CSLLP study plan — 8 weeks out, how are people structuring their time?

The official practice exam from (ISC)² is worth buying. It's expensive but the question style matches the real exam better than most third-party materials. I'd score yourself on that before deciding you're ready.

I passed last year with about 9 weeks of prep at 90 minutes a day. The domains I came into with real experience I basically just reviewed. The ones I didn't use at work I went deep on. That split approach worked well.

700 scaled is the passing score. It's not a raw 70% — the scaling means some exam forms are slightly harder and the threshold adjusts. Hitting 75-80% consistently on practice questions correlates well with passing from what I've seen.

Supply Chain and Component Management is weighted around 10-12% so it's not massive, but you still need to know it. Don't neglect it.

62% at 8 weeks out is fine. I was at 58% at 6 weeks out and passed. Just be consistent and make sure you understand why wrong answers are wrong, not just what the right answer is.

62% honestly isn't as bad as it sounds at 8 weeks out, but yeah, supply chain is rough if you're coming from pure dev. The thing that helped me most wasn't grinding more questions -- it was forcing myself to explain why each wrong answer was wrong before moving on. Like actually say it out loud or type it out. I wasted two weeks just clicking through practice sets and my score barely budged.

For your weak domains, I'd spend extra time on the csllp/questions/supply chain and software acquisition questions and really dig into the distractors. ISC2 loves to give you two answers that both sound reasonable, and the difference is usually about scope or timing. Once I started understanding the "why wrong" piece, my score jumped about 8 points in like ten days. You've got time, just don't let the practice test become a pass/fail ritual instead of a learning tool.

I failed my first attempt at 62% so I know exactly where you're at. What killed me was treating all 8 domains equally when I should've been hammering the ones I was weakest in. Second time I spent almost 60% of my study hours on software supply chain and governance stuff, and honestly the csllp/questions/supply chain and software acquisition practice set was where things finally clicked for me because the questions forced me to think like a risk manager not just a developer.

With 10 years dev experience you're probably fine on the technical implementation side, so don't waste time reviewing stuff you already know. Your 62% is close enough that you're not missing fundamentals, you're likely missing the governance and legal framing that the exam loves to test. I'd aim to hit 72-75% consistently on practice sets before you sit again, and make sure you're doing timed sets so you don't run out of clock on the real thing.

Eight weeks is actually plenty of time if you're honest about where your gaps are. I was in a similar spot — strong dev background, but supply chain security felt like a foreign language at first. What worked for me was front-loading the weak domains in weeks 1-4 and doing heavy practice questions in weeks 5-7, then just light review the final week. I did about 90 minutes a night after the kids went to bed, plus one longer session on Saturday mornings. It wasn't glamorous but it was consistent.

62% is lower than you want but it's not panic territory at 8 weeks out. I was hitting around 65% six weeks before my exam and ended up passing comfortably. The thing that moved the needle most was stopping to actually understand why each wrong answer was wrong, not just logging the score and moving on. For governance specifically, the CSSLP leans heavily on process and documentation mindset, which can feel weird if you've spent years just shipping code. Once that clicked for me the domain felt a lot less arbitrary.

Just wanted to check in since I'm in a similar boat. I was hovering around 60% two weeks ago and felt pretty discouraged, but I buckled down on supply chain specifically and I'm now hitting 71% consistently. The csllp/questions/supply chain and software acquisition 3 set was actually really helpful for that domain, it exposed gaps I didn't even know I had. Planning to sit mine in about 6 weeks.

With 10 years in dev you'll probably move fast on the technical domains so I'd lean into governance and supply chain early while you still have time to really absorb it. The 62% isn't as scary as it feels at 8 weeks out, you've got room.

I failed my first attempt at 61% so I know exactly where you are right now. The mistake I made was spreading time evenly across all 8 domains — I treated supply chain like everything else and it killed me, because those questions aren't just about knowing the material, they're about applying it to situations you've probably never dealt with in a dev role. Second time around I spent the first three weeks doing nothing but supply chain and security governance, grinding practice sets until the patterns clicked. This csllp/questions/supply chain and software acquisition 3 set specifically helped me because it surfaces the vendor risk and acquisition scenarios that kept tripping me up.

At 62% you're not far off, but eight weeks is tight if you keep splitting focus. I'd front-load the weak domains hard, then spend weeks five and six doing mixed timed sets to build stamina, and save the last two weeks for review only — no new material. Also don't underestimate the governance questions; with a dev background you're probably thinking technically when the exam wants you thinking organizationally. That shift in mindset is what actually got me over the line.