what to study before a classroom training?

My employer decided to pay for an affordable cissp course and I was looking into either Infosec or Training Camp since they have classes in the NYC area (employer won't pay for travel expenses and I can't afford them now).
Infosec has a class in The beginning of August and the other company, in September. I have started reading the 1200+ page CBK, and have purchased other books from Shon Harris and 1 from Eric Conrad (11th hour study guide).
Since I have 8 weeks before the August class (shortest timeline), is reading the CBK a must have for the exam? I was thinking about watching the videos from cccure and going over the books I mentioned before going to the training, but slipping reading the CBK.

Any feedback about what to read before a classroom training and about training companies in NYC would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

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megablue

Slipping --> skipping

TheFORCE

I took the below training boot camp last year. They were good, it was 1 week long. The material you have is good, some bootcamps give you their own material also, like books or other training materials. Read as much as you can, if you have any experience in IT Security so far you will learn it really fast.

CISSP Certification

megablue

Thanks TheFORCE for the recommendation. Is reading the CBK mandatory?

renacido

megablue wrote: »

Thanks TheFORCE for the recommendation. Is reading the CBK mandatory?

No. In fact most people here, myself included, advise people to avoid it entirely.

megablue

thanks renacido - I thought that reading the CBK was essential (like the PMP cert). I'll just go with the books I purchased (plus some videos from CCCure) to be on a better footing for the bootcamp. I already got the CBK (Kindle) so I won't have a huge book at my desk, at least - and it was cheaper.

cyberguypr

If you want to enjoy your CISSP journey, just say NO to the abomination that is the CBK.

soccarplayer29

I took a 5day CISSP course from training camp and my opinion is that it's definitely best used as a review and final prep for the exam and not an all-inclusive type thing to come into cold and pass the exam just on that bootcamp alone.

I purchased a CISSP Udemy course ($10 on sale and it wasn't very good) and watched like 20 hours worth of videos and read maybe 3 chapters of the Eric Conrad study guide book prior to the bootcamp along with 4 years experience as an IT auditor.

CCCure videos accompanied by some reading should be a good start. During the week of the bootcamp for whatever domains we covered each day in the evenings I would use the McGraw-hill quizes on those domains and flashcards to reinforce those domains and think that really helped.

Best of Luck!

megablue

@cyberguypr: I couldn't agree more. I completed reading the first domain and the reading was really dry! Happy to skip reading that thing!

@soccarplayer29: That's my expectation as well - bootcamps are (in my view) a review session of what you already know/studied, an opportunity to improve domains that you're not 100% proficient and of course, getting tricks on passing the exam.

I'll report on a separate thread how things went... So far I've got 2 books from Eric Conrad, the AIO from Shon Harris and the CCCure videos, plus my experience in infosec (infrastructure manager and software developer).

Thanks everyone for the awesome replies!!