Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Hi. Many have written reviews about the Sybex 7th and some for the 8th Edition before the exam. Very few have reviews after the exam. Bought the 8th Edition and used it as my primary source for preparation for the exam as well as the practice question book which I will write a review on that book. Have the 7th Edition as well. First, let me say Amazon did a great job packaging the book for delivery. Second, after reading the book cover to cover at least three time and taking good notes with mind maps all the online Wiley practice exams with a score of over 90%, I did not pass the exam on 10 August. Third, the back of the book claims that get more than 90% of the answers correct, you are ready for the exam. That claim is simply not true. I took a 2 week CISSP review course and they referenced the official ISC2 4th Edition and the Shon Harris all in one 7th Edition. They did say many of the questions on the real exam are similar to Sybex. What I saw this past Friday was not even close to the practice questions. I have been an excellent test taker all my life and the first time I didn't pass an exam. I have a Master Degree in IT, CompTIA Security + CE Certified and certifications in Software Development Security and Technical Project Management with over 10 plus years in IT Management. If you are considering buying this book for the CISSP exam, it is not enough to pass the exam, even if you get 90% or better on all practice exams. The recommended books are the ISC2 Fourth Edition and Shon Harris 7th All in One, Eric Conrad, 3rd Edition and the old Shon Harris videos, and the recent Sharon Green Videos. We had a 50% pass rate in our review class, which was not good at all because many used the Sybex book as opposed to the official guide which the instructors used--that is the ISC2 Official Guide 4th Edition. Sybex is a good book maybe as a reference once you are CISSP certified as a reference but it does not prepare you for the exam, despite the claims of 90% or better on all practice exams you are ready to test. Simply not a true statement. If you are serious about the CISSP, this book is NOT enough to pass the exam. That being said, the Sybex interactive test bank is good to learn the concepts at the surface. But you need to know below the surface to understand the real exam and what is being asked. This is a management exam, not an exam how many bits are there in an MD5 Hashing Algorithm. The questions on the real exam are very conceptual where others are obvious. The Sybex 7th edition and 8th edition are good as a supplemental source but not the primary source.