After failing my first attempt by about 50 points, I spent the last four months completely rethinking my approach to the CISSP - Certified Information Systems Security Professional exam. My biggest mistake the first time was memorizing definitions instead of actually understanding how a senior security manager thinks. The exam doesn't want you to know what AES is — it wants you to know when and why you'd choose it.
This time I built my study plan around application over memorization. I used the OSG cover to cover, then shifted to pure question practice in the final six weeks. The CISSP Practice Test questions here were genuinely useful because they force you to think through risk trade-offs rather than just recall facts. I was averaging about 15 hours a week across the full study period.
Ended up passing at 125 questions. Anyone else retaking this beast or deep in their study guide grind right now? Happy to share more specifics on what domains gave me the most trouble.