Started prep for CISSP. Exam planned in the 3rd week of October.

Hi All,

First of all I'd like to thank everyone who's posted and shared their experiences on this forum. This forum has been an excellent resource to understand how and what to study for the CISSP exam.

I'm an InfoSec professional with 19 years of IT experience. I started my studies for the CISSP in the past week. Have included the materials that I'm referring to below.

1. Cybrary.it --> Great videos
2. MP3 audio files by Shon Harris
3. Book: CISSP AIO by Shon Harris 6th ed., though I do find this book overly descriptive. I'm not going through the entire book in detail but primarily referring to the chapters that I don't have much background on.
4. Book: CISSP study guiide --> Eric Conrad.
5. I also found these slides on the Internet, not sure if any of you used it in the past but they contain a lot of useful information from the Shon Harris books. The author does state that the source is the Shon Harris AIO 5th edition book.
http://www.paladingrp.com/resources/cissp-v2.shtml
6. The following CCCure site for anything new that's been added to the domains.
https://cccure.training/m/articles/view/CISSP-CBK-2015-WHAT-WAS-ADDED
7. The online Shon Harris authored practice tests on the McGraw hill website.

End of the day I think a major part of how you study depends on your background.

I'll let you all know if I find any other study material that's useful. In the meanwhile I wish all those attempting the exam the best of luck !

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Comments

paul78

Welcome to TE and good luck on the exam. Looks like you have a good list of study materials.

gespenstern

I say with your background you will pass easily, following just one read of any CISSP book or listening to Shon Harris mp3.

You just need to get a grasp on unusual for regular IT concepts, such as military access control models, a deep dive into crypto and a little of physical security and you are ready. Also managerial stuff on BCP and DRP won't hurt.

rony1234

Thank you folks. I was able to complete the 'Communication and Network Security' domain fairly quick over the weekend. The rest of the topics would be much slower though. I do believe that one of the key criteria to do any certification should be to increase knowledge and become a better professional at your job, rather than just a paper cert; so my studies are more geared towards picking up knowledge.
gespenstern I'm not sure of the 'easy' part, reading through this forum over the past couple of days has left me with the impression that nothing can be taken for granted w.r.t the CISSP

I was looking forward to Eric Conrad's latest updated study guide releasing in time for my study prep, but guess I'm out of luck; Amazon still has a listed release date of 15 Nov, though I do remember reading in some forum that it was expected to release earlier. I tried a sample chapter from the CBK, but didn't like the writing style much.
The cybrary.it videos are awesome, I'm going to donate some $$'s to them, they really deserve it. The videos aren't highly detailed, but enough to give you an overview of all the topics for the exam.
All of my previous certification exams except for the MCSE NT4.0 and the GIAC GCIH cert have been self study, the CISSP prep follows the trend of self study.

Eburon

These slides from the internet are quite good. Thank you.

g33k3r

I haven't taken the exam yet so this is just my input of study resources I would add.

The combined notes look good as well. I pre-ordered the new Sybex CISSP Study Guide 7th Edition which has been updated and it should be here tomorrow. A recent passer of the exam suggested not focusing on too many sources. Personally I've really like Eric Conrads book and wish his updated version would have been out sooner. My friend passed the exam and took Eric Conrad's class. After reading the new Sybex book I'll probably focus on Transcender practice questions.

gomadina

I did my CISSP exam yesterday but could not pass

Got only 566 marks.
Have no idea which text book to use? I took ISC2 official seminars and used ISC2 official book which is useless.
I paid $3000 and to retake the exam will cost another $599.
Any recommendations?

rony1234

@gomadina, I'm sorry to hear about your exam. Don't worry there's always a second time.
I gave a list of references I'm using above, have you tried those earlier ? The cybrary.it videos and the Shon Harris mp3's are excellent.
I'm also using the Shon Harris AIO and the Eric Conrad study guide, I haven't as yet started reading through the books full time, but would be doing that soon.
Check out the slides from paladingrp that I included in my first post, I found that they do contain some pretty good information and oh yes the combined notes that g33k3r gave the link to in his post.
I wish you all the best with your second attempt for the exam..

Robicus

It looks like you have a good balance and blend of resources. It does seem like your time-frame is a bit aggressive but this may very well be offset by all of your experience.

Good luck!

rony1234

Thank you all...

I completed watching the Cybrary.it videos, thereafter read Eric Conrad 2nd edition. I did try reading Shon Harris AIO, but gave up after the second chapter.

I have now picked up the new Sybex CISSP Study Guide 7th Edition by James Stewart and Mike Chapple. I first tried a sample chapter in the Amazon Kindle app and then picked up the Kindle edition of the book.

paul78

rony1234 wrote: »

I did try reading Shon Harris AIO, but gave up after the second chapter.

Her style doesn't always work for everyone. I had the same issue and never went beyond a few pages either. You may find the MP3's better.

Also - you may find the Official ISC2 Guide to the CISSP CBK a useful resource. I usually buy the latest kindle version just to have as a reference.

Mike7

Eric Conrad's was my main study source and I used AIO for reference and practice questions.

You may want to try Shon Harris's video sessions at TechTarget : training for CISSP certification exam
Probably a condensed version of her audio MP3.