ISACA exams today 6/14 - CISA, CRISC, CISM, etc.

j33per

Here we go! - Best of luck to all.

I am taking the CRISC today.

joneno

I'm on my way to the testing center, I'm taking CRISC too.

JoJoCal19

Good luck everyone!

khiemkp

I'm taking CISM. Waiting

joneno

Now the waiting game starts, good luck to the other test takers.

Remedymp

Just came back from taking the exam. I will say this; I am not impressed with the exam. In fact, I am disappointed and will probably never take another ISACA exam after today and will allow my membership to run out at the end of the year.

jfitzg

Remedymp wrote: »

Just came back from taking the exam. I will say this; I am not impressed with the exam. In fact, I am disappointed and will probably never take another ISACA exam after today and will allow my membership to run out at the end of the year.

I feel the same way, this is the first ISACA exam (CISA) I have taken and will probably be the last, even if I pass. I found the questions to be VERY subjective and poorly worded. For the questions around technology, it seems the authors had no idea how the technology actually worked and its limitations. The study manual is written very poorly and there isnt enough material by 3rd party authors to properly study. I can complain about still using a scan tron, I mean come on its 2014, but the funniest thing was before the test one of the people in the center was asked to remove his hat as it was against the rules, he asked to see the rules and was told that the proctor could not show him the rules, lol! There was a total of maybe 15-20 people taking the test, i have a feeling these certs are losing their validity and popularity real fast. If I were ISACA, I would get into the 20th century...

MNDiesel

I took and passed the CISA in December. I took the CISM today. One word....garbage...absolute garbage......I am done with ISACA after that exam. I don't care whether I passed or not. I will also be letting my membership expire after this.

Remedymp

jfitzg wrote: »

I feel the same way, this is the first ISACA exam (CISA) I have taken and will probably be the last, even if I pass. I found the questions to be VERY subjective and poorly worded. For the questions around technology, it seems the authors had no idea how the technology actually worked and its limitations. The study manual is written very poorly and there isnt enough material by 3rd party authors to properly study. I can complain about still using a scan tron, I mean come on its 2014, but the funniest thing was before the test one of the people in the center was asked to remove his hat as it was against the rules, he asked to see the rules and was told that the proctor could not show him the rules, lol! There was a total of maybe 15-20 people taking the test, i have a feeling these certs are losing their validity and popularity real fast. If I were ISACA, I would get into the 20th century...

You summed it up better than I could. 200 question exam, long winded questions, extremely expensive, still using paper to answer, poor facilities to accommodate the capacity of test takers.

As much as people rag on Comptia and the Prometric and PearsonVue facilities, at the very the very least the test centers were climate controlled and proper capacity with comfortable seating for those available.

I don't know which is worse ISC2 or ISACA. :thumbsdown:

zxbane

I have to agree with some of what is said in this thread, I took the CISM this morning. I felt the exam itself overall wasn't bad but some of the questions were extremely confusing and also unrealistic as far as how things actually work. I almost felt like the practice questions were of better quality than the actual exam.

I also agree with the testing environment itself. My test center had almost 100 people for the 4 different ISACA exams and the process was very bumpy, paper sign ins, no one could figure out where they were supposed to sit, confusing directions as far as filling out the scan-tron etc. The process itself needs to be improved and I agree it needs to be virtualized to make it all much smoother..

Anyways, let the waiting begin, we will see how I did. I finished the exam itself in just over 2 hrs and 5 minutes so I was moving through pretty quickly. I read the questions and picked the best answer, some of them I honestly had no idea what they were even asking.

Good luck to everyone who tested today!

Pcgolfer

Same experience as CISA one year ago. Felt good going into the exam. Had all of the test material. Felt like I guessed on 70% of the question! and would have been sure I failed it (just like last year). I ended up scoring in the top 15% on the CISA.

So, I have no idea. Here is the Starfish question.

You are walking down the beach and run into a starfish. What do you have for dinner?

1) bluefin tuna
2) Bald eagle
3) baby back ribs
4) crab


Its not the crab or tuna. The bluefin tuna is endangered and both the tuna and crab could be friends of the srarfish. The bald eagle is illegal. The clear answer is baby back ribs.

