CISSP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, 4th Ed. (All-in-One)

Ms. Harris' book is written in a more conversational style than your average technical read, but don't forget you will be tested on the official ISC2 materials. I recommend their book for studying and Ms. Harris' book as a supplement, not a substitute.

Now less than 12 hours away from taking the test, I found many of the post-chapter questions to be not well-formed, though much the same can be said about the ISC2 workbook. It is evident the human factors practioners (those who actually study how to write good questions) have not vetted these.

The CD that comes with Ms. Harris's book is somewhat better. By the way, the 4th Ed. cover has a blue field, not a red one.

Wonderfully quick response and shipping time. Nice to have a request for any comments.

This book is presented in novel format where huge paragraphs dominate.
People don't mentally store information in paragraph format; they store it in bullets or chunks of data so you first have to read the paragraph, then deduce the bullets for mental storage. It's weird but I think most books are written like this.

There are endless stories about security using sometimes inappropriate metaphors for security which don't always equate to the technology at hand.

Also, the chapters aren't laid out in the 10 Domains covered by the CISSP exam so you have to jump around to go through the domains.

By comparison, the Sybex CISSP book does a worse job because the chapters aren't even named in relation to what the ten CISSP domains are so you have to guess which chapter goes to which domain.

There is good use of graphics but there is a lot of extra information not on the exam so if you're looking for a concise technical review of CISSP exam material, look elsewhere.

PS the Shon Harris videos are as long and drawn out.

I can honestly say that if it weren't for this book I probably would not have passed my CISSP exam. Unlike other prep-guides, Shon engages the reader and keeps their attention. Also, this book doesn't read like a "read this book and pass an exam" book. It reads like a security book which just so happens to teach you the contents of the CISSP CBK. Good work and congrats on the 4th edition.

I just passed the CISSP exam using, almost exclusively, the Shon Harris, 4th ed., 'All in ONE, CISSP Exam Guide' - supplementing Harris with some additional materials on networking and encryption. It took me about 7 weeks to study the materials before taking the exam despite a busy work schedule (my background is operations). The book is an excellent resource for most of the 10 knowledge domains with special mention to LAW, and Physical Security. However, the Networking and Encryption Domains were not nearly adequate - not enough information and presented at a level below that of the actual exam. Use the questions at the end of each chapter as review but be WARNED, most of the chapter review questions are much to simple. Seek out other text books for more representative exam questions(combining knowledge with logic and practical scenarios). Also, do not waste your time on the questions found on the CD - way, way to simple. I found the book a little verbose for my taste but the many tables, diagrams, summary areas, and the quite excellent Quick Tips section at the end of each chapter more than made up for this minor flaw.