September '14 CISA Role Call

EXPL01TUS

Well, the deed is done! I spent about 2 hours total, and I refused to go back and review any questions (except blanks, of course).

I'm on mobile, but I can provide more details when I make it to a desktop.

Did anyone else take the CISA today? Let's track our thoughts and successes (hopefully) here!

Turtle_King

Yep, I did! It wasn't as bad as what I been reading reviews online. For example, I was reading someone's post who had apparently done the exam back in June this year, and it said "the majority of the questions were lengthy....blah blah blah". Sure, there were 1 or 2 that were "lengthy" and "long winded" questions but that was not what I've experienced on majority of them today and in fact, they were indeed similar to the DB v14. If I'm not wrong, there was this one specific question on there today which I recognised was exactly word-for-word as the one in the DB v14!

What was your experience then?

EasyPeezy

I took the exam yesterday.... really, i don't know what to make of it... I am unsure whether everyone takes the same CISA paper or the questions were different depending on the paper number. Having to fill in the question ID might be very good clue.

Yes there were loads of long winded questions, but i was nowhere near as frustrated as i was doing the DB.14... I could not get my head round some of the DB.14 questions and why they were supposed to be right, simply because i believe there were better answers. However the exam was nothing like that. I just pray i pass, i am optimistic.

niteshk26

EasyPeezy wrote: »

I took the exam yesterday.... really, i don't know what to make of it... I am unsure whether everyone takes the same CISA paper or the questions were different depending on the paper number. Having to fill in the question ID might be very good clue.

Yes there were loads of long winded questions, but i was nowhere near as frustrated as i was doing the DB.14... I could not get my head round some of the DB.14 questions and why they were supposed to be right, simply because i believe there were better answers. However the exam was nothing like that. I just pray i pass, i am optimistic.

Well, It wasnt that bad at all.. But It was more of a subjective nature.. I dont know how I performed.. Staying Optimistic is the key

zxbane

Best of luck to those who tested this past weekend, I plan to take the exam myself this December. I am going to use the Review Manual and Q&A DB. Is that what everyone has pretty much used as far as study materials go?

SecurityGuru23

I also sat for the CISA yesterday. Took me 3 1/2 hours, wasn't too bad IMO. Like the majority of those who took the exam, I'm also praying that I pass but we'll see.... Now the wait begins....... Good luck to all!

EXPL01TUS

I used the v13 database and the v14 supplemental questions/answers book for practice, strictly. If a question had content that was foreign to me, I'd jot down part of the explanation in Word. Every now and then, I'd do some Googling and read articles, or watch YouTube videos on the topics that I didn't know.

Overall, the test was almost exactly as expected, although I'd hoped for a greater number of technical questions like PKI, cryptography, topology/appliance scenarios, or software testing. The test was surprisingly not as confusing/subjective as a lot of the v13 database.

I literally treated the exam like it was just another round of practice questions, except since it was on paper, I skipped any question where I was remotely on the fence. At the end of the exam, I had about 10 questions to go back to with a fresh mind. I feel like a did a good job of reading into the key parts of the question to decide what ISACA was looking for.

I may have been a bit too nonchalant, but I hope that will be to my advantage. I tried not to over-think, and once I selected an answer after reasoning it out in my head, I didn't think twice about revisiting a question. After all, 90% of the time when I selected an answer in the bank, and then though twice about it, I'd get it wrong (having initially selected the correct answer).

It's funny how I walked out of the exam thinking, "I either annihilated that exam, or maybe I should have been more thorough and taken my time. I probably failed."