IAPP CIPP/US Review

Peters, Jeff

Hey guys, just wanted to share that I spoke with IAPP channels manager Aaron Stevens on Tuesday for a webinar. He said the exams are 85-90 questions and 70-75 of them are scored (the rest being questions they're testing): https://youtu.be/R9qgcBw7JLE?t=35m27s. He also shared some nice stories about how the IAPP certs helped different candidates stand out in job interviews and provided a pretty good overview of IAPP and the different certs if you want some high-level info.

Ashenwelt

Hey all, I never seen a response as to the quality of CIPPGUIDE.org as a resource? Did anyone try it? I am considering getting the CIPP/US. I have been dealing in this field for forever, but I am building my credentials in it now. I know there are a lot of independent training books, that try and replace the IAPP texts. Has anyone tried any of the other books?

lohnes34

I am taking CIPP\US at the end of this month, does anyone have an outline they would be willing to share?

Thanks.

PaulJ2018

Hi - did you ever receive an outline? If so, would you mind sharing?

jaybeams

What about the questions. Are there good sources for sample questions beyond what's provided by IAPP?

greennc939

Ashenwelt wrote: »

Hey all, I never seen a response as to the quality of CIPPGUIDE.org as a resource? Did anyone try it? I am considering getting the CIPP/US. I have been dealing in this field for forever, but I am building my credentials in it now. I know there are a lot of independent training books, that try and replace the IAPP texts. Has anyone tried any of the other books?

I passed the CIPP/US a couple months ago and relied solely on the IAPP text book (the latest edition) and reviewed the John Watts "Complete Certified Information Privacy Professional CIPP/US Privacy Guide). I thought the study guide was helpful in drilling in some of the minutia of the various privacy laws - and the wording and question-type was generally in the spirit of the exam (in my opinion). If you do review that guide, however, I would say that it probably wouldn't be worth your time to memorize country-specific, state-specific facts, or IT-related content. I think IAPP did a decent separating the IT concepts into the CIPT exam. You would be best served honing in on the practice questions concerning the major privacy laws themselves (look at the exam blueprints as your guide - they tell you the number of possible questions that may be asked per topic).

If anyone's interested, I'm selling my materials for the CIPP/US Exam and the CIPT exam (passed both recently):


CIPP/US Exam Materials

-U.S. Private-Sector Privacy Book (latest edition, Nov. 2017)

-Complete CIPP/US Study Guide

EDIT: Sold CIPT Materials; asking for $100 for the CIPP/US Materials.


Feel free to pm me or email at fatedreality(at)gmail(dot)com

greennc939

Can't seem to edit my previous post, but I sold all of my study materials. Best of luck to everyone!

AD12345

greennc939 wrote: »

Can't seem to edit my previous post, but I sold all of my study materials. Best of luck to everyone!

Do you think the Watts book is worth it? The reviews on Amazon say it is basically less than worthless.


To everyone else, I found this review and outline, I cannot speak to the quality or accuracy but wanted to share.

greennc939

AD12345 wrote: »

Do you think the Watts book is worth it? The reviews on Amazon say it is basically less than worthless.


To everyone else, I found this review and outline, I cannot speak to the quality or accuracy but wanted to share.

I think if one was on a budget, then I wouldn't go out of my way to get the book. The absolute must-haves in my opinion would be the IAPP's 2nd edition of the textbook as well as spending the $35 to take a look at the IAPP's CIPP/US Sample questions (just to get a sense of the kinds of questions you'll see on the exam). IAPP also has this link to get their free study guide with sample questions (https://pages.iapp.org/cippus-study-guide-request.html). And once you have those materials, I'd spend the time reading the book and making your own outline or studying one that someone else put together (the notes you attached look pretty decent though I didn't have a chance to go through for accuracy).

AD12345

Has anyone registered with cippguide.org recently? their registration process appears to be broken (I get a 500 internal server error after clicking the register button on multiple browsers on multiple machines). I reached out to the site admin and never heard back. I even reached out to one of the authors on LinkedIn and never heard back. I am not sure if the site is being abandoned or what is going on. If anyone has any contacts, it would be appreciated.

ATSunshine

I also am having a hard time registering on the cyberguide.org site

ATSunshine

I can't register on cippguide.org either. Hmm.

barker235

Hello! 

New user here as well. It seems there are a few outlines floating around, could anybody send me copies at CIPPUSPrep [at] gmail [dot] com?

Thanks, everybody.

KarenKay

Hello!

