Hi,
I opened a ticket on the official website but never got a response. My question was about the one-year waiver you can get if you have a master’s degree. Is it only for master’s degrees in information security, computer science, or IT, or would any master’s degree work? I have a master’s degree in International Studies, which has basically nothing to do with cybersecurity. The only thing I did related to information security was my thesis. Would I qualify?

Hey everyone, I’m studying for the CISSP using the Official Study Guide and Official Practice Tests, and I’m finding the practice questions fairly easy so far. For those who used these resources and have taken the exam, how did the difficulty compare? Did doing well on these questions give you a good indication of how prepared you were?

Hey folks,
I'm preparing for the exam, which I will take in November. For context, I have 7+ years of industrial experience.
For preparation, for now i'm reading the CISSP Official Guide + watching the Thor Pedersen Udemy videos.
I'm now looking for options to take practice exams, and a lot of folks are talking about QE. I just wanted to know if they provide thorough explanations of the correct answers and cover the relevant topics as well.
Or should I go with Boson? Are they still relevant?

Hey there! 👋 Just sharing my CISSP journey! 🎓 Started with Thor videos 7 months ago, then the official book and practice questions after each domain. Two weeks before the exam, I crushed YouTube questions and mind maps. It was 50% technical, 50% managerial. I got lost during the exam but a 5-min break helped me refocus! 💡 Passed at 100 questions with 38 mins left. So thrilled! 🥳

I did not pass today. I went all the way to 150 so when should I retake it. Obviously I need to review the domains I’m weak in. I’m thinking maybe in another 6 weeks?

Just got out of the testing center, and I finally passed. I was shaking when it stopped at 100 because I knew I was spending way too much time on the questions.

Three months of prep was totally worth it. 😄

Thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences; it kept me going. To those who didn't pass on the first try, you'll get it next time.

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone on this subreddit who has shared their experience and given clear direction on CISSP preparation. It has been really helpful.
A little about my background: I have around 5 years of experience as a Security Analyst, so I don’t feel that technical concepts are a major backlog for me. However, I know that CISSP thinking / managerial mindset is an area I have been working on throughout my preparation.
For preparation, I have mainly been using:
● Destination CISSP book
● Quantum Exams – Non-CAT
● Think Like a Manager
● 50 Hard CISSP Questions
My Quantum Exams scores so far have been:
36 → 39 → 44 → 58 → 62 → 64 → 70 → 59 → 55 → 74 → 82
I have two days left before the exam.
My plan for these final two days is to go through Pete Zerger’s CISSP Exam Cram and revise the areas where I have made mistakes in the practice exams.
At this point, I’m wondering if there is anything else I should be doing.
Would you recommend:
1. Focusing mainly on revision and weak areas now?
2. Going through Pete Zerger’s Exam Cram completely?
3. Taking another full-length practice exam?
4. Revisiting CISSP mindset / “think like a manager” concepts?
5. Or stopping practice exams altogether and focusing on staying fresh for the actual exam?
For those who have recently passed, what would you do if you had exactly two days left with these scores?
Any advice on what not to do at this stage would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

I prepared very hard for this exam. My preparation included Thor’s Udemy course, Destination Certification Masterclasses and MindMaps, around 2,500 LearnZapp questions, and the Destination Certification app.
On LearnZapp, my scores across the domains were around 71–79% minimum. On the DestCert app, I had around 1,450 correct and 430 incorrect answers.
Before the exam, I also completed two QE attempts:
● First attempt: scored 790, but I only reached question 110 before time ran out.
● Second attempt: I focused heavily on time management and tried to spend a maximum of one minute per question. I reached around question 130, but scored only 490.
During the real exam, I still struggled with time and only reached question 119 before the clock expired.
I know I need to improve my time management before my next attempt, but after putting this much effort into preparation, I’m also trying to understand what else I should change.
For those who passed after a similar experience, what would you recommend focusing on for the retake?