The last 10–15 days, exam mindset, and what actually happens in the exam
By this stage, preparation was no longer about learning. It was about sharpening what was already there and arriving at the exam room in the right state.
I started by going back to CISSP Last Mile with a specific focus. During my first read I had already highlighted the sections I knew I would need to revisit — weak areas, dense topics, anything that had not fully settled. Domain 4 needed extra attention, along with one or two topics in Domain 3. I started there. I did not re-read everything. I went straight to what I had flagged.
Every day I revised at least two domains — but only the highlighted portions from Last Mile or my own handwritten notes. Targeted and deliberate, not exhaustive.
My actual exam was scheduled at 10AM, so every day during those final ten days I sat down at exactly 10AM and took a practice test. I wanted my brain calibrated to its sharpest at that specific time of day. I took two tests per day, mixing platforms — one day Quantum and CertPrep, another day Boson and Quantum. I always respected the time limit, no exceptions. Over those ten days I completed more than 20 full practice tests.
After each morning test I took a half-hour break, completely away from material. Then I went through every question I had got wrong.
Analysing wrong answers was where the real learning happened in the final stretch. Every wrong answer fell into one of three categories, and each required a different response.
The first was a simple memory gap — I knew the concept existed but could not recall it under pressure. The fix was straightforward: go back, read it, reinforce it.
The second was confusion between two similar concepts. Is this phishing or something else? Is this control preventive or detective? In these cases I went back to the precise definition of each option and asked: does this scenario actually fit this definition? This kind of confusion means the concept has been understood broadly but not with enough precision to distinguish it from a close neighbour. The solution is not to read more — it is to read more carefully.
The third category was the hardest: questions where all four answers seemed plausible, or where two or three were partially correct. In CISSP, this is not a flaw in the question. It is the design. One answer will be the most complete — it will capture what the other three were each trying to say, and say it better, at the right level of abstraction. Learning to identify that answer is a skill built through exposure and analysis. You cannot shortcut it.
One thing I want to emphasise because it made a genuine difference: in all my practice tests except Quantum, which may stop early due to its adaptive format, I always set the paper to 150 questions. This was a way to prepare my mind for the exhaustion just in case in my real exam I hit 150 questions. At the end of 100 questions the decision making fatigue , question reading fatigue and mental exhaustion are at its peak. If you are well prepared for that right from every practice it is good before you hit the real exam.
My pacing target was simple: 50 questions completed by 60 minutes, 100 questions completed by 120 minutes. That left a full hour for the final 50. Practicing to that rhythm consistently meant that when I sat in the actual exam and received all 150 questions, the pacing was already automatic. There was no recalculation, no adjustment, no panic.
In the final two to three days I stepped back from heavy question practice deliberately. Decision fatigue is real. CISSP demands sustained, high-quality judgment for up to three hours. If you overload your brain in the final days, you walk into the exam already depleted. I wanted to arrive with a fresh perspective.
I also stopped consuming new content entirely. No new videos. No new strategies for how to approach questions. I had already decided on my strategy — how I would read a question, what I would look for, how I would think through options. Introducing new approaches at the last minute creates doubt, not confidence. I committed to what I had built and left it there.
My exam was in Brussels. Luxembourg does not currently have a Pearson VUE test centre, so I had to travel. The last day before the exam was simply travel. I kept my mind calm and avoided anything that might create anxiety. I visited the test centre location the evening before so there were no logistical surprises on exam morning — I knew exactly where it was, how long it would take to get there.
I arrived on exam day with nothing left to manage except the exam itself.
The first few questions felt straightforward. Then others came where I genuinely had no certainty about whether my selected answer was correct. I went with what seemed best and moved on. That is the only approach available to you.
Somewhere around question 110, something shifted. I was losing focus, losing patience, and — honestly — losing belief. The thought that I had failed started coming through clearly. The pessimistic thinking was real and persistent.
I made a decision to keep facing the questions rather than surrendering to it. Just with the commitment to keep doing the next thing. Some questions towards the end felt surprisingly easy, which brought its own kind of anxiety. Why is it giving me easy questions? Does that mean I have done very badly? I did not know. I still do not know for certain what it meant.
What I do know is that you will not know how you are doing while the exam is in progress. There is no signal. The doubt, the self-questioning, the moment where you are convinced you have failed — that is part of the experience for almost everyone who sits this exam. It does not mean you have failed.
One thing that genuinely helped in those moments was remembering that CISSP allows two attempts. Knowing I had another chance if needed did not make me careless — it made me calmer. It reduced the pressure just enough to keep thinking clearly.
Stay in the exam. Keep answering. Do not assume, do not calculate, do not try to read the system. Just keep doing the next thing in front of you with the same quality of thought you brought to the first question. You find out when it is over, not before.
I walked out uncertain. I looked at the result. I had passed.