Essential CISSP Exam Guide: Updated for the 2018 CISSP Body of Knowledge

By: Phil Martin

Narrated by: Phil Martin

Length: 17 hrs

Publisher's Summary

The CISSP certification is the gold standard for security professionals, but ISC2‘s official study guide is anything but easy to read. Many books have tried to simplify this but fail to leave behind the $100 words and run-on sentences. An update to the original Simple CISSP book, Essential CISSP Exam Guide takes the entire official study guide and breaks it down into easy-to-absorb chapters with simple language. Tons of examples are included to drive the points home in a way that makes it effortless to remember. This Second Edition has been updated for the 2018 CISSP Body of Knowledge, and covers all 10 domains:   

• Security and Risk Management  
• Asset Security Security  
• Architecture and Engineering  
• Communication and Network Security  
• Identity and Access Management (IAM)  
• Security Assessment and Testing  
• Security Operations  
• Software Development Security   

Please note that chapters may not have a descriptive name as displayed on your mobile device - this is limitation of the publishing platform. However, each chapter will always start with the title being read aloud, so it should be fairly simple to scan through chapters when you wish to revisit a subject.

©2018 Nonce Corp (P)2018 Nonce Corp

Great descriptions of somewhat dry content

If you're studying already, you know there's a TON to the CISSP. Great to listen to in the car and in free time to reinforce other study materials. The way he breaks down lists makes it easy to follow without having to take notes to break it down. Great study asset.

Editing review because there is not a PDF listed to download as mentioned.

Missing the actual book

I am enjoying the audiobook, but at times I feel the need to refer back to certain sections in the audio book, but that's just not possible.
Firstly the actual book in pdf format is not available for visual cues, nor does the audio has transcripts that one can fall back to.
Secondly, the sections and chapters are not labelled anywhere, so if I want to refer back, and listen to a section again, i just don't know how to do it.

Requesting Audible and the Author to review this feedback and provide the option.

Great way to break the ground

Unlike the other reviewers, I have been easily able to overlook (more likely: unaware of) any recording deficits.

This is an information-dense resource. I wouldn't and didn't expect to be familiar with the content after one sitting.

So properly consuming it needs a plan.

My methodology has been to run 9 two-hour long passes in the background without caring how much or little I took in. This book and its companion test questions follow the same order, So I allocated another hour to answering the questions; again: not judging how many I got wrong, or simply didn't know the answer to.
Doing that provided an 'I listened to it all and I was able to answer some questions about it' dopamine reward.

I also own the ICS2 CISSP CBK study guides and test questions which presents a cross-checking mechanism, as well as an avenue for additional research from 'the horses mouth'

While attempting to approximate the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve: wash, rinse and repeat several more times. With each session I recalled more and more information and I could objectively test that against the companion book. Accuracy of guesses improved (both educated and uneducated)

At each listening I heard new information: previously not 'heard' in other sessions. Perhaps the testing component primes the brain to listen more attentively for 'missing' information.

Next: I broke up the book in to the length of time for the chapter - specifically looking for chapters of about an hour in length. There has to be a reason for a chapter to be that long.

At this point, I still did not care about enumerating lists (of which there are many) There will be plenty of time later to drill in to these. 'Cloze deletions' and other techniques are more effective ways to learn lists. Having run through the material I know approximately where these lists are, and the context of the list.

Finally; I find myself able to 'hear' parts of the book and can mentally replay increasingly longer sections of the book.

I definitely recommend the book -- but its not going to ingest itself.

Study Supplement

Don't let the quality of audio stop you from purchasing this book if you are looking for a decent study supplement. The audio quality is poor as some other reviewers have previously stated but it is tolerable. The content that Phil provides is excellent and I would have rated this book at 5 stars had the audio quality been better.

good overview to listen to while working

this is a good audio book to listen to for overview and help get down CISSP concepts.

excellent content and entertaining as a bonus!

I listened to this book in preparation for the CompTIA exam (yes, not the exam it was intended for) - very helpful with a lot of great examples.... great for someone like me who is a novice in the field. Besides all of that, the author has a sense of humor that made me laugh aloud a number of times and really lightened the mood for serious study. I recommend this book highly!

Audible not a good format for this book

I listened to this each day I commuted to work to prep for my CISSP exam. Did I hear it all? Yes. Did I tune a lot of it out? Unfortunately, that too is a yes. This was a very dry delivery of a very dry, yet informative book. Basically, it felt like someone reading me a dictionary. But I have to give it at least two stars because somehow I learned more than I ever wanted to know about fire suppression systems.

Not sure what others heard

Not sure what everyone else heard.This was terrible. Very dry. No way to focus on chapter topics because everything is just called chapter.

I’d like more memorable treatment on all of the acronyms

I’d like more memorable treatment on all of the acronyms. It’s only as a career IT professional that has made me ready to understand what’s going on in this book. This book alone does not prepare to serve as a CISSP; perhaps pass the test, I don’t know yet.

I do appreciate that the scope of the test subjects are laid out.

Chapter Labeling

The lack of chapter labeling really bothers when trying to study from this book. Please Label

Please add chapter titles, book suffers without.

Like the content and book alot but the lack of any chapter titles is a big problem. Not being able to quickly skip through to the sections or chapters that are of interest or require more study is really quite ridiculous. All the effort that must have gone into writing and reading this book is let down by such a simple thing. Please retrospectively fix this issue.

Good in addition to other study material

This is great for travelling etc. I use it in conjunction with other study material, and I regularly listen back, and it helps embed the information. I wish there was a better indicator or description on the chapter index/table of content, so you can align objectives to particular sections.

Super Helpful

I just passed the CISSP examination. This book and other YouTube videos were super helpful.

very informative book, but section titles missing

section titles would make this book much more useful.
the explanation and performance are very good.

Really useful book

Im studying for CISSP exam and I've found this book to be really useful. The clear way the book is presented helped me to understand all the concepts - quite a difficult thing to do with such a technical subject matter. I would recommend this 100% for anyone taking the exam but also anyone who wants to brush up on IT security.

Great accompaniment to learning materials

I found this book really helpful for driving home some of the concepts. There is a lot to learn and it is a long book, so be prepared to spend some time really listening, and re-listening. It is narrated by the author and I think he does a great job. Definitely one of my best purchases.