topic Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced in Exams

ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

AlecTrevelyan — Sat, 15 Feb 2020 11:16:19 GMT

If you weren't aware, ISC2 carried out a job task analysis a little while back for the ISSAP exam, and this has now resulted in changes to the exam which were recently published and will take effect on 14th October 2020:

https://www.isc2.org/Certifications/CISSP-Concentrations/ISSAP-Domain-Change-FAQs

A cursory review of the current and new exam outlines shows that the domains might have been reordered and renamed but are effectively the same. However, comparing the tasks/subtasks in each domain shows a number of changes across most domains. This is in stark contrast to the recent CCSP update where the changes seemed superficial - I'd go so far to say this is quite a comprehensive update, certainly in comparison to the CCSP one.

Both ISSAP exam outlines are available here:

https://www.isc2.org/Certifications/CISSP-Concentrations#accordion-e710150063af4c4e9f56a9d5ac612864

As ever questions will arise about updated training material - particularly an updated CBK! We'll have to wait and see on that (I won't be holding my breath), so in the meantime I'd still recommend to look to the suggested reference list for your learning materials:

https://www.isc2.org/issap-cbk-references

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

AppDefects — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 03:11:07 GMT

What we miss giving candidates, who are mid-stream in their certification journey, is a clear and concise synopsis of the CBK changes. I'd love to see (ISC)2 committed to delivering that to take the guess work out of the success equation.

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

Kaity — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 20:14:04 GMT

Hello there!

I wanted to let you know we've just published a Domain Refresh Guide for the CISSP-ISSAP today so that you can more easily see the changes in the 2 versions of the exam outline.

I hope this helps - https://www.isc2.org/-/media/ISC2/Certifications/Domain-Refresh/CISSP-ISSAP-DomainRefresh.ashx?la=en&hash=ED7AACB92C28C75B882B372034A7C6C5788B8F0B

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

Terminator — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 08:26:58 GMT

Thanks you @Kaity for your reply. I downloaded the new domain changes and it seems promising. I hope to see a new CBK book as the domains have been changed a lot and even the industry is now a bit different compared the time the old CBK was released.

Since I am using CBK books for reference or as starting point sometime, it would be nice to have a new CBK books released maybe in September.

Any ETA for new books?

Thanks

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

Kaity — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 15:37:34 GMT

Hi @Terminator - I'll check to see about the CBK, since I'm not sure. I do know that the course will be updated on the date the exam changes, though.

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

gidyn — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 12:48:59 GMT

@Kaity wrote:
Hi @Terminator - I'll check to see about the CBK, since I'm not sure. I do know that the course will be updated on the date the exam changes, though.

Any news on the CBK, now that the new exam has taken effect?

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

Terminator — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 13:02:37 GMT

Hi Gidyn,
thanks for your info. To be honest, I took and passed the exam at the end of September 2020.

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

AlecTrevelyan — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 22:38:41 GMT

@gidyn wrote:
@Kaity wrote:
Hi @Terminator - I'll check to see about the CBK, since I'm not sure. I do know that the course will be updated on the date the exam changes, though.
Any news on the CBK, now that the new exam has taken effect?

Glad I didn't hold my breath! 😋

@AlecTrevelyan wrote:

As ever questions will arise about updated training material - particularly an updated CBK! We'll have to wait and see on that (I won't be holding my breath), so in the meantime I'd still recommend to look to the suggested reference list for your learning materials:

https://www.isc2.org/issap-cbk-references

BTW - I note the link to the online course no longer works, but unfortunately it doesn't point to a new course yet:

https://enroll.isc2.org/product?catalog=ISSAP-SPT-GLOBAL-2020

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

Terminator — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 07:19:33 GMT

The book content must be updated as Cloud, ICS/SCADA are absent (few lines on Cloud). The book does not reflect the current trend.

Regarding the exam, it is experience based (I can confirm). With the right experience you can take the exam without any big issue. The book is a good reference, but remember that the exam is experience-based. I took the old exam (before 14th of October). I am not sure about the new version but I guess it is still experience-based. Hope my point of view helps to others taking underconsideration the exam.

Regards

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

AlecTrevelyan — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 07:49:45 GMT

@Terminator wrote:
Hi Gidyn,
thanks for your info. To be honest, I took and passed the exam at the end of September 2020.

Forgot to say... Congrats on passing and welcome to the club!

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

gidyn — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 08:48:50 GMT

@Terminator wrote:
Regarding the exam, it is experience based (I can confirm). With the right experience you can take the exam without any big issue. The book is a good reference, but remember that the exam is experience-based. I took the old exam (before 14th of October). I am not sure about the new version but I guess it is still experience-based. Hope my point of view helps to others taking under consideration the exam.

The problem with "experience-based" is that it requires you to have experience (or at lest some decent exposure) in every aspect of every domain. Furthermore, there are wildly different approaches to security architecture between organisations, and my experience won't necessarily be the correct answer. CISSP instructors often caution candidates that the question is asking for the CISSP view of things, not the way your company does it.

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

gidyn — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 08:53:25 GMT

See, for example, https://community.isc2.org/t5/Exam-Preparation/ISSAP-fail/m-p/18623/highlight/true#M1993

The results of the exam were even more perplexing, the lowest scoring domains are the ones that I have had the most experience in (10+ years) IAM, security architecture. My highest ones were the ones I have relatively little experience (legal/compliance), DR (we have departments that handle a good portion of this).

Re: ISSAP Exam Changes Announced

Kaity — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 13:03:43 GMT

Here is a link to the updated course -

https://enroll.isc2.org/product?catalog=ISSAP-SPT-GLOBAL