What does this question have to do with the CRISC exam or IT controls? Not a damn thing - Like about 90% of the questions on today's exam. Why even study or buy the materials. What hallucinations are the exam preparers taking.

I hope I don't get in trouble for bringing up the starfish question. ISACA very protective of its questions.


WOW

Pcgolfer

2 hours 2 minutes here. Lost interest

JoJoCal19

Sad to see such negative commentary on the ISACA exams. If they weren't in such high demand for InfoSec jobs (at least the ones I've seen) in the areas I have experience in (policy, governance, compliance, risk management, controls), I would ignore them.

room05

sat in today's CISA exam.. went into it confident, but left feeling winded and uncertain. The questions were nothing like the database questions, no point buying the database question with "explanations" as it was mostly irrelevant to the exam.

acidstorm

Took the cisa and find it difficult, finish the first round and go back the second round, realise alot of questions I left it blank and work on it.

Keep shaking my head when I go through them and there are questions and answers which I have not come across from the books.

Remedymp

acidstorm wrote: »

Took the cisa and find it difficult, finish the first round and go back the second round, realise alot of questions I left it blank and work on it.

Keep shaking my head when I go through them and there are questions and answers which I have not come across from the books.

I had a very long (90 minute) debate with ISACA faculty about the questions and I told him specifically, the terminology used during the prep is NOT used in the during real world. The questions were to me just unrealistic and didn't represent any of my experience. For example: Who uses the term Crystal-box? I mean really? :

someslacker

I took the CISM this morning. Guess I'll see what happens in 4-6 weeks. Another waiting game for results, wheeee. Now back to CCNA:S studying.

j33per

I took the CISA in Decemeber and passed. I felt I did as best I could then... and passed in the top 5%. Funny thing is during this exam (CRISC) I was thinking to myself, if I don't pass this one, I will not retake - it's just too subjective. Pretty much echos the feelings in this thread.
The only resources to study for CRISC are official ISACA books and their question DB. So not much else you can do there.
The waiting game begins.

lysje

Took the CISM yesterday! Let the waiting game begin, good luck to everyone!

pappyT

zxbane wrote: »

I have to agree with some of what is said in this thread, I took the CISM this morning. I felt the exam itself overall wasn't bad but some of the questions were extremely confusing and also unrealistic as far as how things actually work. I almost felt like the practice questions were of better quality than the actual exam.

I also agree with the testing environment itself. My test center had almost 100 people for the 4 different ISACA exams and the process was very bumpy, paper sign ins, no one could figure out where they were supposed to sit, confusing directions as far as filling out the scan-tron etc. The process itself needs to be improved and I agree it needs to be virtualized to make it all much smoother..

Anyways, let the waiting begin, we will see how I did. I finished the exam itself in just over 2 hrs and 5 minutes so I was moving through pretty quickly. I read the questions and picked the best answer, some of them I honestly had no idea what they were even asking.

Good luck to everyone who tested today!

zxbane, I think you hit the nail on the head with your first paragraph. I also felt the questions were poorly worded, as compared to the Q&A database. It got to the point I was trying to figure out if they were trying to mess you up on purpose, rather than actually testing one's competency of the subject matter. As others said, maybe part of it was the test question writers didn't actually know the subject matter either, or the other explanation was that there was something I completely missed from all my experience, as well as my studying for the exam (unlikely I'd posit). I guess I came out of the exam feeling I still did pretty well, but I was not happy with the exam, as far as the questions. they could have been better.

OmarAhmed

I took the exam Yesterday (Kenya). I finished about 5 minutes before time. I moved slowly as I was trying to make sense of what the questions were asking.

The waiting begins

SecMan3000

I wrote the CRISC, took about 3 hours. It was hard but I'm sure I passed. I base this on the fact that I studied for about 3 months by reading the official manual and I had a subscription to the ISACA question DB.

I passed the CISA without studying for a single second (speaks to the value of certs) so if I don't pass this after studying so much, I'll be pissed.

colemic

God bless you, I thought the CISA was the hardest exam I have ever taken. I studied the DB questions and review manual for 4-5 months at least an hour of not two every day and when I left I thought I had no chance at passing (in 2011). I know there is no way I would have passed going in blind just on the obscureness of some of the questions.

keikeijai

I sat for the CISA exam. The first quarter of the questions were terrible, I couldn't figure out what they were asking. Although the question types were similar to those in the DB questions, but the answers were completely bizarre and I answered most of them making guesses. It was like ISACA ran out of questions to ask after all these years, and played around with the wordings and terminology of the answers to trick people to pick the wrong ones.

