How I'm Actually Studying for the CISSP (Without Reading a Single Page)

I'm going to be honest with you. I bought the Destination Certification PDF, and I haven't read a single line of it. Not one. But I've probably absorbed more from it than if I had just sat down and read it cover to cover.

Here's what I actually did.

Step One: Break It Down

The first thing I did was take that PDF and split it up. I used a tool called PDFSam Basic, which lets you quickly chop up PDFs however you want. I divided the whole thing by domain. Eight domains, eight separate files.

Then I created a NotebookLM notebook for each domain. One notebook, one domain. Clean and organized.

Step Two: Let the AI Teach Me

Instead of reading through walls of text, I prompted NotebookLM to help me actually understand what was in there. I had it create mind maps so I could visually see how concepts connected. I had it generate audio overviews so I could listen instead of read. And then I just started chatting with it.

I told it to be my Socratic teacher. It would ask me questions, I'd answer, it would push back or clarify, and we'd go back and forth. If something was really confusing and needed to get broken down further, I'd open up a Claude or ChatGPT window and dig deeper there.

That's how I learned the domains. Not by reading. By having conversations.

Step Three: Watch the Videos

Once I had that foundation, I went on YouTube and watched the Destination Certification domain videos. They're all free right now, which is incredible. Those videos gave me a nice wrap up of everything and helped me visualize what all those concepts actually looked like in practice.

But I didn't stop there. I pulled the transcripts from those YouTube videos, fed them into Claude, and prompted it to give me scenario based questions. Specifically, I asked it to create scenarios about a random medical company and how they would apply the tactics and learnings from each domain. That gave me a really practical overview of what to actually look out for in real situations.

Step Four: Practice and Learn from Mistakes

For actual exam prep, I used Quantum Exams. Went through their practice tests, which were solid practice. But here's where it gets interesting.

Once I finished a practice exam, I would take all that feedback and save it as a PDF. Then I'd plug that PDF right back into NotebookLM and create another audio overview. But this time, I prompted it specifically: “This is a test I took. Help me understand what I got wrong, why my answers were wrong, and why the correct answer was the best choice.”

Now while I'm driving or commuting, I'm listening to personalized breakdowns of my own mistakes. That's it. That's the secret. I'm not listening to generic study material. I'm listening to feedback on where I specifically went wrong.

The Result

This approach has given me a crazy increase in understanding. I'm not grinding through textbooks. I'm having conversations, watching videos, practicing, and then learning from my mistakes in a format that fits into my actual life.

If you're studying for the CISSP and you're dreading the idea of reading thousands of pages, maybe try this instead. Let the AI do the heavy lifting. You just show up and engage.