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

By: Phil Martin

Narrated by: Phil Martin

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

Good audio book as a complementary CISSP resource

Excellent explanations, however as most people have already stated the sound quality fluctuation is annoying sometimes.
If the author just spent a few more bucks on getting a sound professional assistance this would be the perfect audio book.
I recommend this book for knowledge assurance.

This book helped me pass the CISSP Exam

For me, this book was key to pass the exam! It became my "go to" for learning, prepping, and studying for the CISSP exam. I also had a copy of the official Cybrex guide, but I felt "Essential CISSP" provided better, more in-depth explanations of concepts. Some chapters I would listen to multiple times, such as cryptography.
I would listen to this book before going to sleep at night, while driving, and while exercising. For the easier topics, I would listen to it at 1.5 speed. In hindsight, I would have also bought the Kindle version of the book as a companion to the audiobook. Some of these topics are complexed, and it easier to understand them visually (like the various modes of 3DES encryption and Kerberos.)
Be aware that the author reads the book, and he does a pretty good job. However, I would have preferred to hear 'James Earl Jones' explain TCP/IP stacks & the OSI Model. ;-)

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.

Great preparation book for CISSP

Helped all ow me to pass certification in concert with a two week boot camp and self study.

Excellent supplementary content

Passed the test this Jan and it was super tough. This audio book was perfect supplementary content on the go, working out, in the car, you can study. This book is about as good as it gets organizing this super dry content in a form that you can comprehend via audio. The audio cues for different sections and billet points are very helpful. The author has a slight southern American accent, which he addresses at the beginning. It didn’t put me off a bit, but it may for some folks. Very grateful this existed to help me pass.

Listening and reading

Great audio book to pair with the printed official study guide. The author breaks the material up by domain which differs from the official study guide making it a good pairing for me. He covers each domain thoroughly.

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.

good overview to listen to while working

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

Good for multitasking

Good book for when you are walking or driving and want to study for CISSP. Don't listen to anyone who rates it below 5/5 that write a long paragraph. they are wannabe authors.

packed with useful information

I've listened to numerous types of IT audiobooks on audible This one hands down has the most information of any of them that I've heard so far It is most definitely worth it if you're trying to strengthen your knowledge