Here we attempt to answer the common questions we are asked about earning the Certified Information System Security Professional certification. If you’ve been asking yourself, “Is a CISSP bootcamp right for me?” you’ve come to the right place!

Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated using speech to text software. It’s imperfect, and we recommend listening to the actual video over reading this for the most accurate presentation.

Sid: 

Hey, this is Sid and Chris again to answer more questions about getting your CISSP credential.

So one of the questions we’re often asked is, “Is a CISSP bootcamp right for me?”

So Chris, what’s your take on that?

Chris: 

There’s no perfect answer. In general, the way that I think of it is, you’ve got these study materials that are out there, that are big and heavy, and they’re each a thousand or so pages of content and pretty dense.

And the biggest challenge when you’re not taking a bootcamp, or the reason why bootcamps exist for this exam and a number of others, is that when you’re first encountering CISSP, the universe of information that’s out there is massive.

And you honestly really struggle to say, “Well, what do I even need to be looking at?” Let’s say that the you know the universe of content on the exam is out here well what happens when you start studying around outside those boundaries.

What happens is when you’re studying you tend to study outside those boundaries because you just don’t know what counts and what doesn’t. Figuring out how to mentally organize all of the information takes hours and hours of time. It’s a very inefficient way to study. It’s also very cheap, which is why some people do it.

 Sid: 

But if you’ve never actually seen the exam you’re really have a good frame of reference to know what those questions are going to be.  You’re taking a thousand page book and trying distill out what is 100 to 150 question test that’s clearly going to be difficult.

 Chris: 

That’s why a CISSP bootcamp exists. We take a universe of information that’s out there, and we curate it down to what’s relevant for the test, and moreover what I like to do is break that information down into bite-sized chunks.

I think of it like I’m trying to feed you a whole tub of ice cream. Eating that whole tub at once is just too much – you can’t take it all in. So I break it up into bite-sized chunks and instead eat it one spoonful at a time.

By taking a methodology of studying one little sliver of this bigger universe of content and then immediately after studying and learning about the content having it explained to you where you get up to speed in a tenth of the time, and then immediately after that practicing.

And if you can reinforce it with that practice it might take you only fifteen minutes to master a concept but if you did it on your own it would in all likelihood take you several hours.

And do that and immediately after you practice then your retention of the material is so much better its amazing, let alone the number of people who start studying on their own and it takes time and time and time because honestly who wants to spend their free time reading a 1000 page boring book. It’s a momentum thing. It’s a motivation thing. The boot camp packages all of that and does it for you.

 Sid: 

We’ve seen people who are very good test takers and self starters and they’re motivated that would be able to do it on their own by getting one of those big thousand page books and working through it but choose a CISSP bootcamp because they can knock it out in a very short time and it gives them the motivation really excuse to focus on it.

 Chris: 

I think the way that a lot of people look at it is, “I’m a busy professional. My time is worth something. So here’s the cost of this training, and I’m going to pay a certain amount of money or my employer’s going to pay, which means I’m not paying anything. But whether I’m paying out of pocket or not there’s a value to my time. And so would I rather spend the hours in a bootcamp or spend five or ten times as many hours studying. “

And for those people that are intuitively valuing their time. They’re saying, “I’m a busy person. There’s a certain number of dollars per hour that I’m paid.”

 Sid: 

Or the cost of other things, right? So spending time with family, recreation or your actual job.

 Chris: 

Exactly. I think the CISSP bootcamp is great for people like that.

What is honestly not great for it is people who don’t want to pay any money. Not a good fit. That’s perfectly fine. There’s a whole universe of people who naturally select into one group or the other.

If you’re a college student you’re going to deviate down that path. Why? College students don’t value their time. College students don’t have any money. There’s a whole lot of reasons why you see people fork down one road or the other.

The people we see who bootcamps are right for is somebody who does value their time, somebody who wants it packaged up for them in a certain manner to save them the hassle, and they’re just worred that they’re busy and they’ll push it off until tomorrow like a diet. Well, when you’ve got a class and you’ve got to show up and have your but in a seat that motivates you to make it a priority.

It’s just like having an appointment to take the CISSP exam motivates you to get ready and study between now and then.

 Sid: 

Thanks Chris.

 Chris: 

Thank you.