You are totally right,

If one does sit down and spend enough time using the proper resources they will have success.

I am not trying to discredit ISC2 but they seem to be challenge to come up with a better course package. I was co-teaching this week with someone who has taught for ISC2 for 4 years and he confirmed what I was saying in the message above. A clear indication of this is the fact that ISC2 have started using material form Shon Harris for what they call their Gold Series instead of using their own. Shon has developed her own package and she has developed the Intense School package as well. She is really the CISSP lady right now.

I think the classroom training is good for people who really wish to go deeper within the domains or did not succeed very well on their own. One aspect that you also get is the networking, if you have an employer that has a training budget I would say GO FOR IT. If you pay from your own pocket it could be prohibitive.

You short list of resource resemble what I usually recommend.

Take care

Clement

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Hi, I just took the one week ICS2 sponsored bootcamp. Here's my conclusion:

1) too much material dumped at you to the point your brain simply can't absorb any more material. M-F classes, Sat full day review, Sun, the exam.
I wished I had a week after the class to take the exam. While everything still fresh in your head, most material did not sink into my long term memory, and especially with cryptography... terms were confused and mixed up.....

2) Since the cissp is so wide in scope, the course kind of directed us to focus on what's to be covered on the exam... for example, the orange book, only pointed us certain highlights to memorize, and it was true!

3) the review guide with the powerpoint slide presentation provided lots of points to concentrate on to the point that every single word on it counts. It's like trying to memorize the entire book!

4) the instructor was great! I think he gave us and explained above the guide, and drilled us on some concepts which did appear on the exam. Everysingle points he drilled us which did not appear on the guide was on the exam! So my just relying on books will not help.

5) here's how I did it:

a) Study the ISC2 guide, take notes or summarize the entire book first before you go the bootcamp.

2) during the bootcamp, take again notes or summarize the ISC2 review guide after each class. This is one way to sink into your brain.

3) do not waste too much time on the sample questions or CCCure.. may be helpful, but lots of questions were outdated. Concentrate on the materials given in class.

4) pay special attention to the instructor's main points.. My instructor is Dennis Lee, he really knows his stuff, and explains the concepts in plain english. ex. in cryptography, Kerberos, Dig signature, hash... PKI, the difficult concepts which I really had a hard time comprehending from books, but he white-boarded it step by step (which is much better than just a slide with all the steps).
Also, the important concepts definitions, he simply dictated to us rather than: here's a slide in your face... by doing this, it made us learn.... I said, learn right in class, not after class when you're doing it on your own review.... this way, lots of time were saved...


..... so, I took the test yesterday, I'm all burned out, but will continue studying if I failed (waiting agonizingly for the results now)
....

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I must say that the bootcamp did help me tremendously. But if you haven't done any studying prior to attending the camp, you'd be wasting your money...

The way I passed it was that I read the official guide from ISC2, summarized the book by writing my own notes.... which turned out to be close to 200 pages... went to the camp where they concentrated on what's important and what you can forget about..., then summarized again the materials given to me in class..
(I also used the Harris and Kurtz as references.... but at camp there were topics that was not covered by these books)

I have studied for about 2 months prior to the camp. Then suffer for a whole week at the camp, then took the test on Sunday.

The passing rate at the class were quite high. A few failed, but that's because they went out for beer every other night...

I've asked a few other test candidates prior to the exam who did not attend this camp, but they did attend other camps or training classess.... So conclusion, you'd have a much better chance of passing the CISSP if you attended some kind of training.... a good training that is....

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Hi Pixhead,

Thanks for your insights about the CISSP boot camp.. Originally o was suppose to take the boot camp in May but got rescheduled due to some office emergencies etc. Amyways, now i'm scheduled to take the boot camp in the month of September(Same vebdor "The traininf camp in PA" ) and had couple of questions to ask you about your experience at Training camp. I would appreciate if you can send me your contact info to sketanus at gmail dot com or let me know your e-mail address and i'll reach out to you.

Thanks in advance I'll appreciate your guidance.

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I run a security-related website, and I link to Clement's site all the time. It is a great asset to the infosec community on the web, whether you are studying for the CISSP or not. It is recommended daily reading.

And if you are indeed studying for the CISSP, you'd be crazy not to use all the features on that site.

I have had the pleasure of dealing w/ Clement from time to time and he has always been incredibly helpful and generous with both his time and his knowledge.

www.cccure.org : the only thing I don't like about that site is that it is not mine

Thanks Clement for all your hard work. it is very much appreciated, even if we don't always take the time to tell you!

__________________
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iCertify dot net: Free Forum, quizzes, study guides...

FreakNotes.com: free subnetting, DHCP, Network Security study guides! Also 120-page Security+ book and 100+ page Network+ book!

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CISSP Prep Course
English Instruction - US$850
http://www.training-partners.com/pa...sp?CourseId=124

Upcoming classes:
31.Oct to 04.Nov 2005
28.Nov to 02.Dec 2005

Contact:
Miss Audra Chaiyakul
Training Account Manager
Audra.C(AT)training-partners(DOT)com

Training Partners
193/41, Lake Rajada Building,11th Floor, Ratchadaphisek Rd
Khwaeng Khlong-Toey, Khet Khlong-Toey
Bangkok 10110
Tel# (66) 2 661-9555
Fax# (66) 2 661-9554
http://www.training-partners.com

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Good day Freak and all,

Once again I thank you for your kind comments and being such a great sport for the community. We need more people who are giving back freely as you are.

CCCure.Org is proud to announce that we have released our first every Flash Based tutorial on the CISSP exam. It is a must view for people who wishes to become a CISSP. Take a look and let me know what you think.

It has been viewed almost 6000 times over the past two weeks, be the judge yourself and plese do send feedback if you see anything missing. There has been more than half a dozen updates since it was released. Even ISC2 have sent me feedback and input.

The URL is:
http://www.cccure.org/modules.php?n...download&cid=92

Best regards to all

Clement

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I apoligize for asking this question, but I noticed that Clement talked about several of the prep courses from SANs to Intense School.
I am currently trying to prep for this exam & have employer funding to attend a prep course. I was very interested in people's opinions which course was better, SANs or Intense School.
I have been studying the Shon Harris book for the last few months & plan on using the course as a review & to fill in any holes I might have missed. I've also been using the cccure.org site as well. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

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