Harris 6th vs. Conrad 2nd

ajs1976

Harris 6th is over 1,400 pages while Conrad 2nd is 600 pages. Is there really 800 pages of fluff in the Harris book?

If I decide to use the Conrad book as my main source, is there another book similar to Conrad's 11th hour for final review?

Thanks

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zxbane

From what I've read on TE, people seem to recommend EC over Harris based on how much experience and the type of background someone has. If someone has a fairly extensive background in IT Sec then it seems most prefer the EC v2 but if you are looking for more elaboration then the Harris AIO. I guess it comes down to person prefernce. I am using EC v2 and then using Harris' AIO as a reference and to read on areas I need more knowledge on such as Cryptography and BCP.

BGraves

I did find the Harris book to be useful and more in depth in some areas like zxbane suggests and her "sense of humor" was oddly appropriate preparation for the CISSP as they are both (imo) designed to be psychologically unpleasant.

Good luck!

mister704

BGraves wrote: »

I did find the Harris book to be useful and more in depth in some areas like zxbane suggests and her "sense of humor" was oddly appropriate preparation for the CISSP as they are both (imo) designed to be psychologically unpleasant. Good luck!

I agree here. If you need examples and analogies to help you in your memorization, Harris is a good choice. Conrad is also a great book. I actually purchased Conrad and used my safaribooks online to read/review Harris. I thing tag teaming as many books as you can on weak areas is a key to success. I did that because it allows you to see the same statements/questions but presented totally different which helps to build a better understanding of the subject instead of pure memory. Because chance is you will know the question being asked but it will just use a lot of wording that you just are not use to. Just my .02

cyberguypr

I started with the Harris book but found it overly verbose. Now, that came in handy in my weaker domains were I needed the overly verbose description. The Harris-Conrad pair is a winning combo, IMO.

samurai86

I posted this piece in my "pass" thread. I found both books useful in my study experience. I will admit the Harris 6th edition book was a painful read for the most part. But the Harris book goes over way more details than the Conrad book. I find them hard to compare, I felt they served different purposes. I really liked the way the Conrad books were clear and succinct, but I felt when it came to the tougher topics I felt that the Harris book, for the most part, did a better job at explaining how certain things worked. (i.e Kerberos, encryption, PKI, security models, and some others.)

While I am not a CISSP yet (I passed the exam but waiting on my endorsement to be approved) I believe reviewing the material in both books will only benefit you.

hylaab

As someone stated earlier, I believe the experience in IT or (Information Security) is a factor when deciding which book to read, AIO vs Conrad. I love the Conrad book, read it once, will read it back again. I am taking the exam on Dec 17, 2013. There is an excellent book which I am reading at the moment as well, "CISSP—Certified Information Systems Security Professional Study Guide, Sixth Edition, by James M. Stewart, Mike Chapple and Darril Gibson (Sybex 2012)". I like the way these authors wrote the chapters. Except physical security, each domain is written into two concise chapters, i.e BCP and DRP. The only caveat is that there are no much of scenario based questions.

plitz2791

I started out with the AIO, but migrated to the Conrad books. Paired together, you can't go wrong. I passed the exam first time and I think that Conrad's 2nd Edition and 11th Hour Study Guide were most useful for me. Your results may vary, depending on your experience.

ajs1976

thanks for all the responses. I'm waiting until summer break from classes before I focus on the CISSP, so I think I will read through the Harris book but when I finish it, i'll get the Conrad book and use it as my primary source.

with Conrad as the primary source, Harris as a secondary source, and11th hour, Sunflower PDF, CBT Nuggets, Practice tests included with each and StudioScope, do I have everything covered? Are there any wholes in my resource list?

demonfurbie

tagged for later ... ill use the conrad book with the labsim vids

f0rgiv3n

I bought both books and used Harris 6th edition for about 3 hours total just because I felt like I had to. Personally, I didn't find that it provided much more value to me during my studies. I do think it's important to have though for reference purposes, I just couldn't deal with the amount of verbage.