topic Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug? in Member Support

Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Stpn2me — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 13:39:36 GMT

I was wondering with the test changing on Aug 1st, are the changes drastic enough to warrant new study material?

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

AppDefects — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 14:04:38 GMT

@Stpn2me wrote:
I was wondering with the test changing on Aug 1st, are the changes drastic enough to warrant new study material?

I asked about material changes to the exam blueprint in this thread here and the answer was that there were none. Whether or not a book update is published depends upon the author Adam Gordon.

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Stpn2me — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 14:08:21 GMT

Thanks for your help. I'll just keep studying the guide I have then..

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Kaity — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 14:51:30 GMT

Hello! We have some information on the changes on our website here: CCSP FAQ.

A new course will be out in October, but I'm not sure about the study guide book since that goes through the publisher. I will check with the education team to see if they have some information to share.

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Narsil — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 01:31:02 GMT

@Kaity wrote:
Hello! We have some information on the changes on our website here: CCSP FAQ.

A new course will be out in October, but I'm not sure about the study guide book since that goes through the publisher. I will check with the education team to see if they have some information to share.

That would be great to know, as I'm thinking of studying for the CCSP soon.

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

CraginS — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 12:47:29 GMT

@Stpn2me wrote:
I was wondering with the test changing on Aug 1st, are the changes drastic enough to warrant new study material?

The problems (ISC)2 causes by not having a logically planned staging of new exam content, correlated study guide, followed by introduction of the new exam were the core topic last September of the thread

Release Order Wrong for Updated Exams

with important input form an expert on the process, Clement Dupuis @clementdupuis .

Sadly, it appears that the suggestions in that thread have fallen on deaf ears, and there has been no change in the haphazard introduction of new exams by (ISC)2.

@Kaity Kaity, I don't recall seeing you active in the Community last fall, so you may not have seen that thread. Please review that thread and pass it back to @david-shearer , the content teams and to the Board itself. This is something that David and all the Board should be focused on.

While on this topic, I'd also point out that a closely related management issue is the loss of the Common Body of Knowledge as a detailed outline of the CBK topics and subtopics. We discussed that problem on the thread at

CISSP CBK - where to find updated CBK

A full CBK topic outline, with or without relevant reference documents, was essential to many of us older CISSPs in preparing for our exams. Trying to pretend that the published study guide is synonymous with the CBK is not logical.

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

dcontesti — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 16:40:13 GMT

@CraginS wrote:
@Stpn2me wrote:
I was wondering with the test changing on Aug 1st, are the changes drastic enough to warrant new study material?
The problems (ISC)2 causes by not having a logically planned staging of new exam content, correlated study guide, followed by introduction of the new exam were the core topic last September of the thread
Release Order Wrong for Updated Exams
with important input form an expert on the process, Clement Dupuis @clementdupuis .

Sadly, it appears that the suggestions in that thread have fallen on deaf ears, and there has been no change in the haphazard introduction of new exams by (ISC)2.

@Kaity Kaity, I don't recall seeing you active in the Community last fall, so you may not have seen that thread. Please review that thread and pass it back to @david-shearer , the content teams and to the Board itself. This is something that David and all the Board should be focused on.
While on this topic, I'd also point out that a closely related management issue is the loss of the Common Body of Knowledge as a detailed outline of the CBK topics and subtopics. We discussed that problem on the thread at
CISSP CBK - where to find updated CBK
A full CBK topic outline, with or without relevant reference documents, was essential to many of us older CISSPs in preparing for our exams. Trying to pretend that the published study guide is synonymous with the CBK is not logical.

From my point, I see the organization spending money on courses through the PDI but the problem of lagging updates to the Study material still persists. It is an age old problem and one that has plagues the organization from the beginning when it was volunteer run. When I took the exam (1996ish) there were no study guides or handbooks, there was a practice exam that you could purchase and very expensive training course from (ISC)2...this was before the other training came along.

The organization then starting developing study guides but unfortunately they lagged behind changes to the CBK, typically about six months so folks were disadvantaged.

When the domains went from ten to eight (CISSP exam), it was the same issue, and folks once again kept asking for information.

I am not sure how the material is being developed today, but in the past the changes were approved, ratified, etc. about six months prior to release....they used to rely on member volunteers to write the material. I know that writing is difficult and sometimes can take a while maybe the organization needs to step back and look at how it approaches these materials....or changing the process for updating the exams DCO (Content Outlines)....

my nickel canadian

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

rslade — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 18:40:39 GMT

> Stpn2me (Newcomer III) posted a new topic in Member Support on 07-19-2019 09:39

> I was wondering with the test changing on Aug 1st, are the changes
> drastic enough to warrant new study material?

Short answer: no.

Longer answer:
Look, don't sweat the "do I have the absolute very latest CISSP study materials?"
trivia. The CISSP is intended to figure out if you know the fundamentals of
infosec. Yes, there are some questions that are straight factual bits, but those are
in the minority. I'm fairly certain that I could take some of the study materials
that I have buried under the piles in my office from twenty years ago and get a
candidate successfully through the exam.

