Infosec Institute

Falsely advertised CISM bootcamp training

16th of Jan, 2012 by davidlee02703

I signed up for their Dec. 11 CISM bootcamp class that was falsely advertised. I was told and they advertised the instructor had conducted many previous same bootcamp sessions with great success, which led me to believe this would be the ideal class to immerse myself in a week of intensive training. On the 3rd day of class the instructor revealed he had obtained his certification just two months prior to the class, which in no way he was qualified to conducted many sessions prior as they advertised. Most of the daily bootcamp activities that were indicated on the site did not actually happen. As an example, the training was advertised/sold with the understanding that the class would be from 9AM up to 5 PM. The first day we were done by 4:30 PM and from the second day onward, every day was done by 12:30 PM. The class materials were illegible and difficult to read and thru-out the 5 days bootcamp classes, the instructor would simply just reading the slides content from the projector word-by-word!! (which is the same printed on their text book handout). When the students asked for some real-life examples, the instructor couldn't provide any explanations which clearly indicate the instructor's lack of experience in the domains. Several complained made to instructor about the materials and teaching methods but nothing got changed. Many students still stay in touch after the bootcamp can also vouch for these.

One of the most prohibitive aspects of the bootcamp training, other than the illegible text books and unqualified instructor, is involve the exam preparation and test taking strategy. By doing the test preparation in a class like this is extremely important because in order to the pass the actual exam, students need to be practiced on how to tackle the type of exam questions. On the 2nd day afternoon, we found out this so called "test preparation" session is by using ISACA’s official test database CD and on a projector to simulated the practice tests. This is not only violated the ISACA’s copyrights policy but after the students found out about the database CD can be purchased from ISACA website (which the instructor mentioned in the class), more half of the class decided to stop showing up for these so called “practice exam” sessions.

Right after the training I emailed directly to Infosec Institute and left several phone messages with specifics on the failure to deliver the class as advertised by seeking proper compensation but never heard back a word. Infosec Institue decided to ignore my good faith in attempt to resolve the issue and they refuse to made any attempts to correct the failures of the class. I hope others will exercise great caution to pursue any training classes with this organization.

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