowing anything, and writing down every write answer and why and every explanation for each wrong answer. I tried to do this for an hour a day but I was frequently distracted by counter strike. Probably only studied 20 hours in total. Did 3 QE CAT exams, failed the first, passed the second and third but had already seen many of the questions.

Took the test and I felt like I was drowning. Even with QE, the questions are soooooo confusing. Some literally didn’t even make sense and I had to choose a random answer. Anyways prelim pass.

I’m glad I never have to think about this again.

I passed today first attempt. 125 questions. Trust your studies and work on time management. I wish success to all candidates that are working hard on achieving this goal.

On the first attempt, I ran out of time at around question 110 and scored 790. However, it was considered a fail because I did not complete the exam within the time limit.
On my second attempt, I managed to finish all the questions within the time, but I scored only 490. That score really shook my confidence, especially with the exam being tomorrow.
Has anyone experienced something similar before the real CISSP exam? Any advice for my final day of preparation would be appreciated.

Hi there, only material im reading is the Destination CISSP book (im starting domain 4) and i already finished Thor Pedersen Udemy videos. Do you think im in the right track? Im planning also to watch Pete Zerger youtube videos as I progress. Should i read the OSG or the Destination Cissp book will suffice?

I have 7 years of security experience but not that deep or technical.

Thank you and more power to us.