CIPP/E Advice

arana

Hi everyone, 

This forum helped me decide how to prepare for the exam, and I would like to share my thoughts hoping they help someone else prepare I gave the CIPP-E today I think with good enough scores, Part 1 - 90, Part 2- 80, Part 3 - 86. 

I confess this forum made me concerned about the amount of stuff one needs to read! There is now way I had that kind of time, so I took the risk with studying my way. My broad thoughts: 

- These detailed summaries, lists, charts and body of knowledge formats etc circulated by members are not necessary, they are a bit of an overkill. I would only recommend this if you are not a lawyer, and are in fact an Infosec professional attempting this exam. 
- Reading the book twice, and the GDPR twice is more than enough. It is more important to understand the concepts of how things work (it will be helpful for answering questions in Part 2), as opposed to memorize things in my opinion. 
- There were a lot of questions on WP Opinions, Eprivacy directive, in my exam. I did not read the WP opinions but many of them were referred in the book which I thought was helpful. There were 1-2 factual questions which I did not know answers to - I understand if one has to guess it can go either way. So if you have time, I would recommend reading some opinions. Else, be confident on the opinions referred in the book. 
- There is a UK based law firm called Bird and Bird, they publish an updated GDPR guide, the one I read was updated till March 2020. I found it very helpful as they had updated position on EDPB guidance on consent, eprivacy regulation updates etc. I used it as an additional reading material along with the book and the regulation. I did not read anything else. 
- I know many people say memorize the GDPR text. I just cannot do that, I read it once, and tried to understand the concepts from other reading material. In my view, if you have broadly read and understood everything, since its a multiple choice exam, when you see questions on v specific items, the answers somehow just come to you. 
- As others have also said, the scenario based questions have a lot of unnecessary details to confuse you, I found their answers to be the easiest! 
- Be mindful of the description to the questions, many of them indicate answers to other questions, or may even help your remember things you've forgotten. 

My experience above is as a lawyer who does a lot of data protection work, but I do not advise on EU law frequently. So while I understand and can apply the concepts, it's still another legislation for me. 

Hope the above helps, it is a difficult exam as a lot of it is subjective, but 4-5 days of consistent studying can help you pass! Good luck everyone 

OneSeer

Hi @dizbup -

Would you mind sharing Lizette's outline? The wetransfer link expired, as have all of the other links to it in this thread, it seems. Thank you in advance! I am just starting my CIPP/E studying and am hoping to take the exam before the updates in September! I will be following your study regime, as it looks like it will cover the most details, which appear to be the most frequent comment about the exam in the forum.

Thanks in advance, and thank you for sharing your experience!

SpanishTotem

Hi guys,

I'm looking for the European Data Protection, Second Edition book at a reasonable price. Digital. Anyone who could sell it to me? I pay via bizum

MainPapaya

Hi all, I've just taken my CIPP/E, passed on my first attempt with a score of 100/100/88. Needless to say I'm pretty pleased with that, and I wanted to give some feedback to anyone who has the exam coming up.

Having read the comments on this forum I was very nervous about the exam - it's been stated more than once that you need to read the IAPP book multiple times, memorise the GDPR, read every WP29 opinion, and even then it's extremely difficult. Whilst it certainly doesn't hurt to know as much as possible, I think this hugely overstates how challenging the exam was. I didn't read the GDPR or any WP29 opinions at all, I relied solely on the IAPP textbook. I did this by reading it once from start to finish, going back through and making flashcards (approx 200 in total), used the Body of Knowledge to prioritise the chapters that represented a higher proportion of the final score, and then continuously tested myself using the flashcards. That's all. In total I spent about 72 hours studying, most of that with the flashcards, and in retrospect I think I massively overdid it - the exam didn't go into the level of detail that I was expecting at all. Also, it's worth saying that I don't think the IAPP sample questions misrepresented the difficulty of the exam - they were maybe slightly easier, but I suspect the reason people say that they are misleading is that they are very familiar with the questions and covered them as part of their training so they seemed easier than the unfamiliar questions they got in the exam itself.

