ISSEP Certification – New Training Experience, New Exam Outline

[mariatirado]

ISSEP has officially been upgraded. The revised exam outline reflects the latest Job Task Analysis, and the new adaptive training is built to support systems security engineers with targeted, personalized instruction.

The platform adapts to your pace and confidence level, offering immediate feedback and dynamic content. Updated learning materials - including a revised eTextbook and study questions eBook - are now available to support your preparation.

If you specialize in systems security engineering, this is your opportunity to validate your expertise with a credential built for today’s challenges.

Learn more about the ISSEP updates: https://www.isc2.org/insights/2025/08/next-level-certifications-for-cissp 

[mangopudding]

@ervinfrenzel  / @nkeaton - I'm heading in on 12/31 morning to write my EP.  Thank-you for all the discussions and insights the past few months.  Will update you after.  

[ervinfrenzel]

@mangopudding go kick some butt tomorrow, you should do well.  I took it the third time but still had an issue with it - that is mine as I discovered I am overthinking it now.  The first one kinda blew me out of the water (which oddly I didn't do too bad for doing so horribly - passed a domain or two).  Haven't done that well since.  The others were significantly less technical, but I have done worse - so definitely overthinking it.  

Good luck, do well.

[nkeaton]

@mangopudding Best wishes.

[mangopudding]

Well... that EP exam kicked me.  😓

But heck - 2026 is only 11 hours away - New Year to prepare and re-write it to pass.  😊

Happy New Year!

[nkeaton]

@mangopudding  I am sorry to hear that.  At least you have a positive outlook over it.  Definitely the hardest practice test will ever take.  I know that I think that the CGRC and familiarity with the NIST documents were what got me through.  Just relax, and do what think is best in 30 days.  Best wishes.  

[ethanzbaker]

Passed in early December and got my approval Jan 2! I will say this is an interesting exam. The best strategy is to understand themes of the body of knowledge such that you can eliminate 2 or 3 of the answers. This gets you to between 50% and 75%. If you can know some answers cold, applying this strategy should get your overall score to pass level.

[HighlandLight]

I just took my 1st attempt at the ISSEP exam and sadly did not pass.  Unfortunately Pearson-Vue does not give a great deal of info on where you need to study.  They came back saying I was Below Proficiency  in all 5 domain.  I actually found this surprising since my self-paced testing showed me 90%+ proficient in Domains 3-5.

The exam questions are much harder, and the options in the multiple-choice are not nearly as obvious as they are in the practice tests.

I have another month to study for my 2nd try, so back to the books

[nkeaton]

@HighlandLight Well, that was definitely the hardest practice exam that you will ever take. I know that there were some changes to the former concentrations last year, but I passed mine in 2023 before that. So I hope that this is relevant to the current exam. I used the NIST documents in the suggested references for my study. I was very familiar with some of them already though. I know that many say that the ISSEP is the exam most commonly failed. It has a very different history than the other 2. Unfortunately there is not a good way to suggest how to think like an engineer. I am not sure if reading Luke Ahmed’s How to Think Like a Manager will help but is a light read but really helps with mindset focus. That and maybe some Prabh Nair videos over the weekend to give yourself a bit of a break mentally. Were the practice questions from ISC2 training? I never found any good practice questions when studying for mine. I would be glad to talk about the NIST documents if helpful to you. Best wishes.

[HighlandLight]

@nkeaton Thanks for your reply..  In my case, I am a Cyber Security Engineer and our organization pushes for us to get certifications.  The natural course would have been to go for my CISSP, but I feel the industry is very over-satuarated with that cert at this time, so I opted to go for the ISEEP.  I quickly realized that the cert is more designed for a role outside of the scope of what I do, but I still decided to jump in and go for it.  Domains 4-5 are very familiar to what I do, and Domain 3 was also familiar, but Domains 1-2 are related to Security in a different perspective than what I do (Engineer seems to mean many different things in the Security world).

I've been reading NIST 800-160 v1 and NIST 800-160 v2 as well as AITF 3.1 beyond the study materials form the Self paced course.  I realize I probably need to step back and focus on studying one Domain at a time before moving to the next. If there are any other NIST documents you recommend, I'd love to hear your suggestions

I also appreciate your suggestion on Luke Ahmed and Prabh Nair and I will be taking a look at both

[nkeaton]

@HighlandLightI will include the ISC2 suggested reference list. The SP 800-160 was the one that I had to read because was not familiar with it. You definitely want to know SP 800-37 and 53. The RMF process is fairly critical to know for the exam and is focused on in these documents. I passed the CAP (now CGRC) using those documents as well. I think it flows into the ISSEP better than the CISSP does. For me it was not as brutal as the CISSP. I am not a fan of adaptive exams. I know that the option is available now to skip the CISSP but have not talked with anyone that has done that. So I do applaud you for the attempt. Since you do not have a CISSP, you might get a good study guide and look up some of the things mentioned in the exam objectives because do feel that it is important to know the book definitions. I can suggest one if want. I hope that it goes better for you the next time.   https://www.isc2.org/certifications/references#ISSEP