Anyone have notes for the US exam. Taking it in 2 weeks. Just trying to review everything I can at this point. I passed the CIPM without issues, but I feel this one will be more of a challenge. Can anyone compare which exams are the hardest. I'm assuming EU, then US.

Thanks all.

attorneyreboot

Hello!  I'm looking into taking the CIPP US exam.  Asides from the text book and sample questions, does anyone think that the online course is absolutely mandatory to pass?  It's been a long time since I've taken any type of standardized exam.  I don't have a sponsor so I'm hesitant to purchase the very expensive online course but don't want to fail.  Are there any more practice exams or sample questions other than what's sold for $35 on the IAPP website?

LAWYER2

Great question attorneyreboot, unfortunately these forums are slow and little info is floating around out there. Have you taken the exam already? I was going to take the CIPP/EU but decided to just focus on the CIPP/US since I'm most familiar with US laws anyway. 

Kazeki

attorneyreboot said:

Hello!  I'm looking into taking the CIPP US exam.  Asides from the text book and sample questions, does anyone think that the online course is absolutely mandatory to pass?  It's been a long time since I've taken any type of standardized exam.  I don't have a sponsor so I'm hesitant to purchase the very expensive online course but don't want to fail.  Are there any more practice exams or sample questions other than what's sold for $35 on the IAPP website?

I took the CIPP/US exam in June of 2019. Like you, I am an attorney, and I can say that you absolutely do not need to pay for the expensive online course in order to pass the exam. I read the book, made an outline, and did the IAPP practice questions. I also used the following materials:

• Full CIPP/US Practice Exam: By Jasper Jacobs, CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT; and
• Complete Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) Study Guide: Pass the Certification Foundation Exam with Ease! by John Watts

LAWYER2

Kazeki said:

attorneyreboot said:

Hello!  I'm looking into taking the CIPP US exam.  Asides from the text book and sample questions, does anyone think that the online course is absolutely mandatory to pass?  It's been a long time since I've taken any type of standardized exam.  I don't have a sponsor so I'm hesitant to purchase the very expensive online course but don't want to fail.  Are there any more practice exams or sample questions other than what's sold for $35 on the IAPP website?

I took the CIPP/US exam in June of 2019. Like you, I am an attorney, and I can say that you absolutely do not need to pay for the expensive online course in order to pass the exam. I read the book, made an outline, and did the IAPP practice questions. I also used the following materials:

• Full CIPP/US Practice Exam: By Jasper Jacobs, CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT; and
• Complete Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) Study Guide: Pass the Certification Foundation Exam with Ease! by John Watts

Kazeki, what was your overall takeaway from the exam, if you don't mind me asking? Did you feel it focused more on laws as opposed to technical data governance? The IAAP Body of Knowledge material looks like it's law heavy, but some other attorneys opined it was a lot more technical than they anticipated. How much time did you spend studying, and do you think the supplemental material helped? (I've seen some mixed reviews on Amazon about its relevance 

Kazeki

LAWYER2 said:

Kazeki said:

attorneyreboot said:

Hello!  I'm looking into taking the CIPP US exam.  Asides from the text book and sample questions, does anyone think that the online course is absolutely mandatory to pass?  It's been a long time since I've taken any type of standardized exam.  I don't have a sponsor so I'm hesitant to purchase the very expensive online course but don't want to fail.  Are there any more practice exams or sample questions other than what's sold for $35 on the IAPP website?

I took the CIPP/US exam in June of 2019. Like you, I am an attorney, and I can say that you absolutely do not need to pay for the expensive online course in order to pass the exam. I read the book, made an outline, and did the IAPP practice questions. I also used the following materials:

• Full CIPP/US Practice Exam: By Jasper Jacobs, CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT; and
• Complete Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) Study Guide: Pass the Certification Foundation Exam with Ease! by John Watts

Kazeki, what was your overall takeaway from the exam, if you don't mind me asking? Did you feel it focused more on laws as opposed to technical data governance? The IAAP Body of Knowledge material looks like it's law heavy, but some other attorneys opined it was a lot more technical than they anticipated. How much time did you spend studying, and do you think the supplemental material helped? (I've seen some mixed reviews on Amazon about its relevance 

Lawyer2, I thought it was very law based and not very technical at all. I spent the month of May studying (in the evenings and on the weekend.) I would say that I spent between 40-50 hours studying for it and felt completely prepared. I do think the supplemental material helped because I started to see a pattern. I would be honest and tell you that the supplemental questions were much easier than the actual exam, but the thought process I learned from reviewing the questions was very useful on the actual exam.  

