CISSP Study Material Advice

hustlin_moe20 · 03-07-2010, 04:34 AM

I'm about to embark on my CISSP journey and would like to ask for advice on any helpful resources. My only CISSP in the workplace took his in 2001 and had no relevant study material or advice for me. I currently have the new 5th edition Shon Harris book which just came out Jan 2010, CBT Nuggets CISSP, and Testout CISSP. I'm also a member of CCCURE.com. Does anyone else have any advice?

JDMurray · 03-07-2010, 02:02 PM

Use the study methods that work best for you. If reading or taking notes is not your thing, use the training videos and practice exams to study. A lot of people try to force themselves to read giant books to prepare when that is not the best way they learn.

Study partners can be invaluable for motivating you and helping you to practice. Find other people who might be interested in InfoSec and form a study group. Get that CISSP interested in finding out what has changed in the past nine years (a lot).

Nothing helps you learn material better (IMHO) than learning how to teach the material. Take notes as if you are preparing a lesson plan to teach a CISSP class, where you will give a 30-second talk on each subject. That certainly fixes the information into your mind and shows where the holes in your knowledge are.

hustlin_moe20 · 03-08-2010, 02:06 AM

No doubt, thanks for the advice. That's some advice I can use.

JDMurray · 03-08-2010, 12:42 PM

It just occurred to me (as I was reading my own post) that I didn't mention putting together a study plan for yourself. Use the table of contents of your CISSP materials to create a syllabus of the topics you will be studying, in what order, and at what time. The CISSP topics are so broad that people get confused where they are in their studies and loose track of what they did and how far they have to go. A study plan keeps you on track and (hopefully) motivates you not to fall behind in your research.