CISSP Boat Camp

Nabsh07

Hello
Does anyone have a recommendation on CISSP bootcamp.
I have about 8 years of Security experience in multiple domains (incident respond, Application security, Security Tools Engineering , etc). So I understand most of the concepts.

Dan-in-MD

I am so disappointed... I really wanted to learn more about the CISSP Boat Camp

All I got for Christmas was a stupid Boot Camp...

(To answer your question, consider training as one pass through the exam content. I recommend multiple passes through the content--which could be books, CBTs, etc. I also recommend online exam practice training to sharpen test taking skills.)

The major value of a boot camp, in my opinion, is time away from work to focus on the content. Some people need a structured walk-through. The learning benefit is largely based on the accumulated (relevant) knowledge and teaching expertise of the instructor.

I thought Cybrary was pretty good, but there are some gaps in the course recording.

koenigss15

Look up Larry Greenblatt on YouTube. He put his 2015 beta bootcamp on there in full.

All you are missing are practice questions.

cledford3

Several have remarked here that any given course is very instructor dependent. Based on the comments I’ve seen online and have heard from co-workers – this seems to be very true. I did extensive investigation before selecting my boot camp and people seemed to say the same about all of the options out there.

FWIW, the rumor on the street in late October was that InfoSec Institute was the best. (This was from the ‘re-takes’ in my camp) On the flip side, a co-worker of mine has taken the ISI class twice. The first time through he was not happy. His 2nd go around he thought the instructor (different person) was amazing.

All I can say, related specifically to Training Camp - is don’t fall for the logic that since ISC2/Training Camp have such a close relationship that the content would at least be the ‘most accurate.’ (This ended up being my flawed logical for taking my boot camp with them) Apparently they put up a ‘Chinese wall’ between the course content developers and instructors, and the test developers. While I don’t think that they should teach to the exam, there is also apparently *zero* correlation to ensure consistency. It is one thing to want to appear impartial, it is another for a participant walk away from a class feeling like the “official training partner” knows less about the CBK than options completely unrelated to the ICS2. One really egregious example of this is that our instructor straight up told us he’d not taken the post April-2015 exam and would NOT be taking it! According to him, instructors who take the current exam are (punitively in my opinion) barred from teaching by ISC2 for a period of at least 6 months after the exam. This crazy – especially for a company that boasts an exam question pool of thousands of questions – how do you incentivize an instructor to be up to speed on the latest content otherwise? We’d ask questions about the new content and he’d straight up state he had no idea… Several times we were told not get to wrapped up about this or that, as you only need a 700 to pass…

Also, re Training Camp, the course material (in my opinion) was *horrible.* Book - virtually unreadable, along with several inconsistencies and contradictions. The flash cards are a waste, and the slides were straight up painful for me to look at. The funny thing was that (apparently) the new post-2015 encryption domain content was so jacked that our instructor used the old ISC2 10 domain presentation for encryption (that another instructor provided him) for that part of the lecture. That particular domain (pre-2015 encryption) was very good – the rest was painful to sit through. I’m sure it was the older content – as the slides were completely different.

As far as other issues with Training Camp… They had our instructor flying solo his first class out. My understanding was that his entire training prior was "co-teaching" the class once, then getting turned loose on his own. I gathered this meant he sat through another instructors class and taught a module or two. I do not believe he'd ever taught *any* CISSP content prior. When I found out I was shocked that there was not an experienced trainer riding shotgun to help through difficult areas. Our trainer did not seem to know the content, several times turning us loose on breaks and staying behind to slam though the next batch of slides. I feel we essentially paid to have someone read the book to us. I've seen other reviews that highly praise at least one Training Camp instructor - a woman. Not sure the name and it doesn't really matter - they won't tell you who is teaching a given class when you register. In my class there were several (5 IIRCC) 'retakes.' Amongst them, that provided direct experience with 3 Training Camp instructors total - and none of them seemed happy with any whom they experienced. A rumor was circulating at my Camp that there has been huge turnover with Training Camp instructors - something about the new curriculum sucking so bad they wanted to supplement with other resources and being told no.

Finally (re training camp) based on conversations with re-takes and my direct experience, they’d just as soon have you leave at 5pm and not take any of the extra content. My instructor gave the “option” of staying and even let the not paying ISC2 participants vote in the matter. He flat out refused to go over a single slide of the training camp material – during the evening sessions or during the Saturday review. He also badmouthed the training camp materials the whole time and really only went though the motions while obviously being unprepared to teach it. He also only stayed 2 nights out of the 5 - the others he assigned "homework."

Bottom line, I wish I'd found Cybrary before my Training Camp - it was 1000% percent better, more informative, more competently delivered. While (for brevities sake) I believe that some of the content is missing from Cybrary and needs to be acquired from other sources, I learned more in 20ish hours of Cybrary lecture than I did in my 60ish hour Training Camp. I plan to donate to them as soon as I wrap up my exam.

danny069

I'd do a camp on a boat

Nabsh07

Dan-in-MD

Did you do the free version of. I thinks based on the old exam?

Nabsh07

cledford3

Do you think that the old format Cybrary is better then a paid Training Cam boot camp? Also do you have teh name from your co-worker on InfoSec bootcamp teacher he recommends.

BTW: Thank you for the detailed post. This is what i am concerned about too. These boot camps are being marketed by sales guys (who are probably on a commission) so I am concerned about the level of experienced instructors. I have spoken to Sales staff at Info Sec, Training cam and Secure Ninja. Some of those sound like high pressure used card sales man. I had one email me that his class will be sold out (4 months before). So I asked him how many students are in a class. He is like I dont know. Havent decided yet.

tpatt100

I went to Training Camp for my CISSP and it was really nice but I also felt the money would be better spent on exam retakes if I didn't pass the first time. The only benefit was the time away from work which looking back it would have been better if I just used a week of my own vacation time and go a local hotel to cram on my own.

Nabsh07

tpatt100

Yeah I agree getting time away so you can focus on study is always nice.
I you dont mind sharing who was your training cam instructor and where/when you took the class?
Also did you do any practice test?

Cyberscum

A CISSP Boat Camp is a brilliant business idea!

Thanks!

Dan-in-MD

Nabsh07 wrote "Did you do the free version of. I thinks based on the old exam?"

The only thing I can think you're asking (since there's no word after "of") is the paid version of CCCure. And if so, the answer is "Yes" and they have a 2015 question test bank that I thought was the best available. I provided a more detailed post on resources a few weeks ago.

Nabsh07

Dan-in-MD

Thank you ...Yes I meant to inquire about CCCure.
I see your point is that bootcamp should be the last step (or one of the last steps ) in preparing for the exam. It should not be the only prep step.

Dan-in-MD

It all depends. I know several people that boot-camped themselves up and then took the exam. I personally don't like a brain **** approach.

I took a boot camp at the start of the six weeks period before I took my test. It got me through all the content. I then studied some other sources while drilling regularly.

danny069

We'd have to make sure there were enough life boats, not like the Titanic.