The OSCP slogan is TRY HARDER. A similar attitude should be applied to the CISSP! I read so many articles, so many blogs and spent hours reading other peoples success stories on the CISSP because it helped me stay motivated. The journey of reading all of the books, watching the videos and the thousands of questions can drain you. Hang in there! I started my active journey around April 2020, did a 5 day course which I took notes on but didn't feel it really helped me understand all of the concepts. I previously had passed Sec+ and Net+ which helped with the understanding of a lot of the content that the CISSP requires. Sec+ is a great base to work from! I continued to read through the Sybex 8 th edition and made notes and doing the practise questions at the end of each chapter which I was generally getting between 60 and 90% in. But, these highlighted my weak areas. I decided to book my exam for September as COVID was everywhere and keeping test centres shut which was giving me about 5 months. I got to a stage where I was struggling with wanting to read and really take the information in, and just doing the free practise questions... I used PocketPrep and purchased the official practise tests to do on the go. Every free minute and hour was taken up by practise! Having these on my phone really helped keep my confidence up because it meant I could still semi chill out and still keep things fresh. I came across Study Notes and Theory from Reddit, I believe, and had a look through the website. I read that people were really impressed with the practise questions and the content. I decided that I needed to up my game and get a different perspective... so I signed up to Luke's website and it was one of the best decisions I made. These questions were wordy and really made you think and this is what you have to do in the exam! They are hard work and make you want to bang your head against the wall but they really do prepare you, and make you think of the high-level answer! Along with these questions, the content that Luke puts together is great. It really helped me nail down sections that I couldn't get to sink in myself which I’m very grateful for! The night before I chilled out and went for a good sleep. Woke up the next day, ate well and just read over my notes for the last time. Going in for the exam with palm vein scans etc were a bit of a nightmare as the scanner was problematic and then following all of the one way systems. Got into the classroom and started the exam. Make sure you accept the NDA in 5 minutes! You have to read the question, read the answers and then read the question again, then answer because it is very easy to miss a VITAL word that changes the possible answer! Think HIGH LEVEL and eliminate the distracting answers. The technical answer probably sounds great but that's not the concept of CISSP.... (unless it is actually a technical question, you will be able to tell) The exam for me ran out of time at 124 questions so I had no idea whether I had passed but there were a few questions that I knew I'd answered correctly, this made me slightly confident but I had to wait a while through the check out process to find my result.... CONGRATULATIONS! What a feeling and I was knackered! 3 hours of concentration but worth it in the end. Don't give up and carry on! Best of luck :)