The CSEP Study Guide: by the Staff of SystemsEngineeringPrep.com Paperback – January 1, 1812

Background: I'm a Senior Systems Engineer for a fortune 100 company. I have a BSEE, and Masters in Systems Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering. I have published several engineering papers, and I also prepare tutorials on various engineering topics, which I present within the company, to customers, and at conferences. I have obtained several certifications in the last year, most recently the demanding CISSP by ISC2, for which amazon.com offers plenty of excellent preparation material - that is, I have the relevant background to assess the caliber of this material and juxtapose it with other training/preparatory material I have recently used.As I strive to keep current in my profession, I have undertaken the task of getting the INCOSE Certification, i.e. CSEP. As an INCOSE member, I have access to the Systems Engineering manual (excellent by the way), which is used as the basis of the examination content. I am looking for complementary material that presents the SE Body-of-Knowledge succinctly, crisply, yet with the rigor of necessary explanation that ought to accompany such material. Ideally, I'd like to see sample test questions and concepts described in detail and with accompanying text expounding on the context.I admit, I did not perform due diligence on the authors, notwithstanding, the limited preview of the e-book does not allow for a closer examination.This is hands down the worst certification prep-material I have ever seen. Note that I have a penchant for giving out favorable reviews; when items are average, I don't comment - this is so bad, I had to defend my line of work from amateurs. It wasn't long into the e-book before I realized that the "authors" are "ostensibly" not engineers - I should have taken my cue with the "title" of "photographers". I question the value-added, as most of the material is "borrowed" from other sources; admittedly the authors provide references for these sources, but I was unable to identify any original content. The pictures/images are strewn throughout the e-book and completely devoid of any accompanying explanatory material. The objectives sections (not consistently included) provide more of a table-of-content support rather than an organizational framework upon which to setup a study strategy.Again, as a seasoned Systems Engineer I understand the content of the provided images - but images should be used to illustrate a concept and frame them (pun intended) within the proper context and as examples - an illustration is NOT a substitute for an explanation! (else I'll be sending all my clients pictures instead of a report - yet I suppose a picture of a thumbs-down would do to rate this e-book - but would you get the rationale behind it) Likewise, the marginal value is only for those who know the material well, it is worthless to a Junior systems engineer as an examination study aid.It becomes evident very quickly that little to no effort was dedicated to this, that by and large this is a "copy and paste" job (and a poor one at that) which was thrown together: NO due-diligence, planning, insight is apparent in this e-book. Finally, the irony is that this material would not even pass a systems engineering peer-review; and if presented to our customers we would likely get a "stop work order".So recap: lacking vast amounts of material which will be covered on the test, it was useless to me in preparing for the test, and had I relied on it I would have failed the CSEP. Get the manual from INCOSE, get the Power Point Tutorial from INCOSE - excellent material.Ironically, the web site Systems Engineering Prep "dot" com has excellent prep quizes which do cover the body of knowlege being tested, a bit pricey but worth it!MAS, Ph.D. and yes, CSEP (which you can verify on the INCOSE site, which none of the authors have.... and none of the individuals giving this product high marks have either)

Sometimes, "a picture is worth a thousand words," IF the meaning is clear.The entire approach of this study guide is built around the idea that pictures are easier to remember than words, an idea that is not entirely true, especially if the reader is not familiar with all the little ideograms, their assigned meanings - often quite a stretch - and the reasons for placing them in the specific relationships.The authors are clearly very knowledgeable about CSEP. In the first few pages, they advised that applicants would have to know not only the major processes, etc., but their outputs. That was good information.If they had simply written a decent study guide, I would have been very happy. Instead, they produced this gimmick-ridden pamphlet.This study guide should be re-written. The publishers and resellers owe customers an apology.

The book's approach on teaching how to prepare for the exam did not work for me and I could not benefit out of that.On the other hand, the book pinpoints where to concentrate the study on, therefore it was useful to me in this respect.

This CSEP study guide seems to spend as much time describing learning techniques and memory aids as it does on actual content. Somehow, the material from the 350+-page INCOSE SE Handbook is distilled into a rather brief Kindle book. Given the low price this may be a useful addition to a set of resources for CSEP test prep, but should not be used as the only resource.

The concept on the CSEP guide was good, but lacked enough doucmentation to stand alone. They intended for you to use it with the INCOSE Handbook, but even with that, the guide does not present the diagrams well enough. Another few hours and some support would produce a fisrt rate product.Dorian

I love the summaries it provides for the INCOSE handbook and the visual memorization techniques, but I have noticed that some of the process inputs are missing in their process diagrams. Overall, I really think this will help me pass the cert test.

This book finally helped me to get my mind around all of the informaiton in the CSEP exam. I have not taken the exam yet, but I am finally getting a handle on memorizing the many factoids and informaiton.The Study Guide goes chapter by chapter and points out highlights to remember. I found it much easier to glean understanding and memorization from the INCOSE Handbook once I got focus from the study guide.

I just wasn't impressed... It is one of the shortest books I have ever come across. Its good for a short brief introduction of what the program covers though.