Then from the middle to the end of the paper, luckily I found it was OK, and managed to caught up with the time, eventually finished at 15 mins earlier to go through again the uncertain answers. Now the wait begins and hopefully all I need is 450 pts to get through.

Pcgolfer

After reading the CRISC book; answering the questions; then taking the 400 database question over a 6 week period, I honestly expected to have a pretty solid handle on this exam.

I went through the same thing on the CISA. I walked out of that test totally demoralized, thinking I had completely failed. I ended up scoring in the top 10-15 %.

I am am normally a gold test taker, and usually have a good idea of how I did. I literally think I guessed on half the CRISC questions. If I didn't have the CISA EXPERIENCE, I would be sure I didn't pass this one.

i honestly don't have a clue if I scored 350 or 550. No score would surprise me. I think most of the critical comments are fair. Is this the type of exam ISACA wants? Shouldn't people have a clue how they did?

oakland

Pcgolfer wrote: »

After reading the CRISC book; answering the questions; then taking the 400 database question over a 6 week period, I honestly expected to have a pretty solid handle on this exam.

I went through the same thing on the CISA. I walked out of that test totally demoralized, thinking I had completely failed. I ended up scoring in the top 10-15 %.

I am am normally a gold test taker, and usually have a good idea of how I did. I literally think I guessed on half the CRISC questions. If I didn't have the CISA EXPERIENCE, I would be sure I didn't pass this one.

i honestly don't have a clue if I scored 350 or 550. No score would surprise me. I think most of the critical comments are fair. Is this the type of exam ISACA wants? Shouldn't people have a clue how they did?

I don't think you're being unreasonable or negative in your criticism, seems that a lot of people feel the same way. It's analogous to studying in preparation to take a geometry exam, but instead getting a trigonometry exam - they are related in that they both cover shapes and angles, just not the ones you spent all your time studying for. In essence you feel like you're winging it for the bulk of the exam.

zxbane

It's good (and bad) to see that most others share the sentiments I do with regards to these exams.. It is also discouraging because I was interested in knocking out the CISA or CRISC after taking the CISM this past weekend but I honestly don't know if I want to stress studying for months again only to take an exam that doesn't really reflect what I just put all the effort into studying..

I am a bit surprised by the experience since the ISACA certs seem to have a very strong presence in a lot of jobs I see, I would expect the exam quality and experience to be a bit better.

NattyJane0303

I took the CISM test on Saturday..... I hate this waiting game. I felt confident on 70% of the questions, but not so much on the rest. I always hear that if you are confident, you've usually failed.

That makes me nervous.

Just 5 more weeks to go... .... ... ... ... ...

Anyone else take it in DC?

SecMan3000

colemic wrote: »

God bless you, I thought the CISA was the hardest exam I have ever taken. I studied the DB questions and review manual for 4-5 months at least an hour of not two every day and when I left I thought I had no chance at passing (in 2011). I know there is no way I would have passed going in blind just on the obscureness of some of the questions.

Yeah, I'm not claiming to be a genius or anything and I didn't have a lot of audit experience at the time. I think the fact that I wrote the CISSP < year from that helped me. Certainly the way they ask questions is similar. I was going to defer because I had some stuff going on in my life and I couldn't study but I missed the deadline.

So I thought, why not just write the test? (thinking I'd fail). Turns out I passed. So who knows how I did on the CRISC...

jvrlopez

Good luck to you guys on your efforts...had a coworker test on CISA...that wait must be nerve racking!

Kunal_Techy_17_

Jusd gave CISA last Saturday!

I agree with most of what is written on here. Easily the hardest exam of my life! Every single question was meant to confuse, bemuse and misguide. Rather than challenging our clarity of concepts, I felt they were challenging us to try and outsmart them. Most questions I could identify 2 wrongs, but it was the remaining 2 which gave me nightmares for 4 hours and still does.

I have no idea how I did. Just hoping for the best. Good luck to everyone with their results.