JoeBlack99

Hi all,

I intend to take the CIPP/US exam soon. I have already passed the CIPP/E exam. That took me a lot of time. That is why I would now like to follow an online training course. Does anyone have good experiences with the IAPP online training?

Best

LAWYER2

JoeBlack99 said:

Hi all,

I intend to take the CIPP/US exam soon. I have already passed the CIPP/E exam. That took me a lot of time. That is why I would now like to follow an online training course. Does anyone have good experiences with the IAPP online training?

Best

From what I've researched and read, the online training course isn't worth the money unless your sponsoring organization is footing the bill. Most say it's just a "live reading" of an expanded outline. I'd imagine with a CIPP/E cert, you're well positioned for self-study. Just read the book, fill in the outline as you go. 

LAWYER2

Just got done taking the exam and passed. As others mentioned, it's not as easy as one might think. I scored 380 (roughly 76%), for reference, I put in about 80 hrs of study and felt fully prepared. However, there were a few times during the exam where I had some WTF moments.Many of the correct answers didn't readidly jump off the screen like you'd expect with higher levels of preperation. My prep was a bit backwards, as I reversed engineered the outline someone previously shared before recieving the book. After getting the book, I read it in its entirety and filled in the gaps from the outline I created from the outline. The exam blueprint was really helpful in focusing on what was heavily tested and more importantly, not focusing on what wasn't. 

JoeBlack99

LAWYER2 said:

Just got done taking the exam and passed. As others mentioned, it's not as easy as one might think. I scored 380 (roughly 76%), for reference, I put in about 80 hrs of study and felt fully prepared. However, there were a few times during the exam where I had some WTF moments.Many of the correct answers didn't readidly jump off the screen like you'd expect with higher levels of preperation. My prep was a bit backwards, as I reversed engineered the outline someone previously shared before recieving the book. After getting the book, I read it in its entirety and filled in the gaps from the outline I created from the outline. The exam blueprint was really helpful in focusing on what was heavily tested and more importantly, not focusing on what wasn't. 

Congrats! Good job (Y)

So it is to do with just the book, but it takes a lot of time .. I will go find out if there are some smarter options.. Thank you!

JoeBlack99

I see that the CIPP/US exam will be updated by the IAPP with effect from 1 September with the following subjects:

• The role of new cyber threats in incident response programs
• Cloud issues related to vendor management
• The role of the APEC privacy framework for US-based global multinational companies
• Emerging areas of federal enforcement (data brokers, big data, IoT, AI, unregulated data)
• State data security developments such as the CCPA

Does anyone have an idea where you can find curriculum about that? The textbook has not been updated...

Campbell

JoeBlack99 said:

I see that the CIPP/US exam will be updated by the IAPP with effect from 1 September with the following subjects:

• The role of new cyber threats in incident response programs
• Cloud issues related to vendor management
• The role of the APEC privacy framework for US-based global multinational companies
• Emerging areas of federal enforcement (data brokers, big data, IoT, AI, unregulated data)
• State data security developments such as the CCPA

Does anyone have an idea where you can find curriculum about that? The textbook has not been updated...

Maybe this is useful: cipptraining.com/cipp-e-and-cipp-us-annual-update-september-1-2019/

LAWYER2

Once you pass the CIPP/US exam do you get an actual certificate, if so, do you hae to request it, or is it just mailed to you?

japatrick1818

The CIPP/US exam seems like it's written for people to fail at least once so that IAPP can collect more fees. The questions are a mix of valid ones and bizarrely framed ones intended to trick the exam taker. Do NOT take an expensive prep course. It will not help you at all on about half of the obscure exam questions. 

jeanie

I just registered CIPP/US exam. What is the textbook? Do you have to join the training program on IAPP in order to get study book? 

Azazello

japatrick1818 said:

The CIPP/US exam seems like it's written for people to fail at least once so that IAPP can collect more fees.

I've read this entire thread and I'm glad to see someone straight-out say what others have implied, here and on other sites. Despite having been on the market since at least 2008, seems the quality of the exam remains questionable - and perhaps this is by design.

The 'certification industry' is a multi-billion dollar business, and no way IAPP will leave that money on the table. And, unfortunately, they're the only accepted source for information privacy certifications, so they got that market locked.

Azazello

AD12345 said:

To everyone else, I found this review and outline, I cannot speak to the quality or accuracy but wanted to share.

Those resources are legit, as they come from Jess Miers' excellent blog post "My Thoughts on Studying, Taking, and Passing the IAPP CIPP/US Exam" | Ctrl-Alt-Dissent <easily found via a websearch>

where he still has active links to his outline and other resources he recommends.