It's a Marathon not a Sprint...

I have to keep telling myself these things not only take time but they are deserving of my time. When I originally decided to sit for the CISSP exam and bought the Shon Harris CISSP All-In-One book, I had this feeling of a looming challenge just over the horizon and I wanted to speed through it. If you haven't seen the Harris book, it's huge, the chapter's are lengthy and it's pretty involved. So I would spend three or four hours a night just reading and highlighting then get someone backed up in adding the highlighted parts into Anki. Additionally I have to renew or extend my CCNA certificate this year and decided to push for the CCNA:S certificate. That's even more reading that I need to do. Then there's personal (Japanese) and professional (Powershell scripting, Python, various toolsets) areas of study that also need my attention. Not to mention being a husband, a father, and an uncle. So, obviously trying to get through Shon Harris' book was, while getting me closer to a goal I have set for myself, pulling me further from others. To try to put my studies on a more even keel I decided to work with the following structure:

CISSP Study Framework:
* 15 pages a night from the CISSP All-In-One book
* Highlight sections that I feel could be turned into test questions.
* Once done with the nightly 15 pages, flip through them again and enter the highlighted sections into Anki. My CISSP deck includes tags for the chapters.
* Try to clear my Anki reps each day. I have it set to add 20 new facts per day.

CCNA:S Study Framework:
* 15 pages a night from Todd Lammie's CCNA Study Guide - I need to bone up on my basics before stepping into CCNA:S.
* Highlight sections that I would make good Anki facts. Having taken and passed the CCNA exam, I'm more interested in knowledge building than test taking.
* Again, review the highlighted portions added that night and add them into Anki.
* Try to clear my Anki reps each day.
* Use GNS3 to create a Lab environment and work through as many situational examples as I can. We've moved away from Cisco devices at work so my lack of practice is one of the more unsettling issues in my mind.

If you don't have any experience with Anki or any of the other SRS (Spaced Repetition System) they provide a flashcard type of interface where you can rate your knowledge of a fact. If you didn't know the information, you rate lower and you will see that card again very soon. If you knew the answer immediately you can rate yourself higher and you won't see that card for an increasing number of days. It's a fantastic method for memorizing large amounts of information.

For the CISSP exam, I'm using Cloze Deletions. Which means I my cards look like the screenshot below. I don't have any experience with the CISSP exam so I'm throwing a pretty wide net. I do know the exam is multiple choice and timed so I decided to use Cloze Deletions in hopes that I will spend less time guessing at an answer. If I have the answer in mind before I even see the multiple choice options, I think it will make me less likely to second guess myself or spend time finding an answer through the process of elimination.





My long term plan for the CISSP is to work my way through the entirety of the Shon Harris book, manage my Anki deck and continually work through it to solidify my memorization of information. Once I'm done with the book there are a couple of sample tests online that I can work through and I plan to map my strengths and weaknesses using the results. Any area with a noticeable weakness gets reviewed in the Harris book and it's section of my Anki deck reset. If I feel confident with my ability after the reviewing process, I'll sit for the exam. If I still lack confidence I'll look into a boot-camp or CISSP class.