When my CISSP exam ended at question 100, after 95 minutes, I had passed!
I've turned the notes I used into a free, open resource: Awesome CISSP.
Who it's for
The guide is for security architects, engineers and senior practitioners who already have a solid technical background.
If that's you, the technology probably isn't what will trip you up on the CISSP. The business side is. The exam keeps asking what a manager would do, and the right answer is almost never "fix it." You need to be comfortable with risk, governance, accountability, the law and senior management's priorities.
This guide covers exactly that gap.
Built on Eleventh Hour CISSP
The approach comes straight from the Eleventh Hour CISSP book: short, dense and made for final review instead of learning something for the first time. The guide is mostly tables, key tips and exam traps.
It covers:
- The CISSP manager mindset: business first, accountability vs. responsibility, due diligence vs. due care
- "Golden" and "brown" words that help you spot the managerial answer
- Risk management, the SLE/ALE formulas and the NIST RMF
- The governance documentation hierarchy
- Legal, regulatory and privacy requirements, plus the ISC2 Code of Ethics
- Control types, asset security and the formal security models
A note on AI
I used AI to format the guide and make it look good. The content and the approach are word for word what I studied to pass the exam. AI made it prettier; it didn't make it up.
Don't skip the Official Study Guide or the practice tests
This guide is meant for final review, not as your only source. The ISC2 CISSP Official Study Guide and the Official Practice Tests were a big part of my preparation.
They matter because they show you how much detail the exam expects and how ISC2 words its questions. The practice tests in particular train you to spot the managerial answer when several choices look technically correct.
One caveat: you won't be tested to the full technical depth of the Official Study Guide. Use it to understand concepts and how far they reach, but don't get lost memorizing technical details. The exam cares much more about whether you can make the right business decision.
How I'd use it
- Read the guide once early on to find your weak areas on the business side.
- Study those areas with the Official Study Guide, and check your level with the Official Practice Tests.
- In the final 48 hours, go back to this guide and rebuild the formulas and mnemonics from memory.
- On exam day, write the risk formulas on your scratch paper as soon as you accept the NDA.
The guide is free, open source and open to contributions. If it helps you pass, I'd love to hear about it.