Anyway, I'm very grateful to all the comments on here as it has helped me prepare for the exam, but I would also say that if you're doing it soon not to panic. Don't get bogged down in reading a whole library of texts, stick to the IAPP textbook, memorise the key facts, and ensure you fully understand the principles and are able to apply them. And then test your knowledge repeatedly - I used flashcards, but whatever your approach it isn't enough to read something and feel like you know it, keep testing yourself to prove that you know it.

All the very best to everyone, now onto the CIPM...

eve01

MainPapaya said:

Hi all, I've just taken my CIPP/E, passed on my first attempt with a score of 100/100/88. Needless to say I'm pretty pleased with that, and I wanted to give some feedback to anyone who has the exam coming up.

Having read the comments on this forum I was very nervous about the exam - it's been stated more than once that you need to read the IAPP book multiple times, memorise the GDPR, read every WP29 opinion, and even then it's extremely difficult. Whilst it certainly doesn't hurt to know as much as possible, I think this hugely overstates how challenging the exam was. I didn't read the GDPR or any WP29 opinions at all, I relied solely on the IAPP textbook. I did this by reading it once from start to finish, going back through and making flashcards (approx 200 in total), used the Body of Knowledge to prioritise the chapters that represented a higher proportion of the final score, and then continuously tested myself using the flashcards. That's all. In total I spent about 72 hours studying, most of that with the flashcards, and in retrospect I think I massively overdid it - the exam didn't go into the level of detail that I was expecting at all. Also, it's worth saying that I don't think the IAPP sample questions misrepresented the difficulty of the exam - they were maybe slightly easier, but I suspect the reason people say that they are misleading is that they are very familiar with the questions and covered them as part of their training so they seemed easier than the unfamiliar questions they got in the exam itself.

Anyway, I'm very grateful to all the comments on here as it has helped me prepare for the exam, but I would also say that if you're doing it soon not to panic. Don't get bogged down in reading a whole library of texts, stick to the IAPP textbook, memorise the key facts, and ensure you fully understand the principles and are able to apply them. And then test your knowledge repeatedly - I used flashcards, but whatever your approach it isn't enough to read something and feel like you know it, keep testing yourself to prove that you know it.

All the very best to everyone, now onto the CIPM...

Thank you for that. I'm starting next week on my CIPP 

PR1900

Hi, i just took my CIPP/E exam and unfortunately failed. My score - 71/58/63  

I did actually study more that 20 hours but i studied by going through a brief of 90 pages of the actual iapp book.  The book i have is the 1st edition too..is anyone willing to share the second edition? I've gone throught the above threads and i noticed that there are ppl who passed with only 16 on the first domain..but domain 2 and 3 was above 80. My score was 239 so i guess, i'll retake this when i will have more time to study as at the moment i'm focusing on my MSc. I feel the exam was hard and perhaps some answers to questions were tricky but i believe with better preparation, a pass is on the horizon. There were a lot of Q on rights, controllers/processors and case studies with '' long text - unecessary''.
Time i felt was enough, and flagging questions to refer to the later is helpful

Does anyone have any further tips for my study for the resit? Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

mariaheff

PR1900 said:

Hi, i just took my CIPP/E exam and unfortunately failed. My score - 71/58/63  

I did actually study more that 20 hours but i studied by going through a brief of 90 pages of the actual iapp book.  The book i have is the 1st edition too..is anyone willing to share the second edition? I've gone throught the above threads and i noticed that there are ppl who passed with only 16 on the first domain..but domain 2 and 3 was above 80. My score was 239 so i guess, i'll retake this when i will have more time to study as at the moment i'm focusing on my MSc. I feel the exam was hard and perhaps some answers to questions were tricky but i believe with better preparation, a pass is on the horizon. There were a lot of Q on rights, controllers/processors and case studies with '' long text - unecessary''.
Time i felt was enough, and flagging questions to refer to the later is helpful

Does anyone have any further tips for my study for the resit? Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