====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@computercrime.org
Harry shrugged, `How's everything going'
`Greger sleeps when he has to, eats what he has to and hardly
ever cries.' She smiled. `And for me that's everything now.
... [How are you?]' ...
`I'm paranoid,' Harry said. `I have the feeling I'm hunting
someone who it manipulating me, that everything is chaotic and he
is making me do exactly what he wants. Do you know the feeling?'
`Yes,' Beate said. `I call him Greger.'
- `The Snowman', Jo Nesbo
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://twitter.com/rslade
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
https://is.gd/RotlWB

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Stpn2me — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 22:58:33 GMT

I want to thank everyone for the replies. I'm going to just continue on my path for this cert. It's different than for other certs like the CAP, where you could map the study areas to the SDLC. I was just looking for something like that. I'll keep studying and make it happen!

Pat Hairston

CISSP, CAP

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Narsil — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 08:37:04 GMT

@rslade wrote:
Short answer: no.

Longer answer:
Look, don't sweat the "do I have the absolute very latest CISSP study materials?"
trivia. The CISSP is intended to figure out if you know the fundamentals of
infosec. Yes, there are some questions that are straight factual bits, but those are
in the minority. I'm fairly certain that I could take some of the study materials
that I have buried under the piles in my office from twenty years ago and get a
candidate successfully through the exam.

Fair point, however this thread is discussing the CCSP and its related materials, not the CISSP.

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Kaity — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 23:56:52 GMT

I reached out to the Ed team on Friday. Hoping for a response soon!

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Kaity — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 00:00:31 GMT

There are rules - related to ANSI - that dictate when updates to an exam can be shared, and the process to update the educational materials is quite involved, so it does take some time to provide new coursework or books. However, I will certainly review the thread you referenced - thank you!

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Kaity — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 18:24:56 GMT

@CraginS I appreciate your concern around the timing issue related to exam updates and education/training updates. What I can share to shed a bit of light on the issue is that (ISC)² is subject to ISO 17024 standard accreditation requirements, which means that the team that produces the certification examinations is only able to provide new certification information to the group that produces training and education at the time it is released to the general public.

Due to these limitations, in general, we strive to release new training and education content for certifications within two months of new certification exam version releases. As should be clear for a professional certification program, development of training materials necessarily follows the establishment of the examination detailed content outline. On rare occasion, due to circumstances beyond our control, new training and education content for certifications may be delayed two months. As all nine of our certification program exam versions are released on a 3-year cycle, there is minimal impact to candidates. This regular and consistent schedule of certification exam and subsequent education and training materials release allows for candidates who have, in some cases spent years of preparation, adequate time and notice to schedule examination delivery prior to an examination outline changes. Candidates who do not feel prepared to take their exam are encouraged to revisit the (ISC)² exam registration information policies and procedures to consider rescheduling their examination appointment.

If you need info on the CCSP exam updates, please see the FAQ located here: https://www.isc2.org/Certifications/CCSP/Domain-Refresh-FAQ

As for your questions regarding the CBK, we recently published “The Official (ISC)2 CISSP CBK Reference” which can be found here on our website. https://www.amazon.com/Official-ISC-Guide-CISSP-CBK/dp/1119423341. Is that the book you’re referring to?

Apologies for a long answer. I hope this helps to explain the reasoning behind the timing.

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Terminator — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 11:54:55 GMT

The CCSP FAQ does not say nothing if the exam objectives are changing or not.

I hope that a deep review of questions has been performed since I tried the exam twice and 2 times I found questions with no sense or not well written. I will try the exam next 2 August with the hope that questions content are more realistic and some of them have been removed.

I did not have any issue with CISSP exam and material but the CCSP questions/answers in my opinion need to be reviewed.

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

AlecTrevelyan — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 13:22:59 GMT

On the CCSP page if you navigate to where the exam outlines are located (2. Register and Prepare for the Exam) it states there the exam is changing and has done for the last six months or so.

In terms of the questions, I have stated a few times on here that of the five ISC2 exams I have sat I found the CCSP the most challenging. This was mostly to do with the wording of the questions being very doublespeak-esque, and the extra concentration required to understand what they were actually asking because of that.

I know some people were claiming they had a few really easy questions. I didn't see anything easy. All of mine seemed to be four paragraphs long, with each of the answers being a long paragraph itself. I was actually having to scroll up and down the page to read through many of the questions and answers. When you can't see the whole question and all the answers in one view then I find that adds to the level of difficulty. Also, I'm not just talking about scenario based questions either which do tend to require more words to set the scene.

However, I don't think you can compare the CCSP exam to the CISSP exam as the CISSP is more of a generalist certification and therefore the questions aren't testing a deep level of knowledge. Whereas the CCSP is a specialist certification and therefore the questions are testing a deeper level of knowledge. As such, I don't think it's fair to say "I passed the CISSP so I should pass the CCSP and if I don't it's down to badly written questions". Plenty of us have managed to pass the exam despite the questions being overly long and written in doublespeak.

Re: Are they going to issue a new CCSP study guide with the test change for Aug?

Kaity — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 16:05:03 GMT

With the (massive) caveat that I have never taken the exam before and don't work in cloud security, I can share that the differences are mostly in the domain names - which are minor - and weights.

Also, just to let you know, the CCSP training is being offered at a special rate right now and you do have access for 120 days. The content will be updated October 1 to be in line with the new exam outline, so if you time it right, you can get the new course access even if you buy it ahead of the change. I hope that helps!