CISM Review Manual, 15th Edition

I just passed the CISM yesterday. I started out in December with one of the other cheaper books, and after finishing it, I only did marginally better on the practice exams. On the other hand, this is the official book directly from ISACA, so all material in the book is accurate, relevant, and helpful in passing the exam. It’s well edited and well written too. If you’re paying $760 for an exam, don’t get cheap when it comes to the study material. Break over and get the real thing.

Between the book and Q&A database I passed my CISM exam first attempt. I read the book front to back then went back and went through key objectives.

Its a review manual...you know what you signed up for.

The only thing I can say is that I used this book and passed the CISM. Great book! I actually learned a lot from this.

Updated my original review from positive to negative. No matter how many times I try to read this book, it’s written in a horrible language style. Overly wordy, lots of complex words to describe simple ideas, everything in table format. Best way to describe this is like hearing someone speak Queens English at a collegial level, while your a farmer from a small town. You know with an overemphasis of language for purposes of trying to impress and sound smart. But really, you are just being arrogant and condescending in a completely unnecessary way. After repeated attempts to focus and read through these materials, decided to scrap this book altogether. To add context, I purchased this book a few years ago and still haven’t made coherence of these materials. I have several other professional certs, including my CISSP, and 20+ years direct experience. And finally gave up using this book. I hate to waste, especially given this book cost 3x more than other study guides. But making the switch today. I would rather sit down and read the Chicago Manual of Style rather than read another page of this book.

Great reference. But alot of content

While the book adequately covers the info, it could really have used a good editor to keep it from feeling very redundant.

I purchased the Review Manual and the Questions, Answers & Explanations Manual together. I was extremely disappointed to receive two paperback books for the price of hardback, scholarly books. My only guess is that these books are geared toward a college course on the CISM; otherwise they would let the purchaser know that he/she was purchasing softback books. Maybe that point was in the description and I overlooked. At any case, I've already marked in the book so I can't return it. I recommend not purchasing this book at this price and going with another vendor for less cost and better sturdiness.