Join the CIPP/E study group on facebook - loads of tips and advice there and people sharing their own exam experiences. There's also a discount code in there for a trial exam which people have been finding really useful in preparing. https://www.facebook.com/groups/cippestudygroup

somedude17

Hi all,

This is my first post, although I've been lurking here for a while. I took the CIPP/E exam last summer (in 2019) and unfortunately failed with a score of 295 I think I was one question off or something like that. I did not have time to take it again earlier, so I want to re-take it this September. This time I want to make sure I pass it, but I have to admit I am a bit nervous, because I found the exam pretty hard (despite having a law degree and working in the tech field). Nonetheless, I want to say that you guys provided some amazing advice here so thank you for that!

Just one quick question, I know they have updated the curriculum as of the 1st of September. Unfortunately, the latest version of the eBook does not appear on my account. Does anyone have it and can share it?

In addition to this, I am also looking for a study buddy. If anyone is interested, please send me a message!

tickledpinkies

Eeek. I just bought the second edition of the book. Is the third one coming out soon?

somedude17

tickledpinkies said:

Eeek. I just bought the second edition of the book. Is the third one coming out soon?

According to the CIPP website, there is an annual update that went into effect September 1, 2020 and I am not sure if this means that a new version of the book is going to come out or not. Are any of you guys aware of this? Unfortunately, I am not able to post links, so you may check out the "IAPP Certification" section.

kake

I recently purchased the Second edition on the IAPP website and i have now written to them asking if the third edition going to be released anytime soon. I will keep you updated @tickledpinkies pinkies. 
Meanwhile, can anyone share with me sample CIPP/E questions, please?

kake

kake said:

I recently purchased the Second edition on the IAPP website and i have now written to them asking if the third edition going to be released anytime soon. I will keep you updated @tickledpinkies pinkies. 
Meanwhile, can anyone share with me sample CIPP/E questions, please?

received an email stating that another edition of the book is not foreseen at the moment. 

somedude17

kake said:

kake said:

I recently purchased the Second edition on the IAPP website and i have now written to them asking if the third edition going to be released anytime soon. I will keep you updated @tickledpinkies pinkies. 
Meanwhile, can anyone share with me sample CIPP/E questions, please?

received an email stating that another edition of the book is not foreseen at the moment. 

Thank you very much for the update! I think it is a bit strange, since there are some newly added topics that are not yet covered by the second edition. But still.. this is good to know!

somedude17

Guys, I found this great page, where you can find some resources/materials with all the newly added topics. Hope this helps! 

https://community.infosecinstitute.com/discussion/129585/cipp-e-advice/I%20found%20this%20great%20page,%20where%20you%20can%20find%20some%20resources/materials%20with%20all%20the%20newly%20added%20topics%20-%20https://privacystudygroup.com/cipp-e-exam-updates-september-1st-2020/?fbclid=IwAR2iSNuS7gMkVr8jwiq-w4GZVxjjoV4Zyn4lllG8bQgcuFvk3cYYfL8T6Zw%20%20Hope%20this%20helps!

tickledpinkies

kake said:

kake said:

I recently purchased the Second edition on the IAPP website and i have now written to them asking if the third edition going to be released anytime soon. I will keep you updated @tickledpinkies pinkies. 
Meanwhile, can anyone share with me sample CIPP/E questions, please?

received an email stating that another edition of the book is not foreseen at the moment. 

Many thanks. I better get to studying!

SpanishTotem

Hi guys. I took the exam last week, I passed it with a 309 score, so close. 

I. Introduction to European Data Protection 67%

II. European Data Protection Law and Regulation 71%

III. Compliance with European Data Protection Law and Regulation 71%

My impressions about the exam:

1. The proctoring guy from Pearson was so f*** annoying, he interrupted me several times for: putting my hand on my mouth (i was just resting my face), whispering while reading the questions, looking through my window sometimes to get inspiration... He just open the chat to warn me and distract me and lose my concentration.

