My CISSP Exam Day

Jeffrey Zinkerman
Aug 26, 2017 · 3 min read

I woke up extremely sluggish and tired, which surprised me. I had set the alarm for 6:02 and hit snooze two or three times. The radio station played Lorde “Royals”, which I took to be a good sign because the gritty bad zip code thing was what I was going for on this particular day.

Traffic was light and I arrived near testing center a bit after 7 AM. I had a place mapped out to get what I was hoping to be a good bagel. I was sorely mistaken. Even as I pulled up to the place, I was still hopeful; however, the coffee was slightly below average and the egg and cheese I ended up ordering (after not trusting the bagels), had a stale roll and was not good. I briefly thought about getting another breakfast somewhere else, but I didn’t want to be late.

I found proper place to park pretty quickly (which was lucky) in the mega complex of apartments and office buildings in Norwalk Merritt 7.

I was about the 5th person to show up to at the testing center. I had thought everyone would be taking the same test, but all the others were taking their board certification post medical residency (doctors !). I was thinking if Larry David would object to calling them doctors since they were not “board certified” yet. But, it seemed the check-in woman enjoyed calling them doctors. I tried to make a joke about the Captain Morgan commercial “Captain, Captain, Captain!”, but it didn’t get much of a chuckle from the pre-exam tense crowd.

Rules with bags are very strict. Was assigned locker in waiting room. Waiting room not inviting or comfortable and the air conditioner was struggling on an extremely humid day. They used biometric authentication to go in and out of the actual testing room. I couldn’t even pull out my study book in the waiting area.

You can get a break to eat food from your own bag or use bathroom.

I could not help thinking — the thing about the testing place is that it’s implementing some of the security policies I was being tested about. I believe this helped me get a couple answers correct

I also thought about how dirty the mouse that I used to take the test must have been. But that was really the least of my problems. I was still a little tired and not focusing very well on the first couple questions

At one point early in the exam, I realized I was taking much longer than I had previously calculated. And I was finding the questions at the high high end of the difficulty range. I figured I was probably failing, and fear hit me for a brief instant.

But as the test wore on, I started to get better at processing the questions, and my speed increased. I also felt better about the actual answers I was putting out. I ended up finishing the test with only 6 minutes to spare, out of 6 total hours.

I was given my result right away. I do not like how the CISSP does not tell you what your percentage correct was, nor do they tell you how you did amongst peers. But, I was happy to get an immediate PASS. I was on a high for the rest of the day. I have proven that I know my stuff, still.. But, the high wore off quickly, and by the next day, I was settling back into my irritable self. :)

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