I was so grateful for the outpouring of congrats on passing my CISSP exam. I saw questions of materials I used and wanted to make sure I did that because I definitely couldn’t have done it without help as well.

BOOKS:

· (ISC)2 CISSP Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide, 8e & CISSP Official (ISC)2 Practice Tests, 2e 2nd Edition (Authors: Mike Chapple, David Seidl, James Michael Stewart, Darril Gibson)

o I found I wasn’t that interested in the style of writing. I made it about 3 chapters in before I ended up using it as a last minute resource for last minute concepts.

§ Link: https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Information-Security-Professional-Official/dp/1119523265/

· CISSP Study Guide 3rd Edition (Authors: Eric Conrad, Seth Misenar, Joshua Feldman)

o I read this one front to back in paperback 1st. I did it so I could follow the FR Secure schedule(more on that later). I was able to read it but in the first pass I didn’t feel that I got everything down that would be enough for the exam.

§ Link: https://www.amazon.com/CISSP-Study-Guide-Eric-Conrad/dp/0128024372/

· CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Eighth Edition 8th Edition (Authors: Shon Harris, Fernando Maymi)

o I ended up reading this as my 2nd book from beginning to end. I had access to it in digital form for free so I read it on my kindle. I enjoyed reading this one the most. After reading this one I felt more confident in my knowledge.

§ Link: https://www.amazon.com/CISSP-All-One-Guide-Eighth/dp/1260142655/

· Eleventh Hour CISSP®: Study Guide 3rd Edition(Authors: Eric Conrad, Seth Misenar, Joshua Feldman)

o I read this one last from beginning to end. I read it in the last weekend before taking my exam. I felt this one is also a confidence booster if you are getting their end of practice exams. I had access to the digital version of this for free as well.

§ Link: https://www.amazon.com/Eleventh-Hour-CISSP%C2%AE-Study-Guide/dp/0128112484/

I had free access to these resources in digital form I found out from a coworker through our company subscription to Skillsoft. Super grateful for that tip, I definitely took advantage of it for a few.

VIDEOS:

Full courses:

· Kelly Handerhan on Cybrary for CISSP

o Her videos are available under the free plan. I really appreciated how she broke down concepts, especially Kerberos to a carnival.

§ Link: https://www.cybrary.it/course/cissp/

· Mike Chapple on LinkedIn Learning/Lynda

o I got free access with my local public library membership 😊. Mike Chapple’s videos are pretty straight forward which was helpful with the many concepts you need to get down.

§ Link: https://www.lynda.com/learning-paths/IT/prepare-for-the-certified-information-systems-security-professional-exam

Tips:

· Why you WILL pass the CISSP-Kelly Handerhan on Youtube with CyberTrain IT

o Many people will say you need the mindset as well as the knowledge, this helped put me in the right direction right before my exam as well as when I was answering practice questions.

§ Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-99b1YUFx0A

· CISSP 2018 Exam Tips-Larry Greenblatt

o Gives a pretty good expectation of how the exam is given as well as more tips on the mindset. Also watched this close to exam time.

§ Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLYbFtS7G9E

GROUPS:

· FR Secure

o This company is awesome! They offer a free program for studying the CISSP and go over the concepts in 2 hour sessions that met twice a week for 7 weeks. You can go in person if you live in Minnetonka, MN or you can get access to the live meeting if you are outside like the area like I was. I ended up watching the videos from start to finish later (they leave them accessible on youtube) as I was really busy with finishing another cert towards the end of April. They only offer the live sessions once a year so the next offering is 2020, but you can still access 2019 slides and videos and they are great.

§ Link: https://frsecure.com/cissp-mentor-program/

· Women’s Cyberjutsu

o I really appreciate Women’s Cyberjutsu. They are a wonderful organization that wants to help women advance their CyberSecurity Careers. I was fortunate enough to attend study sessions lead by Kat Duncan. We had weekly sessions through joinme that was held back in May/June. You do need to be a member to take advantage of their groups and get the latest of when things are offered but it is totally worth it. The community alone is amazing.

§ Link: https://womenscyberjutsu.org/page/TRAIN

· Meetup

o I was able to find a local group studying for the exam and went to a few sessions. It really nice to talk out the answers with others. We were using the end of the chapter questions from the (ISC)2 CISSP Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide, 8e book and going over them with 3 chapters a week. That was about 60 questions a session. This was free and glad it was offered. Big thanks to Leo for offering them!

§ (If you are in the DC/MD/VA area they have 2 more sessions left) Link: https://www.meetup.com/DC-Cyber/events/

PRACTICE EXAMS:

· CISSP Practice Exams (Author: Richard Anderson)

o Richard gave access to these for free on Reddit. I took each 1 time, I definitely didn’t score as high as I wanted but couldn’t pass up free with different content.

§ Original post I followed for the content: https://www.reddit.com/r/cissp/comments/dvgkte/two_practice_exams_free/

§ Direct link: https://www.udemy.com/course/cissp-practice-exams/

· (ISC)2 CISSP Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide, 8e & CISSP Official (ISC)2 Practice Tests, 2e 2nd Edition (Authors: Mike Chapple, David Seidl, James Michael Stewart, Darril Gibson)

o I bought the bundle with the practice book included. I signed up right away for access to the online version. It was nice to not have to mark up my book and you could mix up the questions from specific domains as needed. Super recommend. This was my main study source.

§ Link: https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Information-Security-Professional-Official/dp/1119523265/

· Total Seminars Training Hub(content available from CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Eighth Edition 8th Edition by Shon Harris )

o This resource was free if you had the Shon Harris CISSP book. There were both practice questions and Simulation questions. I ended up using mostly the Simulation questions.

§ Link: https://hub.totalsem.com/mheclaim

· Thor Teaches CISSP Questions Blog

o I did a few questions by Thor and if you need extra practice there are quite a few free he offers in his blog.

§ Link: https://thorteaches.com/free-daily-cissp-questions/

· Free CISSP Study Questions of the Day from IT Dojo

o I did a few of the videos offered by IT Dojo. It was nice that each video had usually 2 questions and the explanations of elimination were helpful.

§ Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZSAZ1neFZk&list=PLBpnwlO9U5unYmbZp2DJETNOHg8s_yW37

· CISSP Practice Questions with Spock & Kirk-Larry Greenblatt

o These videos are offered for each domain and again gives a great technique on process of elimination and understanding of the question wording. Hopefully you are ok with the Star Trek references, I thought it was a nice touch.

§ Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG9JN9X4_ZI&list=PL5BpytesnkhSH-V7V-M3NL9149aUQ69e2&index=7

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

· Reddit (CISSP)

o In my last month before I took the exam I stumbled on this online community. I found some extra resources I shared from this group. I definitely recommend them if you have a concept you aren’t quite understanding and need an additional point of view to explain it. For the most part I’ve seen the posts pretty helpful.

§ Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/cissp/

Best of Luck on your CISSP journey!