2. The exam is hard, but not very hard. You must have a practical approach to GDPR if you want to succeed. Most of the questions are written in a study case-answer, two questions you can dismiss and other two so similar and could possibly be the right choice.

3. I have not studied anything else that the second edition of the book and the tests . I think it can be enough if you have some experience in privacy like me. I can sale you both if there is someone interested.

Any additional advice, feel free to contact me

Rhiannon14

Hi All, 

Passed the CIPP/E yesterday with a score of 370. Dropping by to say thanks to everyone for their tips and advice and give some of my own.

Best piece of advice I saw on here - For scenario style questions, read the answers before you read the scenario. This gives you a frame of reference as to what answer they're looking for. There's a lot of waffle in the scenario that's irrelevant to what they're actually asking.

For questions where two answers look correct, it's probably because they are, in a broad sense. Re-read the question and see if one of the 'correct' answers better suits the specific issue in the question.

Overall I thought the exam was not massively difficult. I spent about 20-30 hours studying the recommended text book, exam questions, DLA Piper GDPR App and of course ICO and WP29 opinions.

Studying to memorise large chunks of legislation or rote learning paragraphs of opinions won't suit this style of exam. You need to understand the principles behind the legislation and be able to apply them to real world scenarios. That's really it. I didn't memorise the GDPR or any opinions, I read the book to understand it and that was enough. Make it make sense and don't over think it

Best of luck.

tickledpinkies

 Thank you @Rhiannon14

I think I may have been over doing it as I'm trying to memorize things. Principles wise I think I'm confident enough to book the exam. 

 Well done on your pass

JDMurray

Rhiannon14 said:

Best piece of advice I saw on here - For scenario style questions, read the answers before you read the scenario. This gives you a frame of reference as to what answer they're looking for. There's a lot of waffle in the scenario that's irrelevant to what they're actually asking.

I love this! This is the opposite exam-taking technique of reading the item stem first and then guessing what the correct answer is before reading the answer options. Read the answer options first if it's a scenario-based exam item--noice!

Rhiannon14

tickledpinkies said:

 Thank you @Rhiannon14

I think I may have been over doing it as I'm trying to memorize things. Principles wise I think I'm confident enough to book the exam. 

 Well done on your pass

If you're confident on the law then I'm sure you'll do well. The beauty of multiple choice exams is that they literally give you the answer to every question, you just have to narrow it down first! 😁

Best of luck!

Rhiannon14

JDMurray said:

I love this! This is the opposite exam-taking technique of reading the item stem first and then guessing what the correct answer is before reading the answer options. Read the answer options first if it's a scenario-based exam item--noice!

Saves a lot of time too! You can immediately write off 90% of the waffle from the scenario and just dig out the answer you're looking for. Best of luck! 

vidalotus

Hi All

I have just sat and passed my CIPP/E exam first attempt today with a score of 335. I'd  like to start by thanking everyone who posted tips and their experiences here. This was very invaluable and definitely served in my understanding of what to expect and where to focus my prepping and efforts.

I'd like to pass on my tips in case it helps others.  I probably spent more than the suggested 30hours as I have a very demanding job and so could only manage a few hours most evenings and weekends  by which time, I was too tired to really absorb the information.
Anyway, my strategy was to study the last two sections first, as based on what people were saying on here, this is where the marks mattered most.  I created flash cards on Quizlet and tested my knowledge on other people's cards also.  This meant, that if I could understand other people's questions and also get the answer right, then I knew I was absorbing information.  But most importantly,  by working on other people's quizzes, I was able to  fill in the gaps in my own learning  where information may have been missed in my own flashcards or during my reading.  I used the exam blueprint to also focus my learning on the areas worth most marks first and ensured I knew and understood those areas thoroughly before building on the rest of my knowledge.  Personally I only prepped section one two days before my exam but surprisingly this is where I achieved the highest percentage.

