Overreaching for my CCSP
I provisionally passed my Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) exam by ISC2 on the 11th of April, 2023, and was awarded the Associate of ISC2 on the following day.
So this is going to be a blog about my experience with the exam, the preparation material, and tips I found useful.
To give a bit of a background, I do not have a CISSP. This is important to mention because the usual path taken by many is to get CISSP first and then the CCSP. This was hard since most of the tips and help available were based on having the CISSP knowledge and building on that for CCSP.
But at the same time, I have Security+ and CySA+ from CompTIA as well as am graduating with a master's in Cybersecurity soon. So I have knowledge of a lot of terms and common security best practices which would help me.
Coming to the resources, I have mentioned all the resources I used throughout my preparation below with links to them.
Resources
ISC2 CCSP Official Study Guide — https://a.co/d/8kTa3o1 (Amazon Link)
ISC2 CCSP Offical Practice Tests — https://a.co/d/iaFDvkx (Amazon Link)
Alukos CCSP — https://ccsp.alukos.com/
Mike Chapple Linkedin Learning — LinkedIn Learning (Can also be found at https://www.certmike.com/ccsp/)
Mike Chapple Last Minute Review Guide — https://www.certmike.com/ccsp/
Gwen Bettwy Udemy Course — https://www.udemy.com/course/prepare-for-the-isc2-ccsp-exam/
Gwen Bettwy Test-Taking Tips — https://www.youtube.com/@GwenBettwyTSI/videos
Cyber Whiz Udemy Practice Questions — https://www.udemy.com/course/ccsp-isc2-practice-exam-with-explanation-2022-new/
WannaPractice CCSP Practice Questions — https://www.wannapractice.com/
The Official Study Guide is worth it to refer to topics and test yourself on your knowledge. I personally learn more from tests than from reading and so I used this book to complete the practice tests as well as complete questions for each chapter to know which chapters I need to focus on more.
And similarly, I used the Official Practice test to continuously test myself and learn from the answers and where I was going wrong.
An important tip that I learned way later in my journey is that the above-mentioned books come with online platform access to help you practice those same questions. The platform is really helpful to keep track of things and to be able to change between Study and Exam mode.
The Alukos website mentioned is a great collection of information which was my go-to resource when I needed to look something up.
The Mike Chapple Linkedin Learning course is where I started my preparation and the videos are definitely a great learning experience in a formal setting.
But, the Gwen Bettwy Udemy course is also excellent and it is a bit more informal which is great as well since she shares a lot of helpful tips throughout the course and her experiences. This was my first time seeing any of her videos and honestly, they helped me a lot!
For my other certifications, I always made sure to buy the last-minute Study Guide from certmike.com for those exam mornings and similarly, I did this time as well. They were good and concise to study but I found another resource that helped me better.
In the Udemy course by Gwen Bettwy, for each domain, they provide a summary pdf. So merging all those 6 pdfs together became my last-minute study guide. It is the best resource by far I had used for this exam and I would highly recommend anyone taking this exam to do so as well.
As I will discuss further, try taking as many practice questions as you can and so the other resources provided are just some of those.
Coming to the Exam experience and tips, it is a 150 questions exam which feels like a lot when you are in the exam room with no distractions and only one thing to focus on for the entire duration.
My overall experience of the exam was that it is not the questions that are very tough but rather the answer choices. After just reading the question, you will probably have some kind of answer in your mind ready, but the problem arises when the answer choices are all soo similar to what you have in your mind. Selecting the best one out of them is the real challenge.
What helped me in these situations is the number of practice questions I did which helped me distinguish the answer choices and the pros and cons of each answer. Knowing the difference between two similar terms and which to apply when was also key.
An exam time tip I would have is to read the questions as carefully as possible because it helps to eliminate some of the answer choices. Certain words can help you eliminate some of the answer choices and increase your chances.
I hope this blog helps someone in their journey of preparing for the CCSP exam. I would tell you to not doubt yourselves based on some people's experience and rather have confidence in yourselves that you can do it. Please leave a comment if there is anything I can help with more or if you have any questions. I will also leave my LinkedIn and contact information where you can reach me for the same.
Gautam Agrawal
gautama0998@proton.me
linkedin.com/in/gautam0998/
