CISSP OSG STUDY GROUP FROM START TO FINISH

So you have just started to study for the CISSP exam, you quickly realized that it is a very large challenge by yourself and you have decided to break the problem into little chunks and form a study group in your area.

This is a very good initiative on your part, I strongly recommend such a study group. However, I must warn you that it is not always easy and it has to be sustained by a dedicated group of volonteers. Below you will find some tips on how to get started, what to do once you have started the group, and a few tips on the exam preparation as well.

FORMING YOUR VERY OWN STUDY GROUP

1. PUBLICIZE YOUR INITIATIVE
First step will be to publicize your inititiative, below you have a few good places to start.

• Announce it on www.cccure.org Simply submit an article on the main page to announce that you wish to form a study group in your specific area. Visit the following URL to submit your announcement: http://www.cccure.org/modules.php?name=Submit_News
  
• Announce it on the CISSP Study mailing list. You can join the mailing list at the following URL: http://www.cccure.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=431
  
  
• Add it to the CCCure.Org study group forum for the CISSP. You can access the forum at the following link: http://www.cccure.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=5

2. START SMALL AND THEN EXPAND
Gather a group of people together who are willing to participate and help in setting up the study group. Do not wait until you have a very large number, it is better to run a small workshop at the beginning to iron out the bugs and to get better contacts. A small group of interested people is better than a crowd that does not wish to actively participate but only gain from the group.


3. BE A FACILITATOR, NOT AN EXPERT.
Look for volunteers who have the time and energy to facilitate a domain, an article, a portion of a domain, given everything else going on in their personal, family, and work lives. Ask for facilitators. Don't expect people to become experts on the topic. The facilitator prepares by reading the article enough to identify puzzling stuff or main points for discussion. The facilitator's goal is to make it easier for people to understand the subject or topic enough so the material is more likely to make sense as people study the common body of knowledge later.

Don't ask facilitators to prepare lenghty presentations or questions. The more difficult and time-intensive it is, the fewer people will volunteer. The facilitator may wish to just use a yellow highlighter for key phrases or concepts that should be discussed. Encourage people to share relevant personal stories and professional knowledge as you discuss as a group. Often time real life example will drive the point and your will never forget about it.


4. BE FLEXIBLE IN YOUR APPROACH
Do not expect anything, politely ask and hope for the better. Participants will vary. Accept that people are not able to come to every meeting. Sometimes everyone needs time for personal interests, family, or work at the same time as the study group meeting. Our group size varies from three to about seven different people each week.


5. FREQUENCY OF MEETING
You have to pick the frequency and days that you wish to run your training sessions. You have to think how long the training session will be as well. I would say: Do not meet more often than once a week, you need time to digest new material and also to come up with new material from meeting to meeting.

As a general rule: meet as often as reasonable on a regular schedule. Meet at a time that is convenient to most people. I have seen study groups that meets on Saturdays from 1-3 pm while others will meet at night during the week. Most study groups do not meet on statutory holiday weekends.

Do not try to schedule meeting in the middle of holiday season. Groups will usually stops over the holiday or chritmas season and then resume once the new year starts.


6. MUTUAL RESPECT
Mutual Respect is of the utmost importance. We all have our strenght and weaknesses and our good day and bad day. As my friend Ginger recommended: Treat everyone with respect. We welcome anyone crazy enough to choose to invest their time in playing, sharing, and learning with us at our meetings. People are encouraged to come even if they do not have time to read the article before the meeting. People are treated with respect for their intelligence no matter how much or little they already know about the security domains.

The idea is to help each other understand the ten security domains, share experiences, motivate each other, and demonstrate our knowledge by passing the CISSP exam.

7. CHOOSE A TARGET DATE FOR THE EXAM
Once you have a large enough group, you have to establish a target date that you wish to take the exam. I would say that you should start studying about 3 to 4 months prior to the exam in order to properly prepare. Once you have selected a date, you must use that date to build your group study plan.

If there is no exam schedule in your city, country, or area and you have a large group of person that would like to take the exam, you should contact ISC2 and attempt to arrange an exam in your area.

8. SELECT AN APPROPRIATE LOCATION
Now you have to ensure that you have a place to meet that is large enough for the group and that is easily accessible for all. One of the key factor of success is location, location, and location.

Meet at the same place as much as possible. People would be frustrated to discover that they are at the wrong place. Always include clear directions to the meeting location in your announcement emails that are likely to be forwarded to other interested people. The directions make it easy for these new people to find you.

Assign a person that will be responsible to welcome people at the meeting. It might mean that this person will open and close the facility for each study group meeting. It is always great to have someone come early to post signs on the building and office suite doors if it is needed. The security guard might not be aware of the meeting, let him know it is running and which room it is being conducted, he will then be able to direct people to the proper location.

9. MAKE USE OF YOUR GROUP EXPERTISE
Look at the expertise that you have amongst the member of the study group and have them teach the parts that they are most comfortable or even expert at. For example Clement can teach Network security at the first meeting, someone else teach Cryptography the second week, etc...


10. SEEK HELP IF NEEDED
If needed get experts from external firms to come and teach you very specific topics. It gives credibility to the firm that will come to teach and you get top notch training. It is a Win-Win situation. Of course, you will need someone that arrange such training, it does not happen by itself.

If worst come to the worst and you cannot find anyone in your area, get in touch with me and I will jump on a plane and teach for your group. All I ask in return is that you cover my travel fees and accommodation.


11. KNOW THY PEOPLE
At the first meeting, ensure that you go around the table and allow people to introduce themselves so that people knows each other and you can also find out who is good in specific areas. This will also help in breaking the ice on the first meeting.

12. ESTABLISH COMMUNICATION
Establish communication between the members. This is a very important point. I can create a forum under the Forums section of CCCure.Org if you wish or I can provide you with your own mailing list as well. There are free solutions such as Yahoo Groups that works well for that purpose as well.

It is good to use a forum because you can learn from each other in your group and late comer will not miss all of the messages that have already been discussed or posted.

13. SHARE WITH THE COMMUNITY
Ensure that you share your experience, success, troubles with the community so that they can improve their study group as well.

14. CRAM SESSION AND QUIZZES
Once in a while organized CRAM sessions where you can go through questions. Invite people to try the online quizz at CCCure.ORG. While taking practice tests ensure that you take note of the questions that you missed or that you had difficulty.

On your next meeting you can discuss these questons with your peers.

15. DO NOT REINVENT THE WHEEL
Use the resources that are already available, do not reinvent the wheel. There are hundreds of great study guides available under the download section of www.CCCure.Org, use them, they are good and people have reported success with them. So far I have received testimonies from hundreds of peoples that have passed the exam and said that the guide did help them in achieving a passing score.


16. THINGS TO STUDY
There is a great document with study tips at: http://www.cccure.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=526 Do look at the document to give you a good idea of what should be used, what should be studied, etc...

Best of luck to all

Send us your feedback or any tips and information you would like to be added in this HOWTO at the following email address: cdupuis@cccure.org