Whilst I started creating flashcards based on memorizing sections of the book, to be honest l did not find this helpful during the exam , because the questions are asked in a way that just memorizing chunks of the book serves little purpose if your practical understanding is lacking.  Two weeks before I took the exam I went on to create new cards for all sections of the exam blueprint where the marks could be gained, and this time  I created them as exam type questions as I re- read the book. This I felt served me well during the exam as I was able to remember detail based on my prep questions  rather than trying to recall chunks of sections of the chapters in the book.  I also learnt the articles from 1-50 as many have suggested on this forum.  But I also committed to memory a few random articles, which was just as well because there was definitely a question on article 58 and article 5(2) and I think Articles 54 and 55. There was one CJEU case outcome as well.  Therefore worth memorizing the CJEU  It cases in the book.

A week before my exam, I also invested in Jasper Jacob's privacy practice exam questions.  Personally the book did leave me disheartened at times as the correct answers were sometimes questionable and so I fretted on whether I was ready to take the exam.  But what the book did do for me is help me understand how to apply logic and also re- read sections of the Regulation where I felt the answers in Jacob's book were questionable.  What I can tell you is the complex structure on  questions in his book are most certainly something you will encounter in the real exam, so if you use the book just to train yourself on what to expect, it will be money well spent. It is also worth saying that in the exam, I found some of the answers posed to be relative to the Regulation but the context for the scenario is what distinguishes one answer from another. So watch out for this.

Finally, you will also get a random question in the real exam that I certainly do not recall seeing in the IAPP book.  So if you have time, it's worth reading other material on how the Regulation has evolved .

On a final note, I found the majority of the exam was based on scenarios and questions and I did not feel I had enough time and eventually stopped reading the scenarios and just based my answer on logic.  I wouldn't advise you do this, but my point is , despite this approach I still managed to pass.  Therefore, hard as the exam was /is  it's still possible to do well if you deploy the right prep strategy at the beginning. 

Good luck to anybody about to take this exam and congratulations to all who have successfully come out the other side.  I hope my piece proves helpful to some of you.

peighton2021

Hi all

I'm due to renew my IAPP certifications starting with CIPP/e. As it was 2 years ago since I passed I see that there's a new version but looking through this discussion it looks like there hasn't been a huge amount of change...(!)

Having been out of contract for over a year has put me in a bit of a tight spot financially but it seems that I need the certifications (I need to renew CIPM as well) if I'm to get work when things pick up so wondered whether I should purchase the latest book (especially if a 3rd version is due out anytime soon) - or is the previous version along with Lizette's notes (which I have from a couple of years ago) and the EDPB updates as well as the CJEU decisions (Schrems II and Fashion ID) would be sufficient? Wondering if topics like Brexit and the now defunct Privacy Shield come up at all. I don't use Facebook so can't access the group there.

Of course I have a working knowledge of the GDPR as well so any feedback from members here would be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance!

kake

Hi Peighton2021, 
The last edition of the official IAPP book is the Second and they informed me about 3 months that no new edition is foreseen in the near future. I am currently studying the second edition and keeping myself updated of the latest amendments and hoping for the best. About Lizette's notes, I tried looking for it in the previous comments but the file was no longer available. Can you please share with me a copy of the notes please?
Thanks, Kake.

mariaheff

@peighton2021 - are you planning on taking the exams again? To renew your credential, you don't have to do that, you just need to pay your maintenance fee and get 20 CPE's (Continuing professional education) credits every 2 years. You shouldn't need to buy any books. There are lots of free ways to earn CPEs - lots of details on IAPP site but won't let me post a link here for some reason

peighton2021

mariaheff said:

@peighton2021 - are you planning on taking the exams again? To renew your credential, you don't have to do that, you just need to pay your maintenance fee and get 20 CPE's (Continuing professional education) credits every 2 years. You shouldn't need to buy any books. There are lots of free ways to earn CPEs - lots of details on IAPP site but won't let me post a link here for some reason

Hi Maria

Yes I was planning on taking the exams again as I thought you had to retake in order to recertify every 2 years... well don't I feel stupid - and mightily relieved in equal measure! Thanks for your comment!

