Datasheet

Part I: Certification Basics

You won’t find any multiple-answer, fill-in-the-blank, scenario, or simulation

questions on the CISSP exam. However, all 250 multiple-choice questions

require you to select the best answer from four possible choices. So, the

correct answer isn’t always a straightforward, clear choice. In fact, you can

count on many questions to initially appear like they have more than one cor-

rect answer. (ISC)

goes to great pains to ensure that you really, really know

the material. For instance, a sample question might resemble the following:

Which of the following is the FTP control channel?

A TCP port 21

B UDP port 21

C TCP port 25

D IP port 21

Many readers almost instinctively know that FTP’s control channel is port 21,

but is it TCP, UDP, or IP?

Increasingly, CISSP exam questions are based more on situations than on

simple knowledge of facts. For instance, here’s a question you might get:

A system administrator has found that a former employee has success-

fully logged in to the system. The system administrator should:

A Shut down the system.

B Confirm the breach in the security logs.

C Lock or remove the user account.

D Contact law enforcement.

You won’t find the answer to this in a book (well, probably not). But every

exam question still has a best answer — perhaps not an ideal answer, but

definitely a best answer.

A common and effective test-taking strategy for multiple-choice questions

is to carefully read each question and then eliminate any obviously wrong

choices. The CISSP examination is no exception.

Wrong choices aren’t necessarily obvious on the CISSP examination. You may

find a few obviously wrong choices, but they only stand out to someone who

has studied thoroughly for the examination and has a good grasp of all ten of

the security domains.

Only 225 questions are actually counted toward your final score. The other

25 are trial questions for future versions of the CISSP examination. However,

the exam doesn’t identify these questions for the test-taker, so you have to

answer all 250 questions like they’re all the real thing.

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