So the maintenance fee is something like $275? I have over 20 CPE's each for CIPP/e and CIPM which hopefully means both are covered. To be honest I was getting a little disillusioned with the whole IAPP setup and the thought of having to take these exams again was making me wonder whether to continue with my membership. However knowing that I have the minimum requirements in terms of CPE's and am just required to pay the maintenance fee has reignited my enthusiasm somewhat and I may try a new certification now like CIPP/c or CIPT (and any ideas or suggestions on how one increases their chances of landing a role in this current climate are most welcome!).

peighton2021

kake said:

Hi Peighton2021, 
The last edition of the official IAPP book is the Second and they informed me about 3 months that no new edition is foreseen in the near future. I am currently studying the second edition and keeping myself updated of the latest amendments and hoping for the best. About Lizette's notes, I tried looking for it in the previous comments but the file was no longer available. Can you please share with me a copy of the notes please?
Thanks, Kake.

Hi Kake

I thought that I had the notes but struggling to find them. I'm not sure if I can post the ones I have (I didn't save them with the filename that would suggest that they're the notes but I have a strong feeling that they are). I'll try to post section by section here if it allows me.

Thanks

mariaheff

peighton2021 said:

Hi all

I'm due to renew my IAPP certifications starting with CIPP/e. As it was 2 years ago since I passed I see that there's a new version but looking through this discussion it looks like there hasn't been a huge amount of change...(!)

Having been out of contract for over a year has put me in a bit of a tight spot financially but it seems that I need the certifications (I need to renew CIPM as well) if I'm to get work when things pick up so wondered whether I should purchase the latest book (especially if a 3rd version is due out anytime soon) - or is the previous version along with Lizette's notes (which I have from a couple of years ago) and the EDPB updates as well as the CJEU decisions (Schrems II and Fashion ID) would be sufficient? Wondering if topics like Brexit and the now defunct Privacy Shield come up at all. I don't use Facebook so can't access the group there.

Of course I have a working knowledge of the GDPR as well so any feedback from members here would be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance!

@peighton2021 - are you planning on taking the exams again? To renew your credential, you don't have to do that, you just need to pay your maintenance fee and get 20 CPE's (Continuing professional education) credits every 2 years. You shouldn't need to buy any books. There are lots of free ways to earn CPEs - lots of details here https://iapp.org/media/pdf/certification/IAPP_Continuing_Privacy_Education_Policy_3.0.0.pdf

mariaheff

peighton2021 said:

Hi all

I'm due to renew my IAPP certifications starting with CIPP/e. As it was 2 years ago since I passed I see that there's a new version but looking through this discussion it looks like there hasn't been a huge amount of change...(!)

Having been out of contract for over a year has put me in a bit of a tight spot financially but it seems that I need the certifications (I need to renew CIPM as well) if I'm to get work when things pick up so wondered whether I should purchase the latest book (especially if a 3rd version is due out anytime soon) - or is the previous version along with Lizette's notes (which I have from a couple of years ago) and the EDPB updates as well as the CJEU decisions (Schrems II and Fashion ID) would be sufficient? Wondering if topics like Brexit and the now defunct Privacy Shield come up at all. I don't use Facebook so can't access the group there.

Of course I have a working knowledge of the GDPR as well so any feedback from members here would be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance!

@peighton2021 - are you planning on taking the exams again? To renew your credential, you don't have to do that, you just need to pay your maintenance fee and get 20 CPE's (Continuing professional education) credits every 2 years. You shouldn't need to buy any books. There are lots of free ways to earn CPEs - lots of details here https://iapp.org/media/pdf/certification/IAPP_Continuing_Privacy_Education_Policy_3.0.0.pdf

mariaheff

@peighton2021 glad to be of help! Looks like the link I was trying to post actually did appear in the end so if you take a look there you'll see the full details for credential renewal. If you're thinking of CIPT or CIPP/US - I'm admin on study groups on facebook for these and there are lots of very helpful people in the groups who'd be happy to guide you on the value of those certs and related career opportunities. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ciptstudygroup and https://www.facebook.com/groups